A few blog members who are also parents only speak to their young kids in the TL. We have one in DPS whose four months old son only hears French from mom. And Keri Colwell, a new addition to our PLC, only speaks Italian to her two children. Here is what Keri told me about that:
…I have been feeling even more strongly over the past few years about helping my students to learn in a natural setting ever since I had my two daughters. My oldest is 4 and my younger is 15 months. I have actually never spoken English to them-only Italian, and it is amazing to me to see my older one speak in complex sentences without giving it a second thought…but she never spoke a word until about 1.5 years because she had to constantly hear the language! I know that I’m not telling you anything you don’t know but it seems so interesting to me, maybe because Italian is not my first language and this was sort of an “experiment” – but a success! I want the same for my students!…