Raising bilingual kids: benefits and techniques
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 Children who have the opportunity to learn a second language are given a world of opportunity. It opens up new opportunities in terms of who they can communicate with, what they can read, and where they can travel with ease. It is a partial cure for closed-mindedness. Those are the obvious benefits.
But learning a foreign language also has broad cognitive benefits. According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language, it:
- is beneficial to the development of problem solving abilities, memory skills, reading abilities, ability to hypothesize in science, and even mathematics*
- correlates with higher academic achievement, including standardized tests and college level academic performance
Overall, there seems to be a correlation between learning a second language and overall intelligence and open mindedness.
Image credits: Plastic Earth by Brooks Elliot and Pop Quiz Math Clock by _ES both on flickr
*I found it interesting that students who take time away from the study of mathematics to learn another language still do better on mathematics tests than the students who were doing more math (source).
What is the best way to help your child learn a second language?
There are many different ways to learn a foreign language and I have had the opportunity to be exposed to a lot of them over the years.
I grew up speaking only English at home, but learned French in a French immersion program in school. I also learned some Spanish and Italian in college, learned a bit of Japanese from friends and on my own, and studied German at university. I spent a few years living in Germany, where I met my husband. My husband grew up in Germany, spoke French and German at home and went to a German school where he took English and French as foreign languages. We speak English (me) and German (my husband) with our children at home and our son is in his third year at a trilingual school where they speak French, English and Spanish (our daughter starts next year). On top of our own experiences, we have many friends here and overseas who have taught their children multiple languages using many different formations and techniques.
In this post, I want to share some of what I have learned and experienced about second language acquisition. I want to explain what usually works and doesn't work and why. I want to encourage you to give your child the opportunity to learn a foreign language even if you don't speak one yourself.
The earlier the better! The younger your child is, the easier it will be and the greater the benefits to the child. What are you waiting for?
If you or your partner does speak a foreign language
If you or your partner speaks a second language, you are at a significant advantage. Whether you are a native speaker or learned the language as a second language yourself, you can use your linguistic abilities to pass the language on to your children. There are a number of different approaches that you can use:
- One parent, one language: With one parent, one language, each of the parents will choose a language and speak that language consistently with the children. If only one of the parents speaks a foreign language, the choice is easy. If both parents do, either one can speak the foreign language but ideally it should be the parent who spends the most time with the children (i.e. speaking Chinese with mom all day long would be more beneficial than speaking Chinese for an hour with dad in the evening). This is a great technique when the parents want to teach the children two different foreign languages (e.g. community language is English, one parent speaks Polish, the other one speaks Spanish).
- One place, one language: With this technique, different languages would be spoken in different places. For example, the family might choose to always speak English at home and always speak Spanish when outside the home. This can be a good technique for expat families living in a foreign country where they might be ostracized for speaking their home language in public. They can safely teach their home language to their children at home, but speak the language that they are expected to speak when out in public. It can also be useful when you are trying to institute the foreign language as the home language to not have multiple languages circulating in the home environment.
- Parents speak foreign language only: If the parents do not speak the community language or if they really want to ensure that their children become fluent in the foreign language, it may be useful to have both parents exclusively speak the foreign language. This happens often in immigrant families where the parents have not mastered the language of their new home. While we opted for one parent, one language, I now wish we had used this technique instead (i.e. both my husband and I speaking German exclusively with the children). They would have still learned English from my mom and in the community, but this may have made them more willing and more comfortable speaking German.
- Mix: Some families mix things up. Each person speaks whatever language they want, whenever they want. Popular opinion used to be that this would be way too confusing for children and they would never sort out their languages. However, more recent research shows that as long as you are not mixing within a sentence, then mixing might not be that bad after all. In reality, this is probably where we have fallen. My husband does end up speaking a lot of English to our children. I try to make up for that by speaking some German to the kids. We also throw in some French and a bit of Spanish here and there for good measure.
Children will have a strong tendency to favour the community language wherever you live. So no matter how much language immersion you give them at home, they may not actively choose to speak the foreign language with you. Don't see this as a failure. It is reality. Even if your child never speaks a word of the other language, if you have spoken it frequently at home, your child will have been exposed to it enough to take away some of the benefits of second language acquisition. That said, there are things you can do to encourage them to speak the foreign language, but I wouldn't advise forcing them to do it.
