Tips for raising bilingual children

Parents have many reasons for raising their children with multiple languages. Some hope for better career opportunities while others focus on the cognitive and intellectual benefits of learning an additional tongue, including better attention skills, improved memory, and a quicker decision-making process.

Quick note: a majority language is one that the community speaks (e.g., Arabic in the UAE or English in the UK). A minority or home language is the language a family speaks but not the whole community (e.g., Russian, Polish, Luganda in the UAE).

Here are some quick tips for you if you are choosing to raise your children bilingually:

Do: speak your home language with your kids.

Don’t be afraid to teach your kids your second language, even if you don’t speak it perfectly.

Do: introduce new languages to your kids as early as possible.

Don’t think it is too late to introduce a new language later on (e.g., when they are 10 years old).

Do: set realistic goals for your bilingual kids. Don’t expect that they will speak, read and write at the same time. Each of these skills take time to learn, so be creative and be patient!

Don’t compare your bilingual child’s language journey and abilities to children who only speak one language.

Do: be consistent with the language strategy you follow (see strategies below).

Don’t hesitate to change your approach if it isn’t working for your family. Since as families we constantly change, so it is no surprise that our language habits change over time too.

Do: correct your child if they say something incorrectly through repeating the right form of the word.

Don’t feel like you have to stop your child on every word let the conversation flow, they will pick up all the correct forms with more interaction.

Do: take advantage of media and technology to help your kids get more exposure to the minority language. Be smart in how you choose such material and ensure that you are with your child so you can watch together. Research has shown that access technology with your child enhances their language learning. So it’s a win-win situation for you: entertainment and learning in one!

Don’t think that TV or media alone will teach your child a language, you will need to repeat the words and phrases with your child.

Do: read to your children often especially in the minority language.

Don’t stop reading to them once they can read for themselves.

Do: buy resources and materials that can help improve their language skills

Don’t underestimate the power of conversation for bilingual children, it is through talking to them a lot, that you can help them increase their vocabulary and knowledge of their languages.

Do: travel with your children to immerse them in their minority language if you cannot support their language where you live

Don’t panic if they have a mind of their own and want to speak the majority language together, it will more than likely be the case. But you can choose to speak to them in your home language all the time. This will build their knowledge of the home language.

Do: make learning a language as fun as possible.

Don’t push your child if you think they are stressed out, they may refuse to speak in any language.

Do: seek outside support if you need it.

Don’t think you are a failure if your child refuses to speak your language

Do: spend time creating a strong relationship with your children. Research has shown that where parents have a good relationship with their children, children are likely to learn the parents’ home language more effectively.

Strategies in raising bilingual children:

1. One person - one language strategy. It is also called One Parent One Language or OPOL strategy. One parent always speaks one language to the child and the other always speaks another. Though this is not always as effective as strategy number 2 below.

2. Minority Language at Home strategy. When both partners and family members speak one language at home (e.g., Russian, Italian, German), and the child learns the community or dominant language outside (English or Arabic) depending on where you live.

3. Time and Place strategy (T&P) for separating two and more languages. Parents can assign a specific language to a day of the week (let's say every Sunday the family speaks Spanish or Arabic FuSHa) or to an activity (speaking English while bathing or watching German news on TV). One parent can speak two languages to a child: one language in the morning and another language in the evening or take longer time for each language and switch them every other day or week. You would need to experiment and see what works best for you and your child. If families relocate and parents support children with new or previous language acquisitions, the child can switch from bilingual to trilingual and multilingual even if the parents speak only one language.

References:

https://bilingualkidspot.com/

https://www.trilingualchildren.com/p/language-strategies.html

You can get more and more benefit from our blogs from here: