Language, Learning, and Culture

additional language, language exchange, language learning

Being a good conversation partner is about more than just listening and responding - it's about making choices based on a range of important factors.

collaboration, consulting

Esperanza Education 2020

January 09, 2020

by Nicki Benson

It's a new year and a new decade! Here's a recap of 2019, including some of our favourite posts, and some of our plans for 2020.

child development, language learning, language play

Parentese and Baby Talk

November 21, 2019

by Kathryn Stewart

Parentese and Infant Led Communication Adults that spend time with young children will notice a difference in the way that they talk to other adults and the way that they talk to babies. Adults draw out and exaggerate words, their pitch is higher and speech is slower and emphasized. W

Respect and Reconciliation: A New Standard for BC Teachers

October 01, 2019

Canada, indigenous, public education

Recognizing First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada On June 19th, 2019, a new professional standard came into effect for K-12 public school teachers in British Columbia. This change may have been off the radar for many, but it impacts 72,000 teachers and hundreds of thousands of stud

bilingual children, home learning, niños bilingües

My Bilingual Baby’s English: 27 Months

August 13, 2019

by Nicki Benson

Linguistic Leaps Since my last post, my daughter’s language has taken a huge leap. I don’t plan to provide quarterly updates on her language development, but so much has changed in the last 3 months that I felt compelled to share again. Almost everything I wrote about the

Infant Sign Language

June 20, 2019

by Kathryn Stewart

communication, infant, sign language

How Small Children Communicate: A few weeks ago I spent time with a friend’s 15 month old daughter. She has learned some baby sign language recently, specifically the sign for “done”. What this has translated to is, when she is put into her high chair (and she doesn&

Azerbaijani vs. Turkish

May 16, 2019

communication, self-directed learning, travel

New country, new language I crossed in the border into the Autonomous Province of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan with curiosity. How much would my intermediate level of Turkish help me to read, understand, and communicate? Azerbaijani, also known as Azeri, and Turkish are from the same family

bilingual children, home learning, niños bilingües

My Bilingual Baby’s Spanish: 2 Years Old

April 10, 2019

by Nicki Benson

The Linguistic Quirks of a Spanish-Speaking Toddler The last time I wrote about raising my baby in my second language, Spanish, she was only 2 months old. I can’t believe that in just a few weeks she will be 2 YEARS old!! By age 1 she had many one-syllable words, and by 15 month

historical thinking, museums, truth and reconciliation

Historical Thinking and Reconciliation

March 18, 2019

by Kathryn Stewart

Historical Thinking: Last month I attended the Historical Thinking Winter Institute at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. The institute was designed for history / social studies educators and museum curators to look at historical thinking and how we teach about the past. The Royal BC Mu

Where are the language memoirs?

February 11, 2019

living abroad, reading, writing

1 Comment

A life-changing experience Learning a new language changes you. Your brain shifts as you begin to think and perceive in a new way. Research shows that people even express personality differently. With this in mind, I wonder why language memoirs are not more popular. After all, many pe