If you don't speak a second language
If you do not speak a foreign language, that does not mean that all is lost. There are plenty of ways that you can give your child (and yourself!) the opportunity to learn. These ideas can also be used to reinforce language learning in cases where one of the parents does speak a second language, especially if that parent is not the primary caregiver of the child. Not all of these will necessarily be right for all families or all children. You can pick and choose what will work for you, depending on your preferences, finances and school situation.
- Foreign language school: If you are fortunate enough to live in an area where there are schools in different languages (where we live there are French school boards and English school boards), you could consider sending your child to a school with children who speak another mother tongue. Plenty of children enter kindergarten at schools where they do not speak a word of the language their peers speak and they quickly learn the other language.
- Immersion programs: You can choose a school that has a second language immersion program or at least foreign language classes that your child can participate in. The disadvantage with this type of program is usually the lack of access to native speakers. Instead of learning French in a French environment and playing with French speaking children, your child would be learning French in French class with a bunch of other English speaking children. Immersion programs are better than nothing, but certainly not as advantageous as being completely immersed.
- Weekend or evening classes: A lot of immigrant communities that want to preserve their language will have Saturday classes that their children go to. This can range from play groups to more formal learning. Another opportunity would be for you to attend evening classes and then bring home what you learned and share it with your child. Teaching what you have learned to your child will benefit your child and also reinforce your learning.
- Learning with your child: You can choose to learn a language along with your child. This is a great option for home schooling families. I used to be on a message board about raising bilingual children and there was one woman who let her son choose the languages they were going to learn and then they learned them together.This can either be a very big investment or an extremely frugal activity. You can invest in buying DVDs with movies and language lessons, CDs with songs and lessons, books and magazines, dictionaries, and so on. Or you can use a combination of the library and the Internet to build your own materials. Online you can find pronunciation guides, You Tube videos, dictionaries, and much much more. There are even websites where you can hear the sounds animals make in different languages! You can also combine arts and crafts with language learning by doing things like making a language Bingo game. I just discovered a blog called Bilingual for Fun that looks like it may have some good ideas and experience on it.
- Vacations: Try to travel somewhere with your child where the second language is spoken. If you are in the United States, some obvious easy options are Quebec, Canada (to the North) and Mexico (to the South). Try to get out of the touristy areas where people are likely to speak English and find spots where your child will be exposed to more of the native language. Staying at small bed and breakfasts and visiting local playgrounds can be good ways to hear the language being spoken. You can also use the opportunity to pick up some materials (books, DVDs, etc. in the foreign language).
- Nanny or babysitter: If you need to hire someone to take care of your children, consider hiring someone who speaks another language. This will give your children significant exposure to a third language. We know one family where the children learned French and English from their parents and Turkish from the nanny. When the family traveled in Turkey without the nanny, their five year old was the one who communicated for the family at hotels, restaurants, tourist information, etc.
- Play dates, play groups and playgrounds: A great way to reinforce language learning is through play. If you can find native speaking families to have play dates with, find language oriented play groups, or find playgrounds where children speak another language (e.g. the playground in China Town in your city), this is a great opportunity for your children to hear real people speaking the language they are learning at home.
Regardless of the approach or the tools that you take, keep it fun and mix things up. Using a mix of different techniques will keep your child interested and reinforce what has been learned.
Your experience? Your questions?
Have you learned a second language or taught one to your children? What was your experience like? What challenges did you face? What resources or techniques would you suggest?
Are you interested in exposing your children to a second language? What is holding you back? What questions do you have?
Reader Comments (110)
It is very important to be consistent with whatever method one chooses. It doesn't matter so much which method you use, whether it is OPOL always, or OPOL at home but majority language for all in public, or may be just 30 min of minority kanguage a day. Any method is valid as long as the family thinks this method is right for them. The ket point though is to be very consistent in the way you apply the mthod you choose. So if you do OPOL always, it should be always, and you can translate for others. If you don't speak the minority klanguage in public then just don't instead of keep trying and getting frustrated because you feel it doesn't work for you. If you do 30 min a day of mnority klanguage make sure it is every day and always at the same ime/context, say reading books befor going to bed or singing songs in the car.
