Teaching Portuguese

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  • July 26, 2011 at 7:27 pm
    crazy4boys
    Participant

    I have a terrible confession….I read and speak portuguese (Brasilian) fairly well.  But haven’t taught my kids yet.  So, I sat down to figure out how to do it AND I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW.  There are all sorts of resources/ideas for teaching your english-speaking kid how to read english, but I can’t seem to ‘translate’ that into a foreign language.

    My question is two fold –

    1.  Any ideas for how to translate your “big people” knowledge of a language into “little people” learning?  I learned by total and complete immersion (I lived in Brasil for 18 months) so I’m not really grounded in the basics.  

    2.  Does anyone know of a simple program to get started with portuguese?  I’m sure after a “level” or two I could take over, but I am lost at figuring out how to start.

    Obrigada!

    Heather

    July 27, 2011 at 11:07 pm
    Sonya Shafer
    Moderator

    I don’t know of a program, per se, but Charlotte talked about a sequence that you could use in getting started.

    1. Name objects around the house and yard. Use those names in conversations.

    2. Sing songs in Portuguese. Play any games that go with those songs (for example, an equivalent of London Bridge is Falling Down that has actions to go with the song).

    3. Describe an action in a series of short phrases or sentences using key words. Here’s an example from Vol. 1, p. 304. Notice how already familiar words are used. New ones are given in parentheses to help you see as they are added.

    “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.)”

     

    Maybe these ideas will give you some places to start.

    July 28, 2011 at 4:58 pm
    Lucien Van Huyssteen
    Participant

    Heather….Boa tarde!  Tudo bem?

    We are a South African family living in São Paulo and have been here a year already….and my portuguese is still not up to full converstation level LOL!!  If I wasn’t homeschooling, then I’d probably be fluent by now :0)

    I decided to go with Rosetta Stone instead of getting a private tutor.  I ordered it through Sonlight and got the homeschool version where you can keep track of your kid’s progress.  It is based on natural immersion and I love it.  It has taken a while for my son (6,5) to ‘catch on’ as it moved too fast for him a year ago.  But, now he loves it and thinks it’s fun and picks up new vocab very quickly.  They only make levels 1-3 in Brazilian portuguese, whereas other languages go up to level 5 but I’m finding it very helpful and it moves at a slow enough pace to really enforce the language.  My husband has private lessons at work and he moves quicker through new ‘concepts’ but he forgets them and doesn’t pronounce as well as I do, LOL!, because with RS, you get so much more review and practice.  You can also select the areas that you want each child to cover, for eg. I do the whole program which includes listening, reading, writing, speaking, grammer, vocab but for my son I’ve only selected listening and speaking for him. Part of the program involves repeating a sentence back to the computer and it will only move on if your pronounciation is good enough.  

    I know it’s expensive but Sonlight often have special offers on it and it’s been so great for us so far.  It’s like a game for my son, when we go into the progam on the computer, a native-speaker says a sentence and he’s got to click on the right picture.  If you go to http://www.sonlight.com you can see a sample of how Rosetta Stone works, it may not be the portuguese version but you’ll get a good idea of how it is done. 

    Otherwise, I would say just talk to your kids in portuguese as much as you can, but not in long sentences in the beginning, but exactly how you spoke to them when they were toddlers..starting off with one word at a time, naming things, then moving on to 2-3 word phrases, talking as you are doing things together etc.  I think pretty much what Sonya has suggested above.  The main thing is LOTS of repetition, just like you would have done when they were learning to speak english.

    Good luck :0)

    Noelene 

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