Why cases are especially difficult for bilingual children

Why cases don't come by themselves

In a Russian-speaking child in Russia, cases are constantly heard around: at school, on the court, in the store, in books, cartoons and conversations. Bilinguals abroad hear Russian much less, so it has fewer natural repetitions.

If the primary language of school is English, your child gets used to a different logic: word order is often more important than graduation. In Russian, the meaning changes through the endings, and this must be felt separately.

What typical mistakes look like

Your child may leave the word in the initial form: “no pencil”, “go to my mother”, “playing with my sister”. Sometimes it uses one favorite ending almost everywhere or copies the structure of an English sentence.

It is important to understand that a mistake in the case does not mean that your child does not know the word. He may know the word “dog” but not yet be able to change it in the right situation.

Why tables don't always help

The case table is useful later, when your child already has a language base. But if your child does not feel the phrase by ear, the table turns into a heavy scheme that is difficult to apply in speech.

It is better to start with live speech models: no one? no cat, no ball, no brother. Then your child hears and uses one structure many times, and only after that it is easier to understand the rule.

How to gently train cases

Work games with objects, pictures and short phrases: who do we give? with whom do we play? without what can not? It is important that your child responds not with one word, but with a small phrase.

When cases are trained in speech, reading and writing at the same time, your child gradually begins not to remember the ending every time, but to feel how the phrase sounds in Russian. Near cases, there's almost always another topic. bilingual.