Two reasons for that:
1) having a pattern to follow helps the parent know when to switch, it gives them a routine and then they will always apply, hence maximing the children's exposure to the language, within the limits of the family contraints of course
2) children love and need routine, with routines they know what to expcet when and it becomes easier for them to grasp the rule and conform, so they'll know when to wear the minority language hat and hopefully will start to switch to that language too.
you might also find this article on how to help children to separate languages interesting: http://www.bilingualforfun.com/2009/05/10/how-parents-can-help-bilingual-children-separate-the-languages/
L
www.bilingualforfun.com
I have been thinking a alot about bilingualism so thanks for the post. My husband and I are both anglophones and we are trying to decide if we should send the kids to French immersion. My concern is based on my own difficulties in French Immersion. I had trouble reading and writing in both languages and didn't read until grade 4. Sometimes I wonder if it would have been better for me to get a foundation in one language before trying to learn a second. I know my kids aren't me and won't have the same challenges but I struggle with wanting to give them the best start. We could always start them in French Immersionand then switch if they are having trouble. I'm not sure what we will do. I think I need to think more about this.
@Capital Mom: I think some kids are early readers and others are late readers. I think in general having multiple languages furthers language development and is likely to help more than it will hurt. But certainly monitor your kids, their progress, the school environment, before making a decision.
Hi,
I am about to have my first child (2 months to go YAY!) and without a shadow of a doubt I want my little button to learn I and DH's language; yoruba (West Africa). Hubby and I live in the US and are both extremely fluent in both Yoruba and English ( reading, speaking, writing....) but my question is this; which teaching method is the best? Should we do OPOL or stick to speaking strictly yoruba in the house, trusting my child will learn english from the outside world? My mom is the going to be helping with the baby while we work and she also is fluent in both languages so I Know she will speak yoruba to the baby also. I know you said if you could go back in time, you would have chosen to speak one language exclusively at home, do you still feel that way?
Thanks!
@Joy:
Yes - I do still feel that way. I think if both parents can speak the non-community language, that may be the way to go. If one of you plans to be a stay at home parent or if your mom will provide the child care when you go back to work, then maybe the parent who works most often could speak English.
[...] The post has generated a lively discussion on the topic in the comments section. Check it out here. [...]
Thank you!!! My husband and I are trying to teach our kids Cantonese...and we generally do the mixed approach. He is from Hong Kong, and I am from...Idaho, but also speak Cantonese. It can feel so frustrating sometimes. I try to speak Chinese as much as I can...but it's such slow going. *sigh* Interestingly, my daughter has no problem differentiating between Chinese and English, but she has never been able to switch between the two languages, verbally. She answers all questions (Chinese and English) in...English.
[...] got to these fun blogs via the wonderful blog entry on Raising Bilingual Kids at Phdinparenting.com which is super worth reading! Check it [...]
We're here in Montreal, and took out Mulan at the public library and it had English French Mandarin and Spanish! Unfortunately the Mulan II we just got out just has English, French and Spanish... we're doing English French and Mandarin... but it seems quite commn for mainstream Disney DVDs to have several language options on the same dvd, esp Spanish
I don't have a native speaker of Mandarin in my home so I can't do the language insistance that Carol's husband does. But I got through a "I don't want Chinese" hump with my son by having only dvd choices in mandarin (he's never turned down Dora yet!) and also getting more resources in English that displayed Chinese as desirable: a Families of the World dvd where he suddenly wanted to be like the Chinese boy in the film, a learning-chinese dvd "Walker and PingPing" where my son suddenly was all proud that he knew more than the anglophone boy in the video, The Pet Dragon book that is in English but presents Chinese characters... once he saw Chinese being valued, and esp being valued by English speaking protagonists, he has replaced his reluctance with pride and now declares "I knowing the Chinese, mommy!" which makes it so much easier now to read Chinese books to him, play chinese games and speak to him in chinese. Perhaps exposing kids who are rejecting Spanish to kids who WANT to learn Spanish would also evoke their pride in knowing it already. The mom who said she is babysitting and English kid who wants to learn Spanish and gets her older daughter to help teach the baby is a great example!
We are here in Quebec, and my son, with whom I speak mostly English at home, is in French daycare two days a week and will start French preschool in September 2010. I was concerned about his learning to read in what is effectively his third language: French (he was adopted from China at nearly 2 yrs old). So I am doing Readingeggs.com with him now that he is four years old, to get him started with the concept of reading in his dominant language before throwing him into learning to read in French immersion (and it really will be immersion since most of the kids here are unilingual anglophones, and the teachers too!) I am sorry that the immersion seems to have held back your reading progress, and I am glad, hearing your difficulties, that I decided to get a head start on the concept of reading with my son in English, rather than having him be learning French AND phonics at the same time in school.
