Q. Should we choose a local school for our children, or an English-language international school? A. This is a common question, as more families are faced with choices of living locally or holding on to international possibilities. It's also a complicated question, as there are many factors that determine the right answer for any family, … Continue reading Local language versus English education?
2018: The Year of the Q&A
I made my first blog post here exactly 6.5 years ago today, and since then I have posted 195 times (not all original content), for an average of not quite 2 posts a month. I've had periods when I posted more frequently, and periods when I posted less, always of course linked to how busy … Continue reading 2018: The Year of the Q&A
Top 5 posts of 2017
2017 was a busy year for me, and ended with the splitting of my site for parents (this one) from my site for schools (now at http://www.crisfieldeducationalconsulting.com). Although in many ways it is easier to maintain one site, and although the messages I hope to share on my blog are equally important for parents and … Continue reading Top 5 posts of 2017
Is early English-language education always the right choice?
There is a common presumption among ex-pat families, in particular, that if you have a choice between primary school in the home language and in English, the latter is the better choice. This ties in to the common myth "earlier is always better" for acquiring a new language, especially through immersion. Let's take a quick … Continue reading Is early English-language education always the right choice?
Reflecting on Family Language Planning
Two interesting things happened the other day that led me to reflect on family language planning. The first was seeing a session description on a conference website claiming that the job of "family language advisor" is a new field of work that has developed due to the rise in multilingual families. The second was running … Continue reading Reflecting on Family Language Planning
Being Bilingual with Betty and Cat books
What makes a good bilingual book for children? I get a lot of requests from various companies to partner on my blog, or to have me promote their services or products. I rarely do so, because I rarely find anything worth sharing. But every once and a while I get an email about a … Continue reading Being Bilingual with Betty and Cat books
Speak•a•boo: The future of accessible speech assessment in a multilingual world (Spotlight on Good Practice Series)
Every once in a while I come across something that warms the cockles of my heart and delights me professionally at the same time. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of living one of those personal/professional moments. Several years ago I met Mirjam Blumenthal, a speech and language pathologist (SLP) from Koninklijke Kentalis, … Continue reading Speak•a•boo: The future of accessible speech assessment in a multilingual world (Spotlight on Good Practice Series)
Top 5 Tips for parents with children starting school in a new language
It's that time a year again, kids heading off to school all over the world (with the exception of the Antipodeans!). In an increasingly mobile world, many children will be starting at new schools this year, and that may be in a new language. Parents often like to believe that going to school in … Continue reading Top 5 Tips for parents with children starting school in a new language
Top 5 tips for learning about your new students when you can’t talk to them…
Every year, all around the world, teachers welcome into their classrooms students that they can not communicate with at all. While it's obviously extremely difficult for the students, it's also hard for the teachers. Every teacher wants to make their new students feel comfortable and happy and ready to learn. And that's really hard to … Continue reading Top 5 tips for learning about your new students when you can’t talk to them…
My Academic year by the numbers
Most of the Western world celebrates "New Year" on January 1st, as does WordPress. In the academic world, however, our rhythms are different. July signals for me the end of the year, and a time for reflecting on the past academic year and the upcoming year. So I'm going to have my own little celebration … Continue reading My Academic year by the numbers
