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How do you teach a child a language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes  Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 1 of 22 19 July 2011 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been trying to teach my younger brother Bulgarian for some time now. He has a large passive knowledge from
listening to me and my parents speak but he's too shy to talk on his own. Whenever I try to speak to him in Bulgarian, he replies to me in English and I promptly forget my goal. Lately I've been trying to teach him the grammar from "Intensive Bulgarian, a textbook and reference grammar" but the material is way too dense for him. He tries to follow what I'm teaching him, but it's too boring for him to pay attention for an extended period of time. Is anyone familiar with a method that could help familiarize him with the grammar of Bulgarian? As soon as he's comfortable with the grammar, he should be more comfortable utilizing his vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4843 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 2 of 22 20 July 2011 at 10:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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You haven't said how old your brother is, which would help us to help you.
But anyway, the trick is to use his own interests in your lessons. For example, can you get comics in Bulgarian? You could read them together, and discuss the grammar as you go along. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4943 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 3 of 22 20 July 2011 at 12:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Yes, the age would help.
But if you and your parents are speaking Bulgarian at home, why isn't he? I'd say the best way for a child of any age is to help him see that speaking the language is a normal, everyday thing and he doesn't need to be shy. Don't drill him grammar, he can hear it from you and parents. And the "foreign language grammar" approach might make him even more shy to speak. Or something like visiting granny or friends in Bulgary for a few weeks might help (the more if granny doesn't understand English). If that is impossible, just try to find something fun for him as Jeffers wisely said. Perhaps when passionately discussing a Bulgarian book, comics, film or whatever, he might forget to use English when speaking to you. Just ideas. Good luck with your goal. You're a great brother (sister?). I believe one day your brother will really appreciate your efforts. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5331 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 4 of 22 20 July 2011 at 1:00pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree with the above poster and would just add that if you wall continue to speak to him in Bulgarian then he will eventually respond in Bulgarain. Immersion really is the best way, especially if this is a younger child. I know that when I was teaching in day care I used to speak Italian to my 3 year olds and while they wouldn't respond back in Italian, they started understanding me fairly quickly. It sounds to me like your brother is a little older than 3, but the concept still applies. If he has the passive knowledge already it will just be a matter of time before the active catches up. Just make sure you respond to his English in Bulgarian, I think he'll eventually get the point.
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| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 5 of 22 20 July 2011 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you for your responses! My brother is 9. The comic idea may just work if I can
manage to find some in Bulgarian. I also found entire classic Bulgarian movies on youtube that we could watch together. At the age of 9, you can see why were all worried that he may never reach native fluency at this rate. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5893 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 22 20 July 2011 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Kartof, you haven't said anything about your brothers' motivation level. The ideas mentioned will help but unless he really wants to learn, given the dynamics of immigrant life in the US, this may not go as well as you'd like. That said, I hope things work out....good luck! Edited by Snowflake on 20 July 2011 at 4:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5945 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 22 20 July 2011 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
Sorry, this is simply untrue. You can see as much in many minority-language communities the world over -- some people can understand the language, but never gain the ability to speak it. In Scotland and Wales, you'll see people who understand Gaelic or Welsh even going to beginners classes because they do not know how to formulate anything but the simplest sentences.
I think you're going to have to actively teach his to speak, and at 9 years old I think it's possible. But, as you've already found out, going through a grammar book doesn't cut it. I'd suggest you get hold of a Michel Thomas course -- one of the genuine MT ones (Spanish, German, French, Italian), not the ones recorded by other people under the brand name and look very closely at what he does. He builds up the grammatical rules organically, going through "I want"->"I want it"->"I want to do it" and developing a wide palette of grammar. Your brother has the advantage that the vocabulary will be easy, and will only have to focus on the grammar (passive vocabulary is stronger than passive grammatical knowledge, and can be converted to active easier). 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5000 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 8 of 22 20 July 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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My brother is generally excited to learn Bulgarian but he feels overwhelmed by the fact
that he hasn't a clue on how to construct grammatically correct sentences. I find that, while there are some resources for learning Bulgarian, many are geared for adults and few to none for children. I know that my brother will have a feeling of gratification if he learns Bulgarian because it will help him connect with his cultural heritage. To top it off, our grandparents and several family members speak only Bulgarian. I just check the website and I don't think that the Michel Thomas learning method has Bulgarian. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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