Hi Aunt LoLo!
That is interesting... my son has insisted for two years to answer all questions (in Chinese, English or French) in English... he can answer in English for an hour or two with the other person speaking French... so he understands it all. But in the past two or three weeks he has suddenly started responding "oui" when asked a yes or no question in French, and suddenly started spontaneously asking people on the street questions in French: "comment appelle?" pointing to their dog, and "habitez où?" wondering where they live. Of course we have the additional help of French being the majority language on the streets (which for the past two years plus didn't inspire him to speak French though)... which you don't have in Cantonese.
I would say to KEEP IT UP with the Cantonese, as I am sure she is becoming a passive bilingual... and I bet that if put in an environment where she HAD to speak Cantonese, ie visiting Hong Kong, or staying with a unilingual Cantonese family, she would suddenly (or at least over a couple of weeks) come out with Cantonese words. Personally, when I moved to Quebec, I was reading whole novels in French for three years or more before I could actually participate in a conversation by speaking French: it is one thing to take in a language (receptive language skills) and to be able to produce it (expressive language skills)... I remember that it took me so long to find the words I wanted to say, to form a sentence with proper grammar, and to make my mouth pronounce with different movements, that the topic of conversation had always passed before I could get out a word! So, it does take more time to speak than to listen I think. Even babies normally get to listen to their native language and babble around with their mouths for a year before managing to form intelligible words! :D Don't give up!! Even if she only picks up Cantonese as an adult (I did this with my grandmother's Swedish), she will be miles ahead!
I'm a Finn married to American and we're planning a move to the USA from Finland. We have a 1-year-old son that we've been doing OPOL with. He understands now a little Finnish and little less English. My husband speaks Finnish too. Finnish is such a minor language in the world (finding material would be hard later on, with only about 5 million speakers). We have decided to speak only Finnish at home when we move even though here we've been talking mostly in English around each other. But, would it be too confusing if my husband would change and start talking his rather full-of-grammar-mistakes Finnish to our child + future children in order for him/them to just get to hear Finnish more? Would it be better just to stick what we've been doing now? I'm worried my kid(s) won't get enough variety of Finnish (the language is very colourful and full of variety and dialects...). Also, if I want them to learn to write and read Finnish, should I just talk to them in formal written language from the beginning or speak to make it easier or my mother dialect and teach them later on to write and read and the formal? Will they have energy for that too after school work? I'd be interested to hear if anyone has experience on teaching writing and reading to their bilingual children. When did you start, how do you do it, how often... Also, do I have to give up on the idea they could understand and learn the other dialects?
Hmm, just to add a little to mandi's question.... It is so easy to find story books in Spanish or French....what about languages that are not as "famous" like mandi's finnish or my own language Yoruba... how do you expand a child's world to include books and arts when they aren't available in the western world?
Joy, that is what Google is for! Try "yoruba language" and "children's book"... or better yet if you can type in your own language. I got this: http://www.multilingualbooks.com/bilingual-all.html A lot of books available at Language Lizard are available in wide range of languages. http://www.languagelizard.com/ for all languages. http://www.languagelizard.com/Yoruba_s/2746.htm for Yoruba. Unfortunately I don't see Finnish at language lizard, but if you put "finnish language" "children's books" into google, you do get a selection. And once again, putting "children's books" into google IN finnish, will give more nontranslated results. Sure it won't be inexpensive, but getting Simplified Chinese children's books here in Montreal isn't inexpensive either. Best of luck! Google is your best friend! And Ebay...
In addition to what wenjonggal said, making your own books can be fun too! That way it is a craft and language learning all at once. Or make a Bingo Game or flash cards or other language learning/play tools.
WOW!! THANKS SOOOO MUCH!! I like Language Lizard but the idea of making my own books just sparked something creative in me. I think i will try that but also get a few books from language lizard for inspiration. Thanks to you too wenjonggal; I guess this truly is a labor of love.
Oh, that is a great idea! Thank you so much! I actually did books myself when I was a kid and still like doing it! Still, I'd like them to hear Finnish as well, but more importantly, hear Finnish from different resorts, to get diversity... My Finnish is already getting worse...
So I finally had my bundle of joy... yay!! LOL.
