Hi Pablo and all, I enjoyed reading about how you and your daughter spent time doing interactive activities in English!
The words or actions you found difficult(e.g.manure,gills,plough fields,lay eggs)to explain can only be shown by pictures,illustrations,or by your own demonstrations of gestures or drawings.;) I find real direct ways like flash cards much much more effective than words as the words tend to distract learners' attention.It applies to adult students,too! What you have been doing with your daughter seems to be on the right track to me.As a matter of fact,I don't think I've done a better job with my kids than you have.:( What my BF and I have been doing with our 2 sons since we moved to Poland is to use only English at home whileas they only use Polish at school and at kindergarten.Sometimes on the weekend they learn how to write simple Chinese characters with me,and every Thursday they attend a Chinese class taught by me at my elder son's school with other Polish kids aged 5-8. We minimize their using Polish at home which means they watch mostly Disney Channel.Our focus is to keep their English alive and to let them have constant contact with Chinese.So as you do with your daughter,we provide them lots of English and Chinese DVDs and books! When they make grammartical mistakes or pronounce some words wrongly,we correct them by asking them to repeat the correct sentences without any explanations.That's all! Oh,by the way,I met a friendly and energetic Polish woman 3 weeks ago who started to open a tri-lingual(Spanish,Polish & English)daycare centre in Warsaw since this end of April. She hired 3 native speakers to look after babies and small kids aged 0-3 for more ambitious working young parents.She offered me a job to join her summer curriculum to work as a Chinese native speaker. (Polish,English & Chinese) Because her ex-husband is Spanish and her present one is French,her 8- year-old son is trilingual attending a French school in Warsaw. She told me he had bad luck adjusting to Polish teachers and peers because they didn't even bother to pronounce his Spanish first name correctly...:( It happens to our 2 sons as well unfortunately...:( I'll try to find the multi-lingual family support group I used to go to last year for your reference.If you have more doubts or other questions,maybe that's the right place to ask for help.;) Oh,no! I forgot to remind you of your wife's birthday!LOL It's very near your own birthday,isn't it?If I remmeber it correctly...;) That's unforgivable if I may say so for your wife!LOL Nice day to you and all of us! Pln On May 12, 4:58 am, Pablo <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Pln and all, > > At this time of my day, I'm a bit tired, so, I'll post just short > sentences. > > > First of all,thank you for remembering to wish me "Happy Mother's > > Day!",Pablo! > > Guess what... I forgot my wife's happy birthday :( Well, that happens, > doesn't it? > > Well my doctor prescribed to me, some pills, vitamins and a cream (I > forgot to buy the cream!). And at the same time, I'm jogging again as > I told you. But, my right calf is hurting me... :( I guess I need > something more serious, like physiotherapy... > > > I had the same fear and concern when SARS struck Taiwan,too in 2003...: > > ( > > We had to go everywhere with masks and our elder child in the pram > > with a rain cover during hot summer days! > > > As long as you and your family,especially your daughter wear mask > > properly(and don't forget to change it when torn),and wash your hands > > as often as you can!(we used to use a lot of hand sanitizer(a tiny > > bottle of transparent liquid,quite handy when you can't wash hands > > with water right away)) > > Thank you very much for your advice. I'll read and get more info. > > > I will reply to Mr.D's and your reply to him regarding my kids' > > exposure to 3 languages hopefully tomorrow! > > I'm looking forward to listening to about your kids languages > experiences. > > About my daughter, as happens with kids, they learn in a 'natural way' > and I was careful about that. I mean, I never taught her grammar, > just talking and watching videos again and again. The last weekend I > was doing this activity with her: I have a nice illustrated > encyclopedia for teenagers, with lots of subjects of 1 or 2 pages of > length. I was reading to her in Spanish and she gave me the sentences > in English. I think inverse translation is stimulating and also useful > because you work around the output. For instance, in the "Animals > page", we found this phrases: "Female chickens are called hens". She > didn't know or had forgotten the word "Female". Another: "Hens lay > eggs". The eggs hatch. She didn't know the word "lay". What about > this one: "Farmers use machines to spread manure over plough > fields" (or something like that). (perhaps four unknown words for her, > and one or two for me). Fish breath with gills. (I didn't know that > word). Well, but mainly, easy phrases, to get a little of fluency. > > Well, a first