How to raise multilingual children
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Multilinguism
Multilinguism can be an option for some families. But for other families multilinguism is just a way of living and it comes naturally.
Multilingual families come in all shapes and environments. Basically we can say that there are four types of multilingual families:
- Monolingual family in a same-language environment but who believe in the importance of speaking another language. For example Madonna sending her children to a French immersion school despite no one in the family speaking French or living in France.
- Monolingual family in a different-language-environment. That is for example a British family moving to live in Saudi Arabia for work reasons.
- Bilingual family in a same language environment. That is for example a Spanish mother and English father living in England. One of the parents speaks a minority language while the other speaks the majority language, and both languages are used at home.
- Multilingual family living in a different-language environment. That is for example, a Spanish mother, and a Japanese father living and bringing up their children in Italy. Each parent speaks a language different to the majority language and the children are exposed at least to three languages -the mother's, the father's and the community or majority language.
Each case is different just as each family is different. What works for one family might not work for another. The important thing is to be comfortable in your situation and happy with your child's language development.
Raising Bilingual Children
The main question parents of multilingual families have to deal is whether a child can learn more than one language at the same time. This doubt is aggravated by social misconceptions and the fact that multilingual children take longer in starting to talk. Bringing up multilingual children is not always easy.
For first time parents it is very frustrating to hear all the criticism from monolingual friends and family. Some parents even give in to social pressure and stop teaching their children a second language thinking that it would be best for their child not to "confuse it with another language".
Raising multilingual children
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The case of very young children and babies
Can children really learn a second language at a very early age without disturbing their language development?
The answer is YES, they can and it is very exciting to see their progress. With very young children, a second language is learnt the same way children learn a first language, which is to say, not really teaching them a language but exposing them to the language.
A child acquiring language abilities does so by experiencing the world. Babies learn through repetition and listening. A mother feeds her baby and tells her "time to drink your bottle" and repeats the word bottle several times shaking the bottle in front of the child. Eventually the baby -even if she cannot talk yet- learns the word that identifies the object "bottle". This can be done in several languages and the child will assimilate the meaning of the words through experiencing them. Through repetition and hands-on-context, the child figures out the language her mother is using to communicate with her.
The beginnings:
As a parent it can be frustrating and worrying seeing how all the other children are increasing their language ability while your child is "stuck" trying to cope with two or more languages. You might even feel guilty about holding back your child. Your friends and family start telling you that "the poor baby" is getting confused and will never learn to speak if you insist in using two languages at the same time. DO NOT LISTEN to them. For a start, they have not brought up multilingual children so they do not know anything about the subject except for their misconceptions.
Remember that you are not the first multilingual family. Multilingualism on a grand scale is commonplace in many countries -Africa, India, Belgium, Switzerland- it seems to be only in certain Western countries that it is regarded with any alarm.
A child learning a second language takes longer to talk. But it is not because he is not learning, it is simply that your child is recognizing and producing sounds in more than one language system and that process takes time and practice. While his peers are coping only with one language system your child is coping with two and requires more time to assimilate, but this is normal. Do not worry, before long your child will catch up with his monolingual peers with the added advantage of being bilingual!
Will my baby be confused?
Parents worry too much about this. In reality, children's brains are more sophisticated than what we might think. In a bilingual family where different members of the family speak different languages, a child will soon work out by herself that different people use different words to refer to the same things. She will realize that what mommy calls "a blue ball" is indeed what daddy calls a "pelota azul" This is indeed a very sophisticated process, but it is a process which your child will solve at a surprising rate by herself. She will notice that different words can refer to the same object, and often that different people use those words.
Bilingual Kids: the advantages
What are the benefits of being multilingual?
Research suggests that bilingual children may develop more flexibility in their thinking as a result of processing information through two different languages.
One of the most strongly established findings of educational research, conducted in many countries around the world, is that well-implemented bilingual programs can promote literacy and knowledge in a minority language without any negative effects on children's development in the majority language. This means that learning a minority language helps learning in general rather than causing problems.
Within Europe, the Foyer program in Belgium which develops children's speaking and literacy abilities in three languages (their mother tongue, Dutch and French) in primary schools, most clearly illustrates the benefits of bilingual and trilingual education.