As I look around at my nephews and nieces in America, children my son will end up playing with. I notice one thing... my son will be the only one who speaks Yoruba ( my language)... as I realize this, I begin to wonder if it is selfish of me to want to have my son learn another language when basically for the first few yrs, when he only speaks the minority language, he will not have a playmate who speaks the same. The only ones he will have to speak it with are older people ( mom, dad, grandma etc) and the only time he will be able to go all out with kids his age is when we go visit his paternal family in Nigeria but this will be about once every 2 yrs or so...
Am I getting carried away?
Joy:
Congratulations!
With regards to language, I wouldn't worry about it at all. He will pick up the language easily from his playmates, especially if he is around other kids and families a lot. He will automatically prefer the community language, so you should use every opportunity you have to teach him your language.
It isn't selfish at all--you are giving him a connection to his cultural heritage and a big potential brain boost! As Annie says, he will learn the dominant language. And babies don't speak to each other much anyway--they mostly just play side by side. By the time he is old enough to converse with other children, he will be fluent in the dominant language, too.
And maybe you can also find other Yoruba-speakers in your area? Try Meetup.com or other places that let you set up local groups or maybe posters at a local library or house of worship or cultural center.
Thank you Ladies! I feel so much better. I was worried I might isolate my baby.
Ugggh... I am back again. LOL
I've met my first stumbling block...
As I spend time with my 5 wk old, I have realized a short coming with my wish to only speak Yoruba to him. In my language there are no words or expressions of sentiment. To say "kiss" is basically saying "Eat ur lips", "hug" is "pull you to myself" and because most words of sentiment are literal translations, they lose the love and cuddly feelings they are supposed to express and with that they lose their meaning.
My Husband says I should try showing sentiment in english but every thing else in yoruba. For example...xxxxxxxxxxxxxx kiss mommy xxxxxxxx or xxxxxxxxx ur my honeybun xxxxxxxx ( X-yoruba)
What do you think?
@ Joy - I've been following this thread for weeks (I think my comment is buried somewhere up there) but I wanted to chime in on this. I'm raising my two kids with Cantonese and English. I am a native English speaker, but am fluent in Cantonese as well. (My husband is a native of Hong Kong.) When my first was young, I ran into the same problem you did. And then I realized, I wasn't "thinking" like a Hong Kong mama. I needed to figure out how mothers DID express sentiments in their language, instead of just translating my own common phrases into Chinese. Does that make sense? For example, in English it's really common to say 'I love you!' and in Chinese...not so much. You would instead show love with hugs or kisses, and verbal praise.
Just something to think about. It sure helped me!!
[...] written before about raising bilingual kids. Our children are learning English and German at home and English, French and Spanish at school. [...]
Hey do you mind if I ask where you live? We are in Nes Ziona and my daughter (3) only has one other English-speaker in her class...
My husband is Israeli and my kids are born here - it's amazing how fast they pick up language at gan.
I just discovered this post through your facebook page. Excellent information. I am English Canadian and my husband is French. We are currently living in Madagascar. We use the one-parent-one-language method with out kids.
I think you are absolutely right that one parent one language works best when the parents are in fact exposing their children to two minority languages. It seems to work less well when one parent is speaking the majority language of the community. I find that often in the latter circumstance, the child gets perfect comprehension of the minority parent's language, but can't speak it.
I find one parent one place less useful, as it really limits the vocabulary of the children to the home. Unless the child get LOTS of exposure to books in the foreign language, their knowledge of the language tends to be limited to "it's time for supper", "have your brushed your teeth?", "hurry! you're going to be late for school," etc.
We are a multilingual family, too. I'm American, DH is Italian, and we live in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Until this past summer, we consistently spoke only our mother tongue with our 3 year old son. Our son often complained if he heard me speaking Italian (to DH or to MIL, etc) - he'd tell me not to talk like that. I think he associated me with only High German and English. He was picking up bits of German (from us) and the local dialect (from his friends), and although he could follow instructions and comprehend questions, he always chose to answer in Italian.
This fall, he started in 2 different morning Spielgruppen - one in a Waldorf school, and one Waldspielgruppe, led by a Waldorf instructor and a naturalist. His German skills have really taken off in just under 2 months.
Next up for us at home is French. DH and I just started speaking French at dinner yesterday, it will be the first time we limit a language to such a small portion of the day, so I'm not sure how quickly he pick it up. We hope to give him a good base in French before he is required to take it in school in a few years.
