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Post by Bonobo on Feb 24, 2009 11:46:51 GMT 1
International Mother Language Day
Polish Radio
21.02.2009
Today is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day, a
United Nations-organised day designed to promote linguistic diversity and warn that nearly half of all the 6,700 languages of the world will probably vanish before the 21st century is over.
Linguist Radoslaw Pawelec from the Warsaw University explained that Polish, like many other languages of the world is undergoing ,what he describes as `fuzziness' of the language which is caused by the English language.
Professor Pawelec said that steps should be taken to popularise the mother tongue in Poland setting a fashion for the perfect usage of Polish.
In advance of International Mother Tongue Day UNESCO launched an online World Atlas of Languages in Danger. It provides up-to-date data on some 2,500 endangered languages.
I started to teach my eldest son English when he was 3. For some time he counted to 10 better in English than Polish. And thanks to his lisping (natural at certain age) he was able to utter perfect English sounds, especially th ones. Until one day the logopedician told us to stop English for a while because that kind of lisping might got fixed in his mind.
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Post by Bonobo on May 3, 2011 20:01:40 GMT 1
Who says the teaching profession has few benefits?? ;D ;D Like free access to glue.... ;D ;D ;D None of us would ever belive that. Mike Mike, I can be really bad. ;D ;D ;D Now, guys, I have another problem. I have taught my kids English since kidergarten times. The two elder ones are brilliant pupils and acquire the language with incredible speed. They read, speak, understand, remember without any problems. I am sometimes impressed like hell by their performance. The eldest one, 12 yo, 5 grade, reached the fourth, final stage of English Olympics competition for primary schools. Considering written tests, he was 46th in all Poland, but after the oral exam, he finally landed at 115th position. But it is a great achievement anyway. The second one, 9 yo, is following his brother`s example and I am sure will also do very well in future competitions. What worries me is the third one. We started our course in winter last year when he was 4.5 yo. He has big problems, especially with remembering and repeating after me or CD - e.g., he is unable to fully repeat the sentence: Look at number one , he usually omits at or sth else. He still has problems with vocabulary, e.g, colours, though we practised them so many times. Also other simple words like house, car etc, which we have already done before, are forgotten and need cosnatnt revising. Currently we are doing the fourth textbook so he should remember those words much better. Besides, we practise the same answer again and again, e.g., It is a car/house/pen etc and he is able to repeat it after me, but when I ask him the question What is it? and expect him to answer without hearing it first, he can`t do it. I am still patient and praise him a lot, but inside I am getting more and more depressed. What`s wrong? Is he my son? Maybe not? |
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Post by jeanne on May 4, 2011 20:47:35 GMT 1
What`s wrong? Is he my son? Maybe not? How does he do when he learns a new Polish word and then tries to retrieve it from memory? |
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Post by Bonobo on May 4, 2011 21:38:17 GMT 1
What`s wrong? Is he my son? Maybe not? How does he do when he learns a new Polish word and then tries to retrieve it from memory? I haven`t conducted such tests on him but at the age of nearly 5 he speaks normal Polish, I suppose. Started uttering comprehensible words and sentences at the age of 3. |
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Post by jeanne on May 4, 2011 22:48:42 GMT 1
How does he do when he learns a new Polish word and then tries to retrieve it from memory? I haven`t conducted such tests on him but at the age of nearly 5 he speaks normal Polish, I suppose. Started uttering comprehensible words and sentences at the age of 3. Did you also start your other boys with English at 4.5 years of age? Also, age 3 is late for a child to start speaking words and sentences. Perhaps his learning is perfectly normal for him, but only behind the rate of his brothers. You know as a teacher, Bonobo, that we all learn at different rates and on different time-tables! |
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Post by Bonobo on May 12, 2011 18:51:14 GMT 1
Did you also start your other boys with English at 4.5 years of age? With the eldest at the age of 3. The medium one at 5 and I remember I was also worried about him at the beginning, but now he is an ace. All of our kids spoke quite late, at the age of 2.5. I was impressed when my workmate said his 1.5 yo daughter used conditional sentences. That was never possible in my kids. Our 2 yo daughter only twits, chirps and coos. My wife doesn`t worry at all ans says she is extremely intelligent but doesn`t care about speaking. If he is so different, he must be someone else`s son. Today I observed sth that might be a part of the matter. I already suspected he has a problem with proper hearing, or better say, understanding what he hears. He isn`t impaired in any way, we went to a doctor last year. But today, during our lesson, when the recording said: Look at his/her car/house/ballon, and I asked him to repeat it, he seemed not to hear his/her and replaced it with a or is: Look at a car/look at is car. I read a few professional diagnosis on my dyslexic students and difficulties with proper processing of sounds by the brain are said to be one of the causes of school problems. I start to be a bit worried. |
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