Petit Sounds

Petit Sounds
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A journey into bilingual parenting, how language grows inside our babies, and how kids can grow up learning one, two, or many languages. Hosted by parents Elaine and Héctor, a biology teacher and a language teacher respectively, Petit Sounds is an informative show for parents and linguistics enthusiasts, sprinkled with music and humour.

Episodes

  1. 07/20/2022

    Chapter Nine: Trilingualism at home

    Héctor and Elaine became parents just a few months after COVID lockdowns were introduced, which brought about some challenges in their one-parent one-language plans. As remote working brought English into more non-native speakers’ homes, Elaine and Héctor were well-equipped tor trilingual child-raising. But their guest for this episode, Ilaria Zambotti, has taken a different approach. Links Trilingualism in Family, School and Community

  2. 04/07/2022

    Chapter Eight: Music and Language

    Around 90% of the world’s languages are tonal, meaning that unlike English, Spanish, or German, tone patterns are used to distinguish words and inflections. Speakers of tonal languages like Mandarin are more likely to develop perfect pitch, meaning they can tell what note is being played, without needing to hear another for reference. In this episode, Héctor and Elaine explore music, tone, and its relationship to language learning. Links Learning the "Special Note": Evidence for a Critical Period for Absolute Pitch Acquisition Critical period hypothesis Scotch Snaps in Hip Hop, by Adam Neely Music, Language, and the Brain, by Aniruddh D Patel A Generative Theory of Tonal Music, by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff The Potential Role of Music in Second Language Learning, by Ieva Zeromskaite

  3. 03/01/2022

    Chapter Seven: How to help bilingual and multilingual children in their language journey

    In this episode, Héctor and Elaine explore some of the questions you might want to consider when raising a child in a bilingual household: Do you speak your partner’s language? If not, are you willing to learn? Do you live near other native speakers of your heritage language? If you do, you can organise playdates to help with the language learning process. And if you aren’t so lucky, technology can help bridge the gap. A call with a relative can give them more exposure. Elaine and Héctor also discuss the different opportunities for language learning that present themselves all the way through your child’s young life.

  4. 02/01/2022

    Chapter Six: How babies and children learn words

    In this episode, Héctor and Elaine explore nouns, how babies learn to identify them before being able to pronounce them, then eventually form the words themselves. They examine the categories of words babies are able to understand at key development stages, and how those categories start off fuzzy – with “mama” meaning simply “woman” – and become clearer over time. Also, Héctor shares his approach to helping children with their phonemic awareness. Links Child Language: Acquisition and Development, by Matthew Saxton Priming overgeneralizations in two- and four-year-old children

  5. 01/01/2022

    Chapter Five: The good, the bad and the false of bilingualism

    In this episode, Héctor and Elaine explore the myths, advantages, and potential disadvantages around being bilingual or multilingual. They are joined by applied linguist Friederike Sell, an expert in language learning and multilingualism. As a non-native English speaker, Héctor is able to use his native Spanish language skills to decode some of the morphemes within English speech, and find meaning behind words that native English speakers might not know. Links The Cambridge Handbook of Child Language How Language Shapes the Way We Think, a TED talk by Lera Borodotsky Benjamin Whorf The Language Hoax: Why the World Looks the Same in Any Language, by John McWhorter Change of Language, Change of Personality? by Francois Grosjean

  6. 12/01/2021

    Chapter Four: On syntax and how children put words together

    It might not take long for your baby to go from speaking their first words to combining them, but the way they do so is more exploratory than you might think. In this fourth episode, Elaine and Héctor take a look at syntax: verbs, nouns, adjectives, and adverbs. Humans aren't unique in identifying speech sounds. We all know that parrots can replicate speech, but dogs have been known to identify objects by name, cats can recognise their owner's voice, and even African elephants have been able to identify the sounds of speech. Links A dynamic systems approach to babbling and words Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices

  7. 11/01/2021

    Chapter Three: Language milestones and first words

    In their previous episode, Elaine and Hector discussed language during pregnancy. Now they look at how babies understand and begin to form syllables into words, and gradually into sentences. But what is a word? How do we know where a word starts or finishes? How do we learn to conjugate a verb? And how do bilingual and multilingual children develop their respective vocabularies? Links Willard Van Orman Quine Jean Berko Gleason Matthew Saxton

  8. 09/30/2021

    Chapter Two: Language during pregnancy

    Elaine and Hector take questions from the listeners about second-language adoption and raising a child in a language that is not your mother tongue. They uncover the surprising sounds your baby can hear from their earliest days, and explore the differences between English, Spanish and German speech sounds, other vocal sounds across languages, and the problem that co-articulation (how words run together) presents to smart speakers and other devices with speech recognition. Links Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition "The-Cat-In-The-Hat" studies and other work by Tony deCasper

  9. 08/31/2021

    Chapter One: The Language Café

    Meet Elaine. She was born in the Dominican Republic, speaks German, but wanted to practise Spanish. On a trip to Mexico in 2015, her brother recommended a language café where people meet to exchange languages. There she ran into Hector, a language teacher from Mexico who spoke Spanish but wanted to practise German. The rest was up to fate, although it didn't give them an easy ride. In this first chapter of Petit Sounds, you'll learn how these two language lovers went from a chance encounter to raising a child in a bilingual household.

  10. 07/07/2021

    Introducing Petit Sounds, the multilingual parenting podcast

    Hallo, Hola, Hello! Welcome to Petit Sounds, a podcast about multilingual parenting, with your hosts Elaine and Héctor. We created this podcast specially for you who, like us, is in a couple with someone that speaks another language and who wants to create the best environment for your kid to learn languages, or you want to understand better how babies can learn one, two or many languages. Tag along and get ready for all the stories about how a half-German, half-Dominican biology teacher met and married a Mexican language teacher, how that Mexican came to learn German, how we’ve been raising our kid bilingually in German and Spanish, and how lockdowns forced English into our house. All together with a twist of biology and linguistics. Sweet, sweet linguistics. So if you want to learn more about how language grows inside your baby and how you can foster multilingualism at home, follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast fix from. You can also follow @petitsounds on Twitter and Instagram, and you can also get more information about us on our website.

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About

A journey into bilingual parenting, how language grows inside our babies, and how kids can grow up learning one, two, or many languages. Hosted by parents Elaine and Héctor, a biology teacher and a language teacher respectively, Petit Sounds is an informative show for parents and linguistics enthusiasts, sprinkled with music and humour.

Information

  • Creator
    Petit Sounds
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2022
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Petit Sounds
  • Show Website
    Petit Sounds