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I keep hearing that that every adopted child "learns english so fast" within a year - etc.
My child is also learning english pretty fast, but the spec ed services keeps pointing to her quick english learning as proof that she doesn't have a learning disabiltiy. We point out that she is 1 year to 1.5 years behind in her language and they say - but look how much she has learned in the 5 months she has been with you. Incredible, amazing, etc.
I'm starting to wonder if it really is amazing. Does anyone know of any studies that show how fast young kids learn a language? It is harder for us to extrapolate that data since our daughter was pretty much nonverbal in polish - but I want to have some info to present to the county.
Also can you tell me how fast your kids learned english (to age expectations) and if you are willing, how far behind they were in Polish? For example, if your child was 3 years old - how long did it take to learn english at at a 3 year level and what would have been the corresponding polish language level when you adopted them.
Thank you so much - I'm hoping to get enough feedback to make a spreadsheet and better understand language learning rates. If I can figure out a good format that seems to give me good data, I'll provide it here and post on a few other country sites to expand the coverage of the data.
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kids can learn basic language very quickly. i have multiple years of experience working with young language learners....and i can say they pick up survival language very quickly, but it still takes a while (years) to be fluent.here are some articles that may help you form your argument:[url=http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/bics_calp.php]Explaining BICS and CALP[/url][url=http://www.everythingesl.net/inservices/language_stages.php]Stages of Second Language Acquisition[/url]
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LOL! I don't know if this will help . . .Our boys were 8 when we met them. Their spoken Polish grammar wasn't that hot, and their standard vocabulary was not up to snuff with the 'average' 8 year old. However, their street vocabulary was quiet - advanced!They had survival English in 6 months, then growing English and are now, at 2 years, quite capable of communicating even with people who are not used to their accents and understanding the jist of most conversations. They are getting to where they read and think in English and are loosing their Polish.(And boy, is my husband busted if it's not back up to par before we visit Babcia and Dziadek in a few months!)
Hmmm... good question. We came home a little less than one year ago. Our son, Chris, had just turned nine when we came home. His English is incredible if you ask me - and it came (is coming) really fast. I agree that it took about 6 months to get to something more than functional English. Today, he is easy to understand to everyone he meets (even those who do not know that English is his second language). He can keep up with most all conversations. Although, I will say, he is also pretty darned good at "faking it" when he doesn't know something. Sometimes he will ask, "What does that mean?" But if he is with strangers, he will just nod and pretend like he knows what they are talking about.As far as reading, he is now at the point where he can read Clifford books on his own. There are still a few words that are tricky, but he can get through them without much help. He definitely thinks and dreams in English now. We have talked about this with him recently. But when he gets around other polish speakers, he goes back to thinking in Polish while he talks with them. Quite an impressive skill!~sarah[url=http://notesfrombungalow6.blogspot.com/]based on a true story...[/url]