From: Mercedes Monaco
Submit: Post Field Note
VisitDate: 10/03/96
Date: 08 Oct 1996
Time: 12:58:13
Remote Name: octal-lab-mac12.ucsc.edu
Christie wrote:
Her exclamation of "why" made me wonder if she simply prefered Spanish and questioned the importance or insistence that she speak in English.
Sorry, I looked back and realized it was unclear what her why was to. I fixed it in events, but basically, one of the older girls was giving her directions for the game in spanish and she was responding to those directions in english. Thanks for the comments, Christie.
Ed wrote: Also, the other older girls. How do you think that they may or may not encouraged her to learn to speak only English and not Spanish?
Actually, it seemed that the older girls were encouraging her more with her Spanish than with her English. Even after she began speaking English, they continued to speak to her mostly in Spanish, as I remember (It's been a while now.)
Lucia, age 4-5, female older girls 7-11
Lucia wanted to play monopoly. So, a group gathered around to play. (Me and three older girls) As the older girls were passing out the money Lucia hummed and moved her peice around the board. On Lucia's first turn the older girls told lucia her number in spanish and she counted around the board in Spanish. She was counting the space she was on, so I told her, in English, to start with the next space, guessing she wouldn't understand much. (Earlier she had told everyone that she didn't speak English.) One of the girls told her in Spanish not to count the space she was on, but to start counting the next space. Lucia replied "Why?". (in English). After that she spoke in English. She counted the dots on her die in English on her own and went around the board, counting in English.
I was surprised when Lucia began speaking English, after she said she didn't.
Why would Lucia say she didn't speak English? Was she not confident in it?