4Real Forums: English as a Second Language

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Topic: English as a Second Language

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Lorraine
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Joined: July 06 2007
Location: Canada
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Posts: 50

Posted: July 15 2007 at 11:55pm \| IP Logged

Hi all,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this question. If not, please move it to the appropriate forum. Thanks.

I'm a newbie here and even though my husband and I have just recently decided to homeschool because we firmly believe that God has called us to do so, we still have lots of anxieties. One of the biggest concerns is that English is not our first language. We both managed to get through high school here (in Canada BTW) without very much study in English literature. And since we studied engineering in university, you can imagine that language skills weren't on the top of the list of our syllabi. As it is, we speak with an accent, and we always check and re-check our emails or forum posts or any writing correspondences to make sure we haven't made glaring grammatical errors (at least those that we are aware of). We are afraid that our children (4.5yo DD and 2.5yo DS) will suffer in the long run because of this. Is anyone in a similar situation or knows of someone who is? Any suggestions? Should we hire a native English speaking tutor? One of the things we do now is to borrow audio books from the library for them to listen to and they do enjoy it.

Thank you very much in advance for your input.
Lorraine

ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: July 17 2007 at 12:40am \| IP Logged

We know someone who homeschooled in a bilingual situation. Her first language was German and her dh was English speaking (but spoke German as well). I know she worried about teaching English, but her children were fine. There are plenty of thourough supporting material for phonics and grammar, the rest the children learn from simple interaction. Our friend spoke to the children in German at home (and other places unless it would be rude/exclusive - ie we were with them, they would use English for our benefit) and the children were fluent in German as well as English. I don't know about when dad was home because when we were there they obviously spoke English to include us. They should have opportunities to speak English with English speaking friends and as long as the muscles develop for the peculiar sounds of English (which will happen if they speak it before their teens) then your accent shouldn't matter.

I also know a family (Puerto Rican) who always spoke Spanish in the home as both parents native language was Spanish. They homeschooled and all their children were fine with English and without accent though both parents had one. They had English speaking friends like us of course so they had to speak English at times and certainly hear it. She was a much better teacher than I that is for sure and her children didn't suffer from the bilingual household but benefitted greatly, imo.

What an opportunity for your children to become naturally proficient in 2 languages. We really regret that my dh parents never spoke to him in Chinese. There is no way he could ever speak the language without an accent and very unlikely that he could learn it well at his age now when it would be so valuable a part of his heritage to pass on to the children.

Janet

Natalia
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
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Posted: July 17 2007 at 6:24pm \| IP Logged

Hi Lorraine,

I am not a native English speaker either. My first language is Spanish. I can understand your checking your emails and posts often. I do the same and I am sure that sometimes I don't see the mistakes. I just hope people know I am not a native and not that I am uneducated

My situation is a little different than yours since my husband is a native speaker. Judging by your email, your command of English is pretty good. What is it that concerns you? are you planning to school in your native language or English? Do you children speak English now? I am assuming you used your native language at home, right?

As I said my experience is a little different. At first I tried schooling bilingually but I had trouble finding good material in Spanish.Finding living books in Spanish was particularly difficult. So I do all my schooling in English and they take Spanish as a subject besides the opportunity of speaking it with me and when we go to visit my family.

I have been homeschooling for eight years now and I haven't had much problem. at first I sent my two oldest to a preschool( a Montessori preschool) so they would learned how to read. I was concerned they would not learned properly with my accent. Now with my third child it has been different. I taught him how to read and my accent was not a problem. He has learned the correct pronunciation despite my accent.

I love to learn and teaching my kids have been an opportunity for me to get to know the culture I live in more fully. I have especially enjoyed discovering all the excellent literature that I missed when I was a kid.

There has been minor difficulties (i.e. Americans divide different, the rules of grammar are different-punctuation,capitalization etc) but I have learned with them as they go and it hasn't been a big deal.

You can do it! It is just a matter of having a good plan and good materials. Your kids are surrounding by English and they WILL learn English.

Natalia

stefoodie
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Joined: Feb 17 2005
Location: Ohio
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Posts: 8457

Posted: July 17 2007 at 10:27pm \| IP Logged

DH and I were born and raised in the Philippines -- we came here in our 20s. I still have an accent but AFAICT it hasn't been detrimental to the kids -- they get enough exposure (friends, TV, radio, online, audiobooks, movies, etc.) so their English is actually a lot better than mine. (probably why I'm a bit insecure about teaching my kids to write; thank goodness for BraveWriter!)

Actually I worry more about the loss of heritage -- our oldest speaks Filipino fluently, but the others only speak a few words here and there (they can understand very well though -- our conversations usually go -- I say something in Filipino and they respond in English). DH teases them about knowing more Latin than they do Filipino. I'm hoping to remedy that this year.

__________________
stef

mom to five

Natalia
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Louisiana
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Posted: July 18 2007 at 6:29am \| IP Logged

stefoodie wrote:

Actually I worry more about the loss of heritage -- our oldest speaks Filipino fluently, but the others only speak a few words here and there (they can understand very well though -- our conversations usually go -- I say something in Filipino and they respond in English). DH teases them about knowing more Latin than they do Filipino. I'm hoping to remedy that this year.

I think about this too. My oldest speaks Spanish pretty fluently, my middle child speaks some and my youngest hardly nothing. It is such a shame.

Natalia

Lorraine
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Joined: July 06 2007
Location: Canada
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Posts: 50

Posted: July 18 2007 at 3:12pm \| IP Logged

Thank you everyone for your sharing and support! My main concern was that my kids would inherit my accent. Right now we speak our native language (Chinese) at home. I read books to them in English but usually I translate each page into Chinese as I go along. I was also worried that I wouldn't know how to pick good books for them since I didn't read them as a kid. But I'll try my best to follow the suggested booklist by Elizabeth (Real Learning) and see how that goes. And I'll try to give my kids to more exposure to "proper" English through audio books and interactions with neighbours and friends. Yes, I do want to preserve the native tongue. I hope my parents can do a big part of that job. They always speak to my kids in Chinese even though they can speak in English. So I'll bring my kids to vists more often

Thank you again!
Lorraine

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