Other resources:
- Multilingual Children's Association
Your guide to raising bilingual children. Expert advice and real world wisdom with parent discussions, tips and articles. From birth through school. - Multilingual Family in the UK
Multilingual Family is a website to help multilingual families in the UK to meet up and to make the most of being multilingual. It includes an online forum for finding and communicating with families in the same geographical area. - Bilingual and Multilingual Children
Ask A Linguist FAQ.
When is it too late to introduce a second language?
Never. We are always learning. However the ideal age is up to 9 years old. Up to about the age of 8 or 9 it has been shown that intensive exposure -for example, emigration, or attending a monolingual foreign-language school- can still produce a fully bilingual adult. Beyond that age, you may find that your child assimilates the new language more or less well, depending on several factors. For example, teenagers may be self-conscious about making mistakes and they might not give their second language a fair try.
The key is to let your child know that the new language is useful. For example, speaking French will allow him to have new friends to go out with when you travel to France.
Always make learning a new language a fun activity, something enjoyable.
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Multilingual girl
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Comments
Good informative article.
Princessa! I agree with you totally. I was three when we left Hungary...the language we spoke at home was always Hungarian. In Belgium we lived in an area near the German border. We learned to speak German there, however Belgium had two majority languages--Wallon (a type of french) & Flemish (a type of Dutch)--. So everyone in our immediate community spoke Platt-Deutch a kind of German dialect. Twenty miles, to the south-west, & into the country everyone spoke Wallon (I went to junior Highschool there) 45 miles to the north-west everyone spoke Flemish. (The family had friends there & my best friend lived there too & I spent a lot of time there also). By the time I was 8 and without any effort I had four languages down pact. (My parents stuck to the German and struggled with the other two) Then when I was 15 we immigrated to Canada. English is a hard lingo to learn but with the help of the other four it was a kids game for me. I'm told that I don't have an accent at all. My Mom and Dad never lost their Hungarian accents.
I remember commenting on your other hub that your children are lucky, because moving to other lands to live, only gives them great opportunities that they can transfer into jobs etc when they're grown.
Love the Hub (sorry my comment got to be so long) regards Zsuzsy
This information was well covered and I do hope that it gets a lot of views. I feel this is more important in our world now than it has ever been. It saddens me when I see children who do not have a grip on either parental language. They seem to be confused. I never thought about the way you divided up the four kinds of multilingual groups, very informative, Thanx C.S.
fishskinfreak 2008 and Adam York: Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Zsuzsy Bee: Thank you very much for your comment. I always like to hear from people who has experienced multilinguism themselves. At the start I was very concerned about bringing up multilingual children -so even now- it is very reassuring to hear from people like you who managed to cope successfully with learning several languages. It is really amazing how by age 8 you already had four languages almost without any effort. Having a strong linguistic base also helped you later learning English without an accent! Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
C.S. Alexis: I do feel that multilinguism is a very important subject in a world that is changing and becoming more globalized. Knowing your parent’s language is also a way of getting in touch with your roots and keeping alive your culture. It is sad, yes, when I see friends who speak a foreign language but never taught their children how to communicate in that language.
Great info here. I read an article somewhere about how babies can differentiate between different languages based on the different facial experessions and speaking patterns people have when speaking different languages.
When we have children, we will be speaking English and Polish to them. If I'm in the position to expose them to a third language, I won't hesitate.
When I was 19, I lived with family in Switzerland (the German speaking part). People constantly criticized my aunt for speaking English in the home because they all believed the children wouldn't be able to speak German as well--how wrong they were!
Another great article! Love that vid of the little girl counting!
Stacie: I am happy to hear that you are already thinking about exposing your future children to several languages. I think it is very important for a child's identity to know his parents language. It is a shame that there is so much ignorance about the subject. I know too many people who gave up to social pressure and never taugth their children their own language for fear to damaging their children's language development.
Isabella: Thanks for the comment. She is cute, isn't she? It is amazing how very young children can differentiate languages and apply them at will.
First of all I must apologize for have miss this hub and thank Princessa for the shout on Digg, otherwise perhaps I would never find this great hub.
