Q: “My wife and are bilingual and we are trying to raise our son to be the same, but sometimes I feel like we are simply confusing him. We want him to be comfortable reading, writing and speaking in both languages. Can you give us some tips to help make this happen?”
A:Francis,
Thanks for the great question. This is such an important topic to discuss in our increasingly bilingual world. It will only be a benefit to your child to be able to speak more than one language and there are some simple things that you can do to make work in your home.
You want to make sure that you isolate the two languages. You don’t want your child to mix two languages together, diluting his skill level in one or both of them. You want to create a paradigm and boundaries for each language. Here are a few ways to do that:
If everyone in the household speaks both languages, dedicate different days of the week to speaking one of the two languages. Monday is one language, Tuesday the next, etc. Or maybe morning is one language and afternoon/evening is the other. If your child is studying in only English at school you can allow extra time at home speaking in the second language to make sure your child gets adequate immersion in both.
Keep books, movies, etc separated by language. Also, if you are labeling things around the house with post- its, as demonstrated in our video about environmental print, choose one color for each language.
In terms of academic development, it is important to read books in both languages and discuss topics that your child is studying at school in both as well. You want vocabulary to be developed in both languages simultaneously. Also, make sure that you don’t relegate specific household activities to only one language. You want your child to be comfortable shopping, having dinner and watching TV in either language. That’s the goal.
Make the divider between the two languages clear, and use both languages in an organized manner in the house, and you should observe development in both languages.
Also, The Multilingual Children’s Association has a informative website that is worth a look at.
I hope this helps.
November 15th, 2009
