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Preschool and Daycare Discussion
Anybody take issue with teachers speaking another language at daycare?
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Anonymous
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I'm interested in hearing your opinions. |
Anonymous
| Speaking another language to the children? Speaking another language to each other? |
Anonymous
... speaking another language to each other. |
Anonymous
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my DH and i speak by spelling from time to time in front of DS... same thing -- language not meant for his ears.
I would actually prefer to have DS in a bilingual daycare -- i would love for him to pick up Spanish! |
Anonymous
| If they are speaking in their native language to each other, I would think that would be natural. Even if they speak English fluently, there are still going to be things that are easier to explain to each other in their native language. As long as they are not extended conversations where the children are being excluded or ignored, I don't see a problem with it. |
Anonymous
| My kids go to a center where the native language of most of the staff is Spanish and like a PP said, it is natural that they talk to each other in Spanish. I've always seen them change languages when parents are around so that they are not seeming rude. I think it's great that my kids are exposed to multiple languages. |
Anonymous
| I don't have a problem with it. Many daycare workers speak English as a second language, so this is only natural. |
Anonymous
| op here. well, i'm encouraged to hear your comments. there was a new directive at my child's daycare instructing teachers to stop speaking their native languages to each other when parents are around. apparently, the few parents who complained wanted their children to learn proper English (since some are there for 12 hours per day) and also felt uncomfortable interrupting their conversations. |
fabsrc2
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| Wow, what you're describing is stunning --that parents would ask teachers to speak only English. I'm not a lawyer but I think the teachers could sue the daycare center. Too sad that mono-lingual parents feel they have to force people to speak only English at all times in front of them. |
Anonymous
| Lawyer here, don't see what the basis for the suit would be. If I walked around my office speaking in Spanish to my Spanish-speaking co-workers during work hours I am pretty sure my boss would tell us to quit it. That said, I don't have a problem with another language being spoken at daycare. I would see it as a benefit that would help the children learn another language so long as they spoke proper English when speaking English and proper-whatever other language when speaking that. I would not like it if my child were learning slang in any language. |
fabsrc2
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| Interesting that you'd get fired. I've worked on the Hill for MoCs and have spent good part of my days speaking in my first language-- Spanish to other Congressional staffers. Never ever got in trouble. Of course, I speak in English to people who are not as lucky as I am to be bilingual. But agree with you about not wanting my child to learn slang in any language. |
Anonymous
| One of the reasons I chose my daycare is because they have a Spanish language program. About half the staff are native Spanish speakers. I especially liked it when the teachers spoke to my kids and to each other in Spanish in the infant room since I've heard that it is good for the children to learn to differentiate in hearing and forming the different sounds of different languages at an early age. |
Anonymous
| I actually can see the point of the parents if the teachers are speaking another language in front of them and are continuing their conversation while they are standing there. I have had this happen to me at work actually and it is uncomfortable to be the only one who doesn't understand the conversation. I have been in the lunch room (I work in a school) while people carried on entire conversations in Spanish in front of me for 10-15 minutes. They are also fluent in English so it is not like they could not speak English instead. While I think it is great for people to be multilingual, it is rude to do it when another person is excluded from the conversation. That said, I think it would be great in a daycare situation for the children to be exposed to more than one language. |
Anonymous
| Don't you think the real issue is rudeness? Just as it would be rude for a teacher to whisper while in a group of parents, it would be rude to speak in a different language in the same situation. I don't for a second believe that people seriously believe that hearing a second language in a daycare setting would affect a child's ability to learn to speak proper English. |
Anonymous
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I have heard from other parents that they believe that hearing Spanish in day care all day has hampered their English language development.
I know it is a politically charged issue, but for any experts out there in the speech/language areas, could you weigh in, pointing to anything like an objective study or statistics? |