Epiphany

I've been paying especial attention to Elena's progress in learning English, both because she's at the age where kids really acquire language, and because English is effectively her second language.  (Kids adopted from foreign-language countries frequently have language delays.)  One thing she hasn't really mastered so far is pronouns, which if you consider it are somewhat complicated: the words "me" or "you," for example, refer to completely different people depending on who's doing the talking.  Weird!

In any case, Elena sticks with third-person names in conversation: "Dada help Lena tie shoes," for example.  Teresa and I still use pronouns in conversation, but when we want to make sure she understands something, we'll revert to the third person also: "Lena, stay here" or whatever.  Elena still seems to understand when we tell "you" to do something, but it's also clear we're talking to her at the time through eye contact or gestures.

So she's never actually used a pronoun until just recently. (More after the break.)

One of her new favorite books is the classic A Fly Went By (thanks John!). It's the story of a string of animals running from each other, and like all good children's books features a lot of repetition in the plot. It also includes a lot of pronouns. For example, from the text:

I asked the frog,
I asked him, "Why---?
WHY DO YOU WANT TO GET THAT FLY?"

The frog said, "Me?
I want no fly.
But I must hop,
And this is why . . ."

Since it is a current favorite of Elena's, we'll read it every night.  Sunday, right after we got to the pig-chasing-the-dog part ("That pig!" he said. "Look back and see! SHE likes to bite, and she wants ME!") Elena stopped me, pointed to herself, and said, "me!" then pointed to me and said "you!"  That's the first time either Teresa or I have heard her use a pronoun. She's not quite yet a pronoun expert, though, because even after a number of repetitions, she still has to stop and think about it for a bit.  And she hasn't yet worked a pronoun into a conversation.

Still, seeing that epiphany during book-reading-time is pretty gratifying, because she's clearly learning the words and their actual meaning through the context of the surrounding words, as well as the context of the story.  Because remember (follow along here), Elena's learned that "me," when she says it, refers to her, because she hears me read the story where the dog says "me" to refer to himself.  So she's getting that, even though I'm the one actually saying the words, the dog is the one saying them in the context of the story; AND she's understanding who "me" refers to when the dog "says" it.

Kind of complicated, if you think about it. 

Ain't language grand?