I have been introducing other languages to my 3 years old daughter but I still feel it´s too early to start teaching her other languages. This said I´m happy that she is capable of count until 10 in English and French (beside Portuguese of course :D) with out being need to force her to learn, in fact she is the one who asks how some words sound in other languages (she already say some words in Italian also). I´m sure next year will give her time and bases to start understanding more from other languages (with our help and from listening to TV movies and to some of my foreign friends every time they visit us). One thing I must say is that no kid should be taught other languages before having good bases on the mother language (I would say about 3-4 years old but I can be wrong LOL). The natural curiosity will make them ask for more knowledge in no time.
funride: It is never too early to start teaching your child a new language. The key thing is not strictly "teaching" your baby another language, but letting your baby experience the world in another language. I will be writing soon about my own experience with my children, they are coping very well with learning other languages without being strictly taught.
Good luck with your girl, it sound like she is already doing well :)
I have to deal with this issue on daily basis. Between my husband and I, we speak Italian, Russian, Gypsy, Armenian, English, and Ukrainian. Our two boys are stuck in this lingual medley, but what can we do? We don't intentionally teach them the languages, they just kind of pick them up as they go. I think that it is a great experience for kids to have. I grew up in a multi-lingual family, and I consider myself lucky.
oksana: You are lucky and so are your children for being exposed to such a rich linguistic environment. It is amazing how children manage to sort the languages all by themselves. Mine are doing great with three languages spoken/writen I am forever amazed with their proficiency and the way they solve their linguistic troubles.
Thank you Princessa for your wonderful advice. I was really frustrated until I found out this website and so many parents who are enjoying what I am wrestling with each day. I'll take your advice and enjoy myself too.
We live in Japan, our nationality is Japanese, my daughter is 4 and a half. My husband and I are Vietnamese. I am bilingual Vietnamese-English, since I grew up in NZ. My husband and I have been speaking Vietnamese to our daughter until she was around 4, then I introduced English to her. English started really difficult at first because she knew Mama understood Vietnamese, and she didn't understand a word of English ... so story time, etc . was met with a lot of frustration on both sides.
After about 6 months, she is progressing quite well in understanding. I am glad I didn't give up on my English input. However, she does not have motivation to speak English since my husband and I converse in Vietnamese, so I am afraid without enough motivation, she will not get to be fluent in English. She is in a Japanese kindergarten, so her Japanese has become incredibly fluent in just a year of school. I am so intimidated, since in Japan, conformity or else is the norm even among adults, so an Asian mother speaking English to her own child evokes ... silence. I have very few Vietnamese friends, and hardly any English speaking friends for her to play with. Even the grandparents live overseas !
I wish I had started earlier with her, when she was around 2, instead of 4. I wouldn't have met with so much resistance. It would have made my "job" so much more easier :)) I think waiting for children to master a second language before introducing a third (like in my case, waiting for my daughter to master Vietnamese, then introducing English at 4 years) is not as good as immersing them in all the languages completely from the start.
So thank you again Princessa and everyone for sharing your stories, and letting me share mine too :)) I would love to hear your comments, I'm feeling so frustrated.
Hi Meri, thanks for sharing your experience.
Bilinguism and trilinguism can be frustrating at times but on the long run is worth it and it can be a very enriching experience for both parents and children.
My first child was bilingual until the age of 3 when we moved to France and she became trilingual. It was difficult at first for her, but in a couple of months she had mastered it and was enjoying it. My other child learnt to speak in a trilungual environment and it was easier for him.
However, after 4 years of trilinguism both children have acquired the same level of proficiency in all 3 languages. Funnily enough, they considere French (the foreign language for the family) as their main language!
Good luck to you. Be patient with yourself and your child, learning a language should be a fun experience and not a boring task.
French is a wonderful language and I'm sure that would be the language I would love my daughter to learn, if she were to ask my advice on a foreign language.
Thank you for your support. Your hub is awesome. We're flying over to see her grandparents this summer, and it'll be the first time she will get to "talk" to them in their language. I must confess I'm excited. You were right, bringing up multilingual kids is fun at times.
Do they sometimes mix languages in one sentence?
