All Private Spanish school.

nyc dad

Bronze
Jul 28, 2011
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Greetings all Dr1ers. Wanted to ask, for you guys that have had children in all Spanish schools Vs "bilingual", have your children forgotten their home language? And if they haven't, what about good sentence structures when it comes to writing, and have their home language vocabulary become more limited? Thanks. 
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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My thoughts on this are only that a solid base in the "home" language, be it English, French or Greek, will not be affected by going to a monolingual school. The big caveat is that the home language is consistent and well presented (no dees, does, ain'ts and dem if you get my drift.

Also encouragement to follow the home language on television and movies as well, oh my God how important!!, as READING. Just a few paragraphs and then pages and then books....This is the foundation for every language.

And if the child is very young I would not sweat it all that much. Kids are like language sponges. There are some of the bilingual schools that produce really nice English speakers....like Santiago Christian and St. David....Carol Morgan of course and I imagine that there are other good ones in Sto Dgo.

Try it any way you want, and see how it works out. In today's society, I do not think that language is as defining as it used to be.

Cordially,


HB
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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If a child has been in an English-speaking environment until the age of seven at least, they are much more likely to conserve their first language dominance even if they move to another country or to a school in a different language. Naturally this has to be combined with Hillbilly's sage advice - speaking English at home, watching movies and TV and reading in English to ensure that their English (spoken and written) continues to develop as they grow up. This of course applies to all languages and I have seen it verified in many situations.
 

cavok

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Jun 16, 2014
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Cabarete
I think it depends on what level of proficiency you want your child to have. If all you're interested in is that your child maintains a basic conversational level of English then I guess an all Spanish monolingual school would be ok. However, if you want your child to have command of the English language and not only be able to speak English but also be able to effectively read and write in English, your child really needs to go to a bilingual school. If this weren't the case, there would be no need to teach English in the US all the way through grade school, high school, and in college.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
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I went from the equivalent of grades 2-10/age 7 to 15 in non-English schools. At home we spoke mainly English and I read a lot, again mostly in English. When I went back to the British schooling system at the age of 15 I did my O levels in one year and got As for both English Lit and Language, and went on to get an A in A-level English.