Bilingual Avenue With Marianna Du Bosq

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Toni Wang a mother to three trilingual children and the artist behind “A Little Mandarin,” a collection of Chinese Children’s classics which she has given a new life with a contemporary sound and voice.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I give a listener strategies on how to address her families hesitations about bringing up her son in a bilingual household.  I chat about the importance of declaring your intentions, addressing any misconceptions her family members may have about bilingualism and suggest sharing the benefits of bilingualism to persuade the skepticism. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Dr. Alejandro Brice, a bilingual speech-language pathology researcher and a Professor at the University of South Florida.  Dr. Brice discusses with us four common phenomena that children may experience when learning a second language including interference, the silent period, code switching, and language loss. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a listener’s question who is concerned that his son will pick up his Russian accent when speaking English. I discuss the linguistic behavior of children when it comes to accents as their speech develops. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I chat with Dariela Cruz, the blogger behind MamiTalks.  Dariela discusses her bilingual parenting journey including the struggles she had prior to establishing a language plan and the pride she now feels when she realizes how well her son has internalized his bilingual identity. 

On this episode of the podcast, I share a project Bilingual Avenue is putting together in support of multilingualism and multiculturalism called Aesop Fables for All.  Aesop Fables for All is a collective effort to translate and record a number of Aesop and other select fables, currently found in the open domain, in as many languages as possible.  This project was inspired in part by International Mother Language Day which is celebrated on February 21, 2015. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Rita Rosenback, a mother to two multilingual daughters and the author of Bringing up a Bilingual Child.  Rita discusses the 7 C’s parents need to navigate their multilingual children: Communication, Confidence, Commitment, Consistency, Creativity, Culture and Celebration. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I conclude the reading comprehension multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies.  I introduce the last strategy, synthesizing and do a quick summary of all six strategies including making connections, visualizing, questioning, inferring and determining importance.  

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Maria Babin.  Maria is originally from Southern California where she was raised bilingual by her Peruvian father and Mexican mother.  She developed an affinity for all things French from a very young age.  She followed that love to Brigham Young University where she studied French literature and early childhood language acquisition!  She currently lives in France with her French husband and four trilingual children. You can follow Maria’s multilingual journey on her blog atTrilingualmama.com. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I continue the reading comprehension multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies.  This week we focus on determining importance to understand the big idea for both fiction and non-fiction texts. 

On this episode of the Bilingual Avenue, I interview Bonnie McAuley an elementary school teacher at an American international school and a bilingual mother. Bonnie shares her personal language journey with her son and describes for listeners her school's philosophy and approach to teaching multilingual students.

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I continue the reading comprehension multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies.  This week we focus on how to introduce and implement inferences to predict information that is not included or implied in the text.  Inferring can lead to higher order thinking skills.  

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, Amanda Mouttaki shares how her family moved from the United States to her husband’s home country, Morocco, in order for her children to become fluent in French and Arabic.  Amanda, a blogger at MarocMama.com, explains the obstacles, the proud moments and the funny anecdotes they have all shared along the way. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I continue the reading comprehension multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies.  This week we focus on how to leverage asking questions about the text being read to enhance and improve your child’s reading comprehension. 

On this episode of the Bilingual Avenue podcast, I interview Dorina Sackman, Florida’s 2014 Teacher of the Year.  Dorina shares with our listeners her own family journey and her advice for bilingual families.  

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I continue the reading comprehension multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies.  This week we focus on how to introduce visualization when reading literature.  

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Nick Jaworski an American blogger, international traveler and education enthusiast living in Chicago with his wife and daughter.  Nick speaks exclusively in Chinese with his 2-year old daughter although he is not a native speaker and is learning along with her! In addition, she’s learning Turkish from her mother, English from the community and Spanish at a weekly language class. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I answer a listener’s question on how to improve his son’s reading comprehension. I describe how making connections can enhance his understanding of text.  This will be the first of a multiple part series discussing reading comprehension strategies. 

On this episode of Bilingual Avenue, I interview Susan Dopke, a speech pathologist specializing in language acquisition, bilingualism and cross-cultural communication. Susanne shares many useful strategies to support language at home and lists specific tips that you can implement right away!

On this episode of the Bilingual Avenue podcast, I describe some of the less commonly known terms that have been used on the podcast including One Parent, One Language; Minority Language at Home; L1 and L2; Minority vs Majority Language.