"Children who convey more meanings with gestures at age 14 months have much larger vocabularies at 54 months than children who convey fewer meanings and are accordingly better prepared for school, " for their piece in the journal Science on Friday, Feb. 13.
"The research showed that the differences particularly favored children from higher-income families with well-educated parents and may help explain the disadvantages some children from low-income families face upon entering school," said Susan-Goldin Meadow.
Other related articles can be found here.Again; a fair young Englishwoman was staying with her mother at a German Kurhaus. They were the only English people present, and probably forgot that the Germans are better linguists than we. The young lady sat through the long meals with her book, hardly interrupting her reading to eat, and addressing no more than one or two remarks to her mother, as
(pg 8)
'I wonder what that mess is!' or, 'How much longer shall we have to sit with these tiresome people?' Had she remembered that no family can live to itself, that she and her mother represented England, were England for that little German community, she would have imitated the courteous greetings which the German ladies bestowed on their neighbours."
What do you all do about this dilemma? Have you ever traveled to another country and noticed or been saddened or embarrassed by your fellow countrymen at how they behaved in public in someone else's country, totally ignoring the cultural differences and acceptable mores within the given society in which they were visiting?
So in a group I will say:
levanten la mano - (all of you-plural) raise the hand
bajen la mano - (all of you-plural) lower the hand
Abran sus libros a la página... - (all of you-plural) open your books to page...
(The above photo is for Donna-Jean :-)
I made up a brief line or two about one of Mother Auma's family pets, too! That was a kick. I need to add to Thumper's story when I see them this week!
Update: "Hay una coneja que se llama Thumper. Thumper es blanca, morena, manchada, y suave. ¿Es vieja Thumper? ¿Es Jóven? ¿Cuántos años tiene Thumper?
~ It's important to follow Charlotte's and the TPR and TPRS methods of not adding more than 3-6 new words or units of words per day. Since I only meet with most of my students once a week, I must have a list of extra words or phrases to send home with them, so that they can divide the words up over the week and work on them at home, all based around the theme or story which we are working that week.
Pg. 304 - Here is an example of an elementary 'Series,' showing how 'the servant lights the fire':
"The servant takes a box of matches, (takes.)
She opens the match-box, (opens.)
She takes out a match, (takes out.)
She shuts up the match-box, (shuts up.)
She strikes the match on the cover, (strikes.)
The match takes fire, (takes fire.)
The match smokes, (smokes.)
The match flames, (flames.)
The match burns, (burns.)
And spreads a smell of burning over the kitchen, (spreads.)
The servant bends down to the hearth, (bends down.)
Puts out her hand, (puts out.)
Puts the match under the shavings, (puts.)
Holds the match under the shavings, (holds.)
The shavings take fire, (take fire.)
The servant leaves go of the match, (leave go.)
Stands up again, (stands up.)
Looks at her fire burning, (looks.)
And puts back the box of matches in its place, (puts back.)
He returned to France, after a ten months' absence, and found that his little nephew––whom he had left a child of two and a half, not yet able to talk––had in the interval done what his uncle had signally failed to do. "'What!' I thought; 'this child and I have been working for the same time, each at a language. He, playing round his mother, running after flowers, butterflies and birds, without weariness, without apparent effort, without even being conscious of his work, is able to say all he thinks, express all he sees, understand all he hears; and when he began his work, his intelligence was yet a futurity, a glimmer, a hope. And I, versed in the sciences, versed in philosophy, armed with a powerful will, gifted with a powerful memory . . . have arrived at nothing, or at practically nothing!'"
"The linguistic science of the college has deceived me, has misguided me. The classical method, with its grammar, its dictionary, and its translations, is a delusion." "To surprise Nature's secret, I must watch this child."
M. Gouin watches the child––the work in question is the result of his observations.
The method of teaching may be varied, partly because that recommended by M. Gouin requires a perfect command of the French tongue, and teachers who are diffident find a conversational method founded on book and picture easier to work and perhaps as effectual––more so, some people think; but, be this as it may, it is to M. Gouin we owe the fundamental idea."
"As regards French, for instance, our difficulties are twofold––the want of a vocabulary, and a certain awkwardness in producing unfamiliar sounds. It is evident that both these hindrances should be removed in early childhood. The child should never see French words in print *until he has learned to say them* with as much ease and readiness as if they were English. The desire to give printed combinations of letters the sounds they would bear in English words is the real cause of our national difficulty in pronouncing French. Again, the child's vocabulary should increase steadily, say, at the rate of half a dozen words a day. Think of fifteen hundred words in a year! The child who has that number of words, and knows how to apply them, can speak French. Of course, his teacher, will take care that, in giving words, she gives *idioms* also, and that as he learns new words, they are *put into sentences and kept in use* from day to day. A note-book in which she enters the child's new words and sentences will easily enable the teacher to do this. The young child has no foolish shame about saying French words––he pronounces them as simply as if they were English.
vol 1 pg 302
But it is very important that he should acquire a pure accent from the first. It is not often advisable that young English children should be put into the hands of a French governess or nurse; but would it not be possible for half a dozen families, say, to engage a French lady, who would give half an hour daily to each family?