Have you noticed if your children prefer one language over another in certain situations? Or in general? What language do your children speak with each other?
The Globetrotter Parent:
Yes, ensuring that language isn't limited in a one place, one language situation is important. But I think that could be true in one parent one language too, in that the child only learns the vocabulary of the things that parent tends to talk about. Your comment and my reflection on it reminded me of a Chinese friend who moved to Japan. He was in either an English or Chinese speaking workplace (so didn't speak Japanese at work), but learned Japanese from his Japanese girlfriend. Turns out he learned how to speak Japanese "like a girl", since I guess there are differences in the way the language is spoken by males versus females, and when he eventually did try out his Japanese with some male colleagues or friends, they found it quite amusing.
Hello! Thank you for posting this interesting article! I really liked it and wanted to thank you for posting it! Tom
Thank you for this post! I grew up in Belgium speaking Dutch (and learning French, Spanish and English), and am now living in Canada (English-speaking). My husband only speaks English.
I really want our little girl, who's now almost three months old, to be able to speak other languages, in particular Dutch, since part of my family doesn't speak English. While my husband says he is supportive of our daughter learning Dutch, he doesn't really like it when I do speak Dutch with her, because he has no idea what I'm saying. So I've been speaking Dutch to her only when he is not around. I was a bit worried that that would be confusing to her, so I'm very glad to hear that what I've been doing should work, too.
In fact, I might just start throwing in some French and Spanish too!
By reading your article i can conclude with 1 thing that life and time just goes on whatever it may happen, so you also have to cope with it. I am amazed with your article and have bookmarked your site, i would like to see some more.
Great read and interesting comments. I came over here to read because of www.SpanglishBaby.com It's a great site for those of us raising bilingual or trilingual children.
My children are bilingual and we use the one language one parent (OPOL) method. They are amazing!
I encourage all of you to continue your polyglot adventure!
Miet,
Go read my OPOL story on www.SpanglishBaby.com And there are some other great stories that will encourgae you.
Hi Ladies....
Well I have been raising my11 son in a mostly "native tongue" environment. My sister who babysits him 5 days a week and my mom who chips in as well tries to speak mainly our native yoruba to him. Hubby and I do too. Unfortunately English sometimes slips out (about 30% of the conversation) but i am REALLY trying to keep it at a minimum. So far it seems to be working. He knows 3 words...
"Kai"- Stop/don't do it...
"Maabo"- Come here/follow me
and I am presently teaching him "Gba"- take this.
It's a little rough because I at times feel frustrated at the pace we are at; but whats more frustrating is me constantly reminding hubby to use yoruba and not english when speaking to him.
Either way, this is a testimony that you can teach a baby a foreign language and I am just going to keep on truckin'...lol
The article was helpful but short. I wish you had written more on the topic. Thanx still.
Catalina, this looks like my life as a kid! My father is Chilean and my mother Colombian and my parents spoke only spanish to us. But my sister and I always spoke to each other in french, since it is the language spoken here in Quebec. With english classes in school and television, I ended speaking english not so badly so I can say I am trilingual.
I wanted to share this with my kids but it is not as easy as it first seem. The fact that my husband and I speak french to each other and that the kids respond always in french makes it difficult for me to keep talking to them in spanish. And I also noticed that I do not always have the vocabulary necessary or I am not sure about the grammar, etc.
So what I really wish to do in the near future is to travel with them in Latin-America to give them an immersion and the will to learn. I sense now their openness.
So keep up the good work with your kids!
Hey -- we're a bilingual household now, and our strategy has been the "mixed" one, combined with sending our daughter to a french language school in the public board (I am an "ayant droit" ["having rights"] and can enroll my daughter in francophone education because I had an exclusively francophone education).
At home: my husband speaks no French at all, so I don't really like to speak it around him, unless my daughter initiates, because it feels rude. However, my daughter and I switch between English and French pretty easily now but I never push French on her when she doesn't want it. I don't want French to be a punishment or a chore. She watches a little French tv. We have several picture books in French and she can have them read to here whenever she wants (it's a treat!). It feels relaxed and easy, mostly.
At school: it's French all day, all the time there. Kids are rewarded for speaking French to each other as well as the teacher. There are a lot more anglophone families (no parent speaks French) than there historically were, so this can be a challenge sometimes, but the teachers are francophone.
