e******e
发帖数: 172 | 1 前一段时间在考虑要不要送孩子去spanish immersion(k-5),问了一个spanish
bilingual expert. 她的回复如下，大家来讨论一下哈。
http://www.spanglishbaby.com/category/askexpert/
Dear Expert,
My husband and I are native Chinese. My son goes to an English environment
daycare/preschool since he was 18 month. Now he is 4 years old and speaks
both Chinese and English. Next year we have an opportunity to go to a
Spanish Immersion elementary (K-5) school. Students in the Spanish immersion school receive the majority of their instruction in Spanish. English is introduced in third grade for one hour a day.
We think Spanish will be very important to have in the future, but we are
worried that he won’t handle three languages at the same time and fall
behind. We aren’t native English speakers, so we cannot help him in
English or Spanish. In that circumstance, is it realistic to send him to the
Spanish Immersion School and expect him to be fluent in three languages?
Thanks a lot for your advice.
XXX
Dear XXX,
Usually children can become trilingual in childhood, especially if those
languages are heard and used throughout the day. In fact, it is very common
for many children in Europe, Africa and Asia to learn two different
languages through home and community and then a third language through
schooling. In most of these cases, the communities where children live are
also multilingual, therefore children have extensive opportunities to keep
hearing and practicing all languages as they grow. Oftentimes, the language(
s) of schooling become(s) children’s strongest language(s); yet, children
can develop and maintain high levels of fluency in three languages
throughout life.
The situation that you describe is a bit different. I am assuming that your
child is hearing Chinese mainly from you and your husband. Currently, he is
also reliably hearing English from preschool peers and teachers; eventually
he will be hearing Spanish from school staff and, possibly, classmates as
well. The issue, then, is whether the environment will provide sufficient
language input in each language once formal schooling begins. For Spanish,
it shouldn’t be a problem, as this is the main language of schooling. For
Chinese, you will have to make the extra effort to continue to practice it
with your child as much as possible, given that he will now be spending many
hours at school. The situation seems to be most challenging for English,
which, as you worry, might not find ‘enough space’ in your child’s daily
routine, especially in the early school years.
Now, I have never heard of an immersion program where English is not
introduced until 3rd grade and then only for one hour. Is this in the U.S.?
What happens after 3rd grade? When is English instruction increased? I would
urge you to talk with school administrators and understand what is the
rationale behind this. Usually, the best immersion programs are 90:10 models
in which children start kindergarten with 90% instruction in the target
language (Spanish, German, Italian etc.) but also hear English 10% of the
day. Usually, the percentage of instruction in English increases year by
year and by 4th or 5th grade children are receiving 50% instruction in
English and 50% instruction in the other language. These programs are very
successful because children are hearing enough of the target language early
on (and more than children who are instructed 50% in each language from the
beginning – 50:50 models). However, English instruction is not delayed
until as late as 3rd grade.In sum, given that your child is not hearing English at home, delaying English instruction until 3rd grade might not be the best situation.
On the other hand, if you find an immersion program where some English
instruction is given before 3rd grade, and if you make sure that your child
hears a decent amount of English each day (through friends, after-school
activities, sports, etc.), then I would go for Spanish immersion. After all,
English is the majority language in the U.S. and it is rare that children
raised here don’t learn it. Don’t worry that you will not be able to help
your child with homework in Spanish as many parents of children in immersion
programs do not speak or write the language their children are learning.
Schools are aware of this trend and tend to assign homework that children
can complete by themselves.
No matter what you decide, remember: the key to productive trilingualism is
that your child has plenty of daily opportunities to hear and practice these
languages. If you make sure of this, your child shouldn’t have any
difficulty developing proficiency and fluency in Chinese, Spanish and
English | t*******g
发帖数: 1647 | 2 wow, I think this expert is very nice. | z*l
发帖数: 190 | | k***y
发帖数: 72 | 4 given that your child is not hearing English at home, delaying English
instruction until 3rd grade might not be the best situation
同意以上意见.美国小学还是很注重读写的.很多美国生的中国小孩到中学发现写作能力
不够好,不从小培养可能以后跟不上. | l******2
发帖数: 2994 | 5 The expert has already pointed out the key issue: pick a sesime while
loosing the watermellion. | a******r
发帖数: 151 | 6 不明白为啥要去这个program？真心觉得西班牙语很不好听啊。 |
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