conclusion is that I don't know a lot of words of a > reference easy book like the one mentioned above. I mean, we can use > such kind of texts to learn a lot of basic vocabulary. The second > conclusion, when you have someone who do some activity with, you can > reinforce, review and also learn a lot. > > And we watched a movie too, audio in Spanish, captions in English, > with songs in English :) Sometimes, we watch movies with audio in > English and captions in English or Spanish. > > Thank you, > > Pablo > > > > > Good day to us all! > > Pln > > > On May 10, 12:41 am, Pablo <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hi Mr. D. > > > > I think it's important to comment to all of you about my experience > > > with my daughter. > > > > When she was 4 or so, I decided it was about time she learned > > > English. Perhaps it had better been before but it couldn't be like > > > that. Well, I started to teach her the alphabet and her first words. > > > And I used to talk to her in English, e.g. "please, pass me my shoes", > > > "go to bed", "are you ready?" (for school), "hurry up!", etc. I had > > > to learn new words or expressions and I was practicing at the same > > > time. Now she is 12 and I consider she can hold a conversation. I > > > think she is high beginner and I keep talking to her or practicing > > > with her. > > > > I mean, it's really valuable if you have somebody who you can practice/ > > > talk to. I keep trying to get new partners, be native, or EFL learners > > > like me. I also have tried to have an English club at home, no luck > > > so far. > > > > About your suggestion, to tell the truth, I think it can turn out > > > difficult or not so pleasant if words don't come up, I think it's > > > easier to follow a text or dialog. From now on I'll try to focus > > > myself on using the words and the language. Here some ideas: > > > > - Read aloud a book/text/paragraph, repeat 'interesting' phrases > > > - Get texts oriented to fluency, and read them aloud > > > - Repeat phrases while listening to your mp3 player/tv news, etc, no > > > pauses, you just repeat what you are able to hear > > > > By the way, my mp3 player has a function to repeat 2 or more times, a > > > segment A-B. You press twice to decide the segment duration. My mp3 > > > player is cheap but has a smart function and can break sentences > > > relatively well. It's more useful when the audio is not so > > > understandable. > > > > Or simply, read any book or whatever you like, aloud. I think most of > > > us (EFL learners) keep listening to or have listened to a lot of audio > > > input, but the output has been very limited, perhaps in a proportion 9 > > > to 1 if not more? The same about writing, I think we read/write in a > > > proportion 9-1 if not more? > > > > Evereybody, ;) looking forward to knowing about your experiences, > > > opinions, ideas. And a happy mother's day! Especially to Pln, who > > > else? ;) > > > > Thank you, > > > > Pablo > > > > On 9 mayo, 09:02, "Mr. D" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Hey Pablo, > > > > > Absolutely, the first thing I ask a student is "Do you want to speak > > > > English?" > > > > > They always answer yes. Then I say...speak English with an over the > > > > top > > > > enthusiasm to try and illicit a response and to break the ice a bit. > > > > > Here's a method I tell students to use, perhaps you guys can try it > > > > with > > > > yours. I ask them to try to these "simple" but not necessarily "easy" > > > > tasks. > > > > > 1. When they get up in the morning they should go to the mirror to > > > > brush > > > > their teeth and look at themselves and say OUT LOUD! " Today, I will > > > > speak English, maybe tomorrow I'll speak (native language) but for > > > > today > > > > I will speak English. > > > > > 2. I encourage them to say everything OUT LOUD that they are thinking > > > > as they prepare to > > > > go to school or work. No matter how simple or odd it may seem. Like, > > > > hmm... > > > > I think I will wear my blue shirt or brown shoes. Oh, it's almost > > > > 7:30am I > > > > better go have a shower, or where is my purse or notebook whatever. > > > > > 3. Next, when they are commuting or waiting somewhere in public they > > > > can use > > > > their cell phone to call imaginary people and have pseudo > > > > conversations. If they're > > > > not sure what to say, I encourage them to read from the newspaper into > > > > their phone > > > > or better yet their textbook. > > > > > Anyway, I'm a firm believer in speaking to learn to speak and I hope > > > > this helps > > > > somebody out. > > > > > ~Mr. D > > > > > On May 6, 7:13 pm, Pablo <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi friends, > > > > > > This interesting article: > > > > > >http://www.helping-you-learn-english.com/how_to_learn_english.html > > > > > > Do you agree? > > > > > > Pablo- Hide quoted text - > > > > - Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ESL Podcast". 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