I bought a book for my daughter around about the time she turned one. It was £1.99 from the British Heart Foundation and called '1000 Words and Pictures'. She can lift and carry it by herself now that she's getting on for four. This week when we were reading about the parts of a tree, … Continue reading New language – shape, sound and word association
Tag: Language learning
Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the dominant language
I mentioned in my last post that my daughter, who is growing up bilingual and is now three and four months, does actively translate between her languages. I'll explain a bit more here about why I think this is interesting, how I know she's doing it and I'll give some examples. Firstly, I think this … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the dominant language
Some thoughts on bilingualism, language acquisition and language learning
I have never studied bilingualism and I'm not bilingual so my thinking on the subject comes from what I have picked up from a few books, articles, comments and memes, connected by some personal observations and marinated in plenty of prejudice and bias. Before learning another language I used to think (and I believe this … Continue reading Some thoughts on bilingualism, language acquisition and language learning
Bilingual children and language development – Trying out new language or ‘Just us chickens!’
One of the delights of being able to observe our daughter go through a language growth spurt is being present both at the moment of her hearing new language and then hearing that new language being road-tested by her for the first time. A fortnight ago I asked our daughter (three years and three months … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Trying out new language or ‘Just us chickens!’
Bilingual children and language development – Confusion between first and third person in Portuguese
On the subject of the confusion that must arise between the first person singular and the third person singular for a child acquiring Portuguese - mentioned in my last post here and back by overwhelming demand - I have some further observations. Not only do the majority of Brazilians talk about themselves in the third … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Confusion between first and third person in Portuguese
Our language journey as a third-culture family
I've written previously about how language fascinates me and how amazing I find it to witness my daughter acquire two languages as she grows up. You can read about that here. She's now three and three months. I'll give a bit of background about our language journey as a third-culture family. [I'm using the term … Continue reading Our language journey as a third-culture family
Why I love language acquisition
At 2 years and 11 months, my daughter just came out with this phrase in Portuguese - "Se eu fosse lá, eu vou botar você na cadeia". (If I were to go there, I am going to put you in jail.) So she managed to form the imperfect subjunctive correctly but used the simple future … Continue reading Why I love language acquisition
Brazil from the outside in 