I´ve
many times wondered myself (here, for instance) what impact the
bilingual school would have on my boy. Well, yesterday afternoon we
had the first clear outcome when he taught us the song he had learnt
from his native English teacher. As I mentioned before in some older
posts, this year he spends only one session of 2 hours a week with
her on Mondays, then some reinforcement session (games, songs and
routines) with a non-bilingual teacher on Wednesdays. Yet the
exposure is limited, thanks to the OPOL approach that we follow at
home, for him it´s just like some other Spanish song, and I think
here is where the main difference lies compared to monolingual
families.
After
observing my nieces and other kids, I know that at this age, kids
from monolingual homes attending bilingual schools/day care are
facing English words for the very first time at 2-3 years old, so
they repeat the sounds they hear, as accurate as they can, but most
of the times not realizing the meaning. A popular song like “This
is the way we brush our teeth…” sounds like “di iz wea way be
bo bo biiii”, and it´s all fine cause the objective at this point
is getting them familiarized only with the sounds, tone of voice and
melody of the language. In our case the bilingual environment that we
have created since the boy was born has made possible that he
actually recognizes in the song that they are talking about what we
do every night, when we all brush our teeth. He is also showing signs
of understanding the whole story in series and movies we watch like
Peppa Pig or simple Disney movies, everyday more and more.
So
he enjoyed this so much that after singing the new song at home a
couple of times, our punk started making his own lines using the
structure of the song. We were playing with the cars before bedtime
and we accidentally bumped our heads, and I said “Hey man, watch
out! You just bumped your head into mine!” and there he went…
“Papi! This is the way we bump our heads, we bump our heads…”
We were absolutely puzzled. And every day more he is coming up with
this kind of things, like “XXX doesn´t like this, NEITHER DOES
YYY”. And I´m like “neither does yyy???” I find this structure
difficult most of the times because it´s very different from
Spanish, and he just got it damn right from scratch. He doesn´t even
have to think about it!!! This is also applicable to the order of
words when he switches back and forth. He is starting to place
everything correctly in each language. I´d say his understanding
skills are pretty much at the same level in both languages, and
regarding speech, English is walking uphill almost parallel to
Spanish, maybe just one little step below.
Going
a little bit deeper into the bilingual schools issue, some years ago
the chances were scarce, private and therefore extremely expensive.
Now that we are starting to count on public and semi-granted ones,
with different qualities but improving I believe, bilingualism and
opportunities have been popularized. Although this is absolutely
fabulous for our new generations, I think many families in Spain
deposit all the responsibility of the “bilingual plus” only in
the school. I think that if you want to make the most of the system,
you have to look at it as a reinforcement to your bilingual approach
in your family. Of course this will depend always on the language
skills of the parents, but even if they are not competent users it´s
also possible to create a positive environment towards the minority
language through videos, songs... And if you start from scratch it´s
a great opportunity to learn side by side with your children. Kids
with no minority language reference outside the school tend to take
the second language like an extra subject (sometimes an annoying one
if I may say it). Creating an environment where speaking another
language is fun and useful makes bilingual things much more enjoyable
and likely to happen. With some effort, support and consistency they
can achieve great things all by themselves.
So
as a summary of this post and a milestone along the way, I can gladly
say, with evidence in my ears that bilingualism definitely pays off,
the effort is absolutely worth it, and one can see/hear the huge
benefits of it as early as 2,5 years. It´s definitely the best
investment I´ll ever make in my whole life.
I´d
be glad to hear about others´ experiences. Do you have any bilingual
options in your school system? What´s your opinion about them? Do
they complete your family bilingual strategy? Have you made this
“stop and think” exercise about what your families´ return on
investment is?
