Tips for Raising your Child Bilingual
Whether you are a mixed language couple or a monolingual family that wants to expose their child to a second language, you may wonder what the best practices are for raising your child bilingual. While there is no winning formula at this moment for how to raise bilingual children, a key factor in this dual language development relies on the amount of exposure of each language. Acquiring equal bilingualism also requires patience, commitment, and consistency on the parent’s part, especially when the language belongs to a minority group.
I am a native from South America, so my native language is Spanish. My husband only speaks English. We have a 3 yr old son and I speak to him in Spanish. He understands me perfectly in Spanish, but most of the time, he replies in English. While the process can be challenging, it is achievable and rewarding as you will open the door to a vast variety of career opportunities for your child. It is important for both partners to discuss how to handle raising a bilingual child to ensure that you maximize your child’s potential in acquiring proficiency in both languages. Here are some suggestions that you can take into consideration when planning to raise your child bilingual.
- 1. Make plans before your child is born. If you are a mixed language couple, decide which one of you will speak which language to your child and how this may change according to the situation. Discuss how you will handle the language when monolingual family or friends are present, when you are at home or not, or in a different country. If you decide that mom will speak Spanish to the child while dad speaks in English, start implementing the plan as early as even when your child is inside your womb. If you are a monolingual family, you may think about enrolling your child in a language immersion program and use resources (e.g. videos, computer games, songs, TV shows) of than language at home. Whatever plans you decide, be consistent in which language you speak to your child. Once you devise a system if you want to use a different language with your child depending on the situation, stick to the plan.
- 2. Talk to other families who are in a similar situation. Families that have older children can be a great source of information and may give you useful advice on what practices worked or didn’t work for their child. Ask them what rules they had in place for who speaks the language, and how the children interact with both parents and understand both languages. You can also consider joining a bilingual family group, either available in your area or through the Internet. Here, you can ask questions, read about what other families are going through or share your own experiences.
- 3. Consider using the “one person-one language” approach. This is a commonly used method by language mixed couples, where each parent speaks to their child in their own language. If one parent doesn’t speak the minority language, help your partner practice gaining knowledge of that language, even if it’s just the basic vocabulary you may read to your child in books. You may encounter the problem in which your child understands both languages, but prefers to speak the language of the community. Do not be discouraged if your this situation occurs. Be patient with your child and continue trying. Even if your child just understands both languages, he will be at an advantage to other monolingual children. You may also find that your child may mix both languages, but don’t be alarmed. Your child will later be able to sort out both languages and will learn to use each one appropriately.
- 4. Consider visiting the country of the minority language. If possible, try to have him go to a summer school program, or spend some time with grandparents or cousins. This exposure will encourage your child to interact with other monolinguals, learn and begin to have an appreciation for another culture and become immersed in the weaker language.
2 Responsesto “Tips for Raising your Child Bilingual”
We made a very conscious decision before we were even pregnant that we wanted our child (now children) to be bilingual.Our Nanny has only spoken spanish to both boys, and our 4 year old switches easily btwn languages. We also started the older one at Austin International School in the preschool at 3. Our 18 month old will follow. The program has been AMAZING!! My son has matured in leaps and bounds and will pompously declare to me that I ONLY speak English, while he speaks Spanish, French AND English.