In public: because we're upper-middle-class white people, we feel pretty free to speak our "non-English" to each other in public, particularly when we want to have Secret Mommy Daughter Talk, which my girl finds really fun.
When she started school, aged 4, she spoke very little French. By December of that year, she was nearly perfectly fluent, making the same kinds of mistakes in her second language as her first (non-standard verbs give trouble, of course!).
It's a great success for us, and I'm so glad I can share my French with my girl.
My daughter very often does the same with her French: no matter what language you ask her a question in, she answers in English. However, it's always the right answer, and she deciphers each language at the same speed, so I think that indicates receptive language competence, right? My kid is stubborn and fast-talking and pretty verbally dextrous in English, and when she started school she went 2 months without saying ANYTHING in ANY LANGUAGE at school, because she didn't want to until she could be good at it. Hilarious.
Oh man, this is a topic of great angst in our house right now. I grew up in a French language country and really want to pass that on. But despite living in Ottawa I have little support! The library offered a "bilingual" program where the French content was quite literally one round of Frere Jacques. I complained and they tried to do better (librarian quite obviously not very bilingual though), but this year they aren't advertising it as bilingual..,
Tried a whole bunch of different ideas for French language classes (music, art, playgroups etc). So far everything has been cancelled (lack of demand apparently) or is in Carlsbad springs. There is a gymnastics class but it features mini trampoline which is not recommended for kids under the age of six by Health Canada. So not terribly keen
Wow, what a great post! I'm hoping to expose my son to other languages - French to start with (since that's easy to do here in Canada) but ideally most of the romance and germanic languages as well as at least one Asian dialect (which one will depend on opportunity!). My big challenge is that I am definitely NOT bilingual myself, and I am a single parent. I don't have television, and, while reading IS a vital part of our daily routine, I can't read in French. I'm hoping to get my son into a French daycare or preschool soon (he's 28 months old at the moment).
We have a television but I have a "no screen time under 2" rule for myself.
Playing children's songs is a great way to expose your child to native accents and you'll find that it is fairly easy for you to sing along (just think of how American the Beatles sounded when they sang).
Books on tape may be another solution for you!
Good luck!
We are a bilingual family, I speak Spanish and my husband english. I am from Mexico and he is from South Africa where we live. Since our son Leonardo was born he had the idea of getting a Chiness nanny so he could learn Mandarin. A year later looks like we found someone and we are very exited that our boy can learn 3 languages. I have to be honest, I always thought that the idea was a bit too crazy but after reading these post I feel that we are doing the right thing. Elsa from South Africa
[...] by phdinparenting on December 27, 2011 · 0 comments var addthis_product = 'wpp-262'; var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true,"data_ga_property":"UA-7095988-1","data_ga_social":true,"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_language":"en","ui_508_compliant":true};if (typeof(addthis_share) == "undefined"){ addthis_share = {"templates":{"twitter":"'check out {{title}}{{url}} (via @phdinparenting)'"}};} Late, but better than never. Happy Holidays to all of my blog readers! I wish you and your families all the best for whichever holidays and traditions you are celebrating this winter. Our family celebrates a secular Christmas. This year we were treated to several different Christmas concerts and were treated to songs, like the ones my son is singing in this video, in four different languages (raising multilingual kids is fun). [...]
Hello ladies!!!
Wow time sure does fly… I've been following this discussion since my baby was born and he's now 2 yrs old. Time for a little update and a little advice.
So my son is 2 yrs n 3 months and basically my husband and I kept him at home solely till he was two ensuring that we only spoke the minority language of yoruba to him. At 2, we decided to enroll him in daycare more for interaction with his peers. At 2 I was confident he had a grasp on basic commands "don't touch", "come here", "take this" "don't make me get up (..lol)" etc. Now while I know for a FACT that he understands basic yoruba commands, what really gets me is that he is not speaking it back to me yet!! I mean he'll have hours of baby talk conversation and I know what he wants from him dragging me and stuff but he's yet to speak yoruba back to me in more than 3-4 words. i know that bilingual kids sometimes show a delay which quickly disappears with age but I just wish…*sigh*
I have asked bilingual mom's i meet in different places for advice and they all say they same thing…"Just keep on speaking your language to him…don't give up…he'll surprise you" but it gets hard sometimes. What fries my brain the most is my nephew who is 4 months younger than my son is saying more words than my son although he speaks only english.
Any tips or words of encouragement is much appreciated !!
