Learning more about bilingual children

These are some web sites where you can find more information:

 Sites about bilingualism:

 Bilingual Parenting in a foreign language For parents interested in raising their children in a foreign language (non-native language to both parents).

Bilingual upbringing of children in the home The topic of this website is not just about raising children bilingually, but focuses on bilingual parenting in a foreign language, i.e. parents who are not native speakers.  

Perents helping parents:

Bilingual families connect where you can find tips and advice from other parents who are raising bilingual children.  

 Bilingual families Perth this web network connects around 400 families and individuals from more than 40 language backgrounds

Songs and games:

Circletime kids  a free multicultural World Library of bilingual children's resources.

Juegos y Canciones para Niños. Spanish games and songs for children. Most of the songs included come from a CD called Naranja Dulce: Juegos Infantiles Compañia Infantil de Televicentro de Armando Torres. The CD is published by BMG in Mexico.

A Real Story: Bilingual family.

I made an interview to two friends whose daughter is bilingual in Spanish and English. The husband is from England and the mother is from Spain and both are fluently in English and Spanish,the daughter, Natalia, has 7 years old and she has been educated in English and Spanish languages. Now they spoke English in the house and she learns and uses Spanish in the school.

When she born they planned speak to her in both languages, one parent one language, her first words were a mixture between English and Spanish and everything seemed to work well the first years.

When she was 2 years old she became to spend a lot of time with a English speaker babysitter and her English level was higher than the Spanish.  They were a little concerned about this because they were planing her starting at the Spanish school and she didn't  seemed to respond to Spanish language. But when she started the school she began to speak more in Spanish, probably because it was her playing-language , and her peers spoke in Spanish only, so she began to speak in Spanish in the house and she always started the conversation in Spanish.

With 6 and 7 years she has began to understand the language rule in her life and she doesn't show any problem in switching the language with the mother and the father and with the community and the family. In the house the mother speak more in English to support the minority language. Fortunately the daughter has many opportunities to speak in English outside the house.

The process of teach bilingual kids can be hard and sometimes frustrating, but parents need a lot of knowledge about the bilingualism, patience and some times professional help. It depends too on the personality of the children bacause in some families the responses of the children were very different when using the same estrategy.

Myths about Bilingualism.

Nowadays still being many myths about bilingualism.If you have heard about any of them there multlipe researches that show they are false. Here are the most common of theme:

"Learning two languages confuses a child and lowers his intelligence."  Bilingual children are neither less not more intelligent than monolingual, but as we spoke in other post bilingual kids have higher metalinguistic sensitivity. And language mixing is not a sign of linguistic confusion.

"A child who learns two languages won't feel at home in either of them. She'll always feel caught between two cultures." Bilingual adults generally say they never had problems knowing what groups they were a part of.

"Bilinguals have split personalities." Some bilinguals do report feeling that they have a different "personality" for each language. However, this may be because they are acting according to different cultural norms when speaking each of their languages.

"Parents who speak a language other than English to their children will hurt their children's chances for academic success in this country. " it is best for parents to speak the language they are most fluent in to their children. This could be the native language or a language the parents speak very well. If parents speak to their children in a language the parents do not know well themselves, then they are providing a model for children of a language that is not fully developed.

"The older a person is, the harder it is to acquire a second language."  Only some tasks, like acquiring pronunciation, are easier for children, but and adult can learn the second language like a native but  it will be more difficult form him.

These and more myths are in the book 7 steps to raising a bilingual child by Naomi Steiner  MD with Susan L. Hayes. 2008

Raising Bilingual Kids...

The first step to teach bilingual is figure out how to do it, there are various languages strategies that parents can apply within the bilingual family. The choice of one strategy depends on the family situation, the language that is spoken in the community and the children´s response. Some parents change strategy over time depending on their children development.

In Language strategies for bilingual families: the one-parent-one-language approach by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert are 7 strategies which I summarize bellow:

- The one-parent-one-language approach: Each parent speaks one language to the child. In this case the children will ear both languages in the home. Is better if the mother speaks the minority language, this is the language that is less accessible in the community, because her language is often the first choice of the child. Between parents they can talk the majority or the minority language together, it is very similar but the choice of one or another language will create in the child the preference of this language. 

- Minority-Language at home: The family uses only  the minority language at home . The child learns the majority language from its environment, such as friends, grandparents and school.This approach is good for those children who have no other contact with the minority language and are completely surrounded by majority language environment.

 - Trilingual strategy: This is when a bilingual couple move to a third language country and they usually use the one parent one language approach in the house and  the third language is learned in the community. 

- Mixed strategy: Both parents are bilingual, and both use more than one language in addressing the child. They use the code-mixing and code-switching when talking in the house. 

- Time and place strategy: the family switch languages according to the activity. For example a mother speaks one language during the year but when they go the other language country she speaks in the L2.

- The artificial or non native strategy: is chosen by monolingual parents who want their children to learn a second language . This can be done applying the OPOL approach or with lessons or babysitters

You can find more information about these strategies and the parents choice in  Language strategies for bilingual families: the one-parent-one-language approach  By Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert .Parents and teachers guide number 7 chapter 5. 2004

Some cons of bilingualism!

Bilingual education have some disadvantages, but more than personal disadvanatges they are a lack of resources, and I want to point out two:

- Unavailability of Teachers: Bilingual education requires a number of trained teachers who are proficient in two languages. There is a wide gap between the demand and the supply for teachers who are both confident and capable of handing the intense pressure associated with managing a class of students requiring special attention.

- Lack of Funds: Lack of funds to promote bilingual education.

If you consider that there are other disadvantages or find any interesting article be free of comment! 

Why be Bilingual? the pros...

There are a lot of scientists and researches that have shown the cognitive benefits of be bilingual. According to the Society of Neurosiencie bilingual brains develop distinct advanteges, one is that bilingualism enhances attention and concentration and protect against dementia and other old-age conginitive deseases.

Bilingual kids will have an advantage at school , they will concentrate more in the tasks because their brain can ignore better irrelevant information and they will be good listeners. They are better at different thinking tasks, and are able to analize language on a metalinguistic level.

Appart of these cognitive advantages there are other social advantages, for example in the future they can get a better job, and cultural advantages because bilingualism offers an access and exposure to different cultures.

Here are the articles in which I based this post:

• The Bilingual Brain: An article from the Society of neuroscience.
• There´s no doubt that speakers of more than one language have nimble brains. Meet four bilingual whose languages pared the way to multifacetic lives: Into this article there are four interesting cases about adults grown up in bilingual contexts. 

Bilingual Kids?

When parents think about bringing up their children bilingually It is a good idea to clarify the meaning of bilingulism, because there are many incorrect definitions based on myths, for example, a person has not have to speak with the same fluency in both languages to be bilingual, there is ussually a "dominant" language.

A simple definition of bilingualism can be using two languages on a regular basis.

In this video you can watch different experiencies from bilingual persons and why is important for them  to speak two languages.