this week I want to tell you about Diego and our strategies for learning a second language in this case English. Our little Diego studies in a school that has a bilingual education program, we selected it precisely because of this program, he attends twice a week to tutoring with the teacher and the rest of the week he is home schooled.
I speak English but my wife does not, in my case I lived a good part of my adolescence and youth in the United States so I can communicate in this language, with our children both Diego and Isabella my wife and I decided that in addition to our mother tongue Spanish they should learn one or more languages with which they can communicate in the future if we have to travel. We had already researched about it and all the articles and documents we reviewed pointed out that the earlier you start learning a second language, the faster the process of effective and efficient communication will be, that was one of the reasons why we decided that our children would study in schools with bilingual programs.
Another reason is that nowadays English is one of the most used and accepted languages worldwide from the economic to the social level and this is an advantage in the future if they want not only to travel but also to do exchange studies in universities abroad. We have also read that being bilingual gives children a more developed use of their brain and contributes to cognitive flexibility as well as increasing their vocabulary.
Among the strategies suggested by the school are primers, obviously something Diego enjoys and likes, where he can color the letters and words that are formed in English. This helps him to fix the spelling and structure of simple sentences. In addition, he establishes the relationship between objects and words.
Calligraphy in English is another of the strategies used for learning English, as well as reading stories in English and watching series, movies and cartoons that he likes in English. This last strategy has been suggested to us in two ways, the first one is to watch the cartoons, series or movies in English and with the subtitles in Spanish while he is developing his hearing in the other language and is able to establish the connection between the meaning of the words in one and the other. And then watch them with the subtitles in English, this helps him to fix the spelling of the word and recognize the pronunciation, finally they will be seen only in English.
A fundamental aspect in this process is to achieve balance in my case I try to talk to Diego in English while his mother reinforces the mother tongue, of course my wife is also learning English, sometimes she gets confused and mixes the words and more than once has created a new word but we correct it with the correct pronunciation, we have been told that it is normal for them to mix languages and that with much patience we must correct without highlighting the error itself because this makes them feel afraid to express themselves. Really, this process is very beautiful because in the case of our children we feel that they enjoy learning the new language and have fun with it. If you have any suggestions please do not hesitate to comment. Thank you.