DON'T. GIVE. UP. I know it's really, really REALLY hard. We are raising our two kids (5 and 3) to be bi-lingual (English and Cantonese). Unfortunately, I am a white girl, and a native English speaker (Cantonese was learned much later in life, although I am fluent), and parenting comes out in English more often than not. (I am a SAHM.) That said, about two months after my oldest girl turned 5...she figured out how to create sentences in Chinese. Out of the blue. The grammar suddenly clicked, and she could take all the hodge podge nouns she had been learning all her life, and all the verbs, and put them into working sentences. IT TOOK 5 YEARS!! (Also? Her language skills in general came later than her peers. Even though she knew 20 words when all of her other little friends knew 20 words, half of them were English and half were Chinese, so it didn't do very many people much good. ;-)) If you are raising a kid to be bi-lingual, just assume that the knowledge IS getting in there, and it will come back when the kid is confident enough to try it! Good luck!!!!
Not all children speak at the same pace! Many children are late talkers but they end up being completely normally developing (or even advanced)! I spoke late and I have two Ivy League degrees ;)
Some kids are just interested in other things. Some kids are perfectionists and won't speak until they can speak perfectly (my daughter did this...waited, then in a few weeks was speaking in complete sentences).
And, yes, bilingualism can produce an initial perception of delay...but they not only catch up but surpass their peers.
Keep at it!
Also, don't worry if a child does not respond in the target language...you can't force a child to speak in a language but what you are doing is laying the phonetic and comprehension groundwork. If you can create a "need" to respond...like social situations in which it would be advantageous to speak the target language...especially when the child is more like 3+ and would be more ready for socializing, that might help!
Aunty Lolo, Candace…
Thanks for your wise words of encouragement!!! I wrote that 2 days ago and in those 2 days, my son learned 3 word. He was done eating his snack and brought his plate to me and said "Gba" which is yoruba for "Take this"… I almost cried. Then later he went on to say "thank you" and "No" in English. So 1 yoruba word and 2 english words in a matter of 2 days. LOl… I'll take it! it just reinforced your words that he might not be speaking them, but he understands. For example, in yoruba I can tell him to take of his shoes and and socks and he gets it without any problems. I guess I gave to just hang in there and keep keeping on…. thanks again ladies.
Hooray!! Kids seem to know when we need some encouragement, don't they?! Keep on going, Mama. Good job!!
Ok… I really need a "bilingual loving moms” group hug….*SIGH*
I had my first parent- teacher conference this week. My 27mth son has been going to this great elite daycare center and its been great so far. They love him and he loves them. Well during this conference, it was me, my hubby, my son’s teacher and the proprietress. They all raved about how adjusted, brilliant, funny, easy going blah blah blah my son was and how much they loved him… I had been sitting with a smile plastered on my face but internally, I was waiting for the huge BUT I knew was coming… well it came and it came BIG!
Basically, they said they were concerned that my son wasn't much english words. They are aware that I am raising him bilingual and suggest that although its “ok” now, they would not feel comfortable advancing him to pre K in a yr if he can’t socialize and interact with his classmates in English. So if my son doesn't start speaking english soon, they are "firmly advising" me to stop speaking Yoruba to him. Ladies, it broke my heart and now, 3 days later.. my heart is still breaking because my mother and my husband agrees.
This is the deal with my son…he understands EVERY SINGLE WORD I SPEAK TO HIM in yoruba and a handul of words in english thanks to his daycare. The only thing is, he speaks when he wants to. He can go a whole with with only gibberish and then out of the blue, say 2 words the next week . I guess its my fault because he never had a “reason” to speak. He is my only child and I kept him at home for 2 yrs, even before he even wanted something, I was already rushing to get it for him. I spoke to his pediatrician and she says he is fine but if by october ( he’ll be 2.5 yrs then), he’s still not speaking on command, we should cover our bases and do the speech and hearing thing although she knows its a “waste of time” cuz he clearly understands.
My son might not say thank you when you hand him an apple, but out of the blue, he’ll run to you and hand it back to me saying “here, thank you” in a mixture english and yoruba. I am frustrated, scared and feel alone… I want my son to have the opportunity to be bilingual but I feel I’m all by myself in this fight.
I finally told my husband that we should try the OPOL technique…. I’ll keep speaking yoruba and my husband can now start speaking english….I don’t know if this will help but I need him to speak on command