Customer Reviews

Carmen Learns English

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"Carmen Learns English" is a partly bilingual children's picture book about a girl who adjusts successfully to attending English-speaking school from her Spanish background. Carmen is encouraged by her new teacher, Senora Coski's terrible sounding attempts to speak Spanish to her because she figures her teacher will not laugh at her first stumbling attempts to learn and speak English. Gradually Carmen learns many new English words and expressions, even jump rope rhymes. when Carmen recites her numbers in Spanish and is corrected by a peer, Senora Coski encourages the whole class to learn the Spanish counting words, while Carmen learns the English number words. Some interactions with other students are not positive or fun, but Carmen learns to speak up for herself very well in even these situations. Carmen remembers all the things she has learned as she begins helping her sister Lupita prepare for beginning school next fall. She wants her sister to learn to speak English just as well as she can. "Carmen Learns English" has a helpful Spanish-English glossary at the end to illuminate the embedded Spanish expressions used in context in the story. "Carmen Learns English" is suitable for children ages 5 and up, and can be an excellent tool to aid adjustment to new English speakers.