Yesterday, my little one sat down at the table and said "Mummy, I need a prat". I've been enjoying hearing her stop-gap responses to language she can't remember, but this time I thought it best to offer her the appropriate word."Would you like a plate?""A prate?""A plate""No, I need a prat". She has been problem-solving … Continue reading The joys of translanguaging
Tag: Language
Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the weaker language
In my last post I gave some examples of moments when my bilingual daughter is clearly influenced by grammatical structure and language in her default language (Portuguese) and applies it to her weaker language (English). There have been a few moments when I have seen this happen the other way around but it seems to … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Interference from the weaker 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 – Over-generalisation of specific rules
As I mentioned in my last post (which describes our language journey as a third-culture family), my daughter is currently most comfortable speaking in Portuguese. This hasn't always been the case but now, at three and three months, Portuguese is her default language and if she finds it difficult to express herself in English she'll … Continue reading Bilingual children and language development – Over-generalisation of specific rules
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
The wonderful world of haiku, tanka and renga
I'm not sure whether we were ever introduced to the world of haiku at school. I don't think we were as I don't recall ever feeling like I sounded very wise, and that is an almost guaranteed benefit when writing haiku, according to people who know these things (here's looking at you, Mum). I came … Continue reading The wonderful world of haiku, tanka and renga
Brazilian bird poem mini-series 7-8
I'm very excited to bring my mini-series of Brazilian bird poems to the wider world. I have written a little more about them in this post... Brazilian bird poem no. 7 Below is the audio version of the poem which plays straight from my YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/qGeN58V2e98 Brazilian bird poem no. 7 - English translation … Continue reading Brazilian bird poem mini-series 7-8
Brazil from the outside in 