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A collection of stuff I find looking for things to educate and entertain my 2 yr oldArchive for Bi-lingual
Raising truly bilingual children
Raising a truly bi-lingual child, what is more increasingly known as a bi-cultural child is not an easy process. Especially as we, as in Native English speakers, in countries like The U.S., Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand etc. live in what is fundamentally a mono-lingual society. Now I know some of you will cry foul at that statement alone, but think about it, how many times have you heard, read or ever seen the words “We speak English here”. The fact of the matter is the big English speaking countries have built up a very anti-bi-lingual (if that’s even a word) culture. Not just in attitude towards people speaking a different language but also in their views to acquiring a second language, especially simultaneously in childhood. But around the world there are millions of bi-lingual people living and functioning in bi-lingual cultures without the dreaded ‘language confusion’ that many people fear will result from speaking two (or more) languages to a child as it first develops language in those early years of childhood.
In fact research shows that learning two languages from the beginning helps children’s brains in the conceptual department. By having two different words for the same item they learn to place more importance on the concept of the item itself rather than the word. This helps later in reasoning and logic, wonderfully useful things for many professions and occupations. By learning the differences in the cultures of the language the child is learning as well as just the language (the way most grownups learn) children also learn at a very young age that there are differences based on culture and on personality. This leads to a more open-minded, compassionate and understanding child. Now I think most people would agree that those are very useful traits to possess. But research aside, in our multi-cultural society most of us are looking at raising bi-lingual children because we happened into a cross-cultural relationship.
O.P.O.L seems to be the most popular with linguists, many choosing this style to raise their own children bi-lingually and publishing the ups and downs, dos and don’ts for us all to read. O.P.O.L. stands for One Parent One Language and the title is pretty self explanatory. One parent speaks one language and the other parent speaks a different language. For the parent that speaks the minority language (the language different from the country they live in) it takes a bit of work and discipline. But so far in all of my own reading O.P.O.L. seems to come out on top for actually creating not only a bi-lingual but also bi-cultural child. So this is the process we decided to use in our own home.
One thing research in Australia has shown is that speaking your non-native language is in most cases not really a good idea. And we can see this not just in Australia but in other countries like Japan as well, where parents (using the idea that immersion is the best way to learn a language) speak their non-native language to the exclusion of their native one in an attempt to ‘catch the child up’. However the studies done in Australia have shown that children from non-English speaking backgrounds who parents retained their native language at home, where much better at English than those whose parents used English incorrectly at home. Although the first group was a little slow to pick up their new language, what they heard and learnt and subsequently used was correct English however those in the second group heard both correct and incorrect English and had difficulty learning to use English the right way.
So if neither of you are Native or even Fluent in a second language, it might be best to stick with the other popular style of teaching children language. That is to set a time or place. By that I mean, after school, at home, on the weekends, Friday at 3pm or whatever suits you. During this time or at this place you use your second language and only your second language. And therein lies the difficulty. To teach kids to be bi-lingual, whatever way you choose needs discipline, and mainly from you. When you use the time and/or place method you need to make sure you’re the one who doesn’t slip. If today is a busy day, you can’t just skip it, if there is an important thing that needs to be conveyed to your children that’s beyond your scope of language ability – you can’t just slip back into your native language ‘just for a minute’. It’s the same as everything involving teaching kids, you’ve all heard it before I’m sure, ‘Do as I say, not as I do’.
The basics behind any system of teaching two or more languages to a child are very different to teaching an adult a second language. Firstly and fore mostly the child needs to feel that it’s a natural thing. That it is just another part of life. For O.P.O.L. that would be mummy speaks English and Daddy speaks Japanese (or whatever the case may be), for the time/place method it’s the same idea. At home we speak Spanish, at school I speak English, or we speak Italian on weekends and English during the week (again whatever the case may be). The learning process is the same for any other skill set a child learns, it’s just part of life, it is just language acquisition pure and simple. Learning a second language for an adult is all about translating and remembering grammar, pronunciation and spelling in the beginning. But ask someone who is truly bi-lingual or better yet multi-lingual what language they think in and they will all tell you they don’t think in any one language – they think in concepts. It’s the major difference between people who are good at languages and those who are not. They way we adults learn a language is counterproductive to true fluency. If you really want your child to be a bi-lingual, bi-cultural individual one of the main things you need to remember is, you are not teaching an adult a second language, you are in fact helping you child speak a language, do everything the same as you would for speaking one language. You know, speak that language, read that language, watch TV or movies in that language, listen to music and sing songs in that language, play games in that language.
If you’re a native speaker of the other language, you shouldn’t have any problems doing any of those things, think back to your childhood, what games did you play, songs did you sing etc. The internet can help you if you need a refresher course. If you fluent in the other language you may need a bit more help, especially if you learned the language as an adult the traditional book learning way. As above the internet is a very useful tool, download songs, read children’s books online, or go on forums and ask people for songs and games from that country. If you don’t really speak the language you want your child to learn, don’t despair its just going to be a little bit harder for you, but not impossible. The best thing I recommend in your situation is making a friend who uses that language. But don’t be sneaky, no-one likes to feel used, this can be the perfect opportunity for others too. Try a language exchange, you teach me your language and I’ll teach you mine – it’s done all over the world. You just want to find someone who has kids the same age as yours, make a play date or playgroup out of it. Learning is fun for little kids; don’t forget to keep it that way.
Here are some links you can read more about raising bi-lingual children, ask questions and even find other like minded parents.
Bilingual Options (Australia)
There are also many, many books on the subject with so many differing views on which is the right way to go about raising a bi-lingual child. First and foremost you need to find the approach that will work best for you and your family and then stick with it.
Books on Raising bilingual children