Meri: Yes, children do get mixed up sometimes, but it is happening less and less. Mind you as a family we mix up languages quite a lot despite our efforts to keep using only one language!
What I have noticed is that my children do more "mixing" with me and my husband because they know that we understand the 3 languages. However, if they speak to someone who only understands one language, they make an effort to find the right words and to avoid mixing languages.
Try not to worry too much about it, somehow a child's brain knows how to sort it out.
Good luck :)
I fully support early immersion programs. They're the most effective in learning a foreign language and, yes, there are problem in the beginning that eventually resolve themselves and the rewards are endless (including excellent math skills).
Writer Rider : Math skills? that's right, I had not really notice that until now that you mention it. Both my 7 and 5 year old seem to be really good with numbers.
Yes, I believe they learn foreign languages with the same side of the brain that they learn mathematics. I'll look it up later, I did a research paper in college regarding early immersion and that's what I believe that's what I learned.
Writer Rider: Very interesting, I would be very thankful if you can come up with the results from that research. I'll try to look up for studies on it as well.
Great topic! My son speaks only English to his daughter, his wife speaks only Cantonese, and her other grandmother only Mandarin to her. They did this deliberately and speak all three languages among them. She's only a toddler but she is making lightening progress with all three languages.
Hi Jerilee: That’s marvellous, especially as Chinese is becoming such an important language. The sooner a child learns a foreign language the more natural it becomes to speak that language.
Well done for your family!
I finally found out that praising my daughter in front of my friends on her language ability was a really good motivator for getting her to speak to me in English. As we are living in Japan, modesty about one's own child is the norm, so I really couldn't, I mean, didn't, have the guts to "brag" about her in front of other people. But anyway, this past week, I just put my worries aside and really smothered her with praise. IT WORKED ! She now likes to speak English to me in front of other Japanese people (before, she insisted on Japanese !) You were right, Princessa, children know when their parents know a language. I have always put down her resistance to speak another language in public to shyness, but now I see she isn't shy at all, it was just that she was not motivated.
Well, I think now in her kindergarten I'm thought of as the foreign mom who likes to "praise" her kid's language ability. It goes against the norm here, but it's my own child, and I love her. And I love reading all your experiences too, I've learned so much more.
Princessa, I just found my research paper (which I wrote in 98). I'll publish it here today or sometime this week (I'm kind of busy).
Great Hub, Princessa - Younger Greeks all speak perfect English, because they start at a young age. My attempts to learn Greek, by contrast, are shocking!
Writer - I remember something about that, too. A long time ago, now, but there was some research that showed that learning Latin also improved maths ability.
I could well believe that it is the same for other languages
Great Hub, Princessa - Younger Greeks all speak perfect English, because they start at a young age. My attempts to learn Greek, by contrast, are shocking!
Writer - I remember something about that, too. A long time ago, now, but there was some research that showed that learning Latin also improved maths ability.
I could well believe that it is the same for other languages
Sufi, yes, languages in general do but particularily foreign languages. Latin helps a person learn several different languages unless they're not latin based like Chinese.
Sadly, Latin has been of little help in learning Greek :(
It certainly did help with French and my very limited Spanish, although I have not used them for many years :)
Hello and thank you,
My husband and me were a bit concerned.
We live in Norway and we speak English to each other. My husband is German and I am Spanish. We are expecting a child and many people encorauged us to use these three languages (+ Norwegian in the kindergarden).
We didn't know about real experiences with multilingual families, but now we feel a bit calmer about the situation.
Greetings,
Maria
We are trying to teach our son to speak french as it is my wife's native language and my second. One thing we found out that works is to only talk in french while he is with us, that way he can pick up a few words here and there.
Great Hub Princessa.
Thank-you, I have renewed hope. I am spanish but brought up in london, my husband is english. Despite my best efforts my children are reluctant to speak spanish, it doesn't come naturally to me as I think in english so I had kindof given up! Now I shall renew my efforts in the knowledge that I still have time.
Maria: Children learn very quick and easier than adults. Using multiple languages is a very good idea.
chafiq555: That is a very good method, keep it up! very soon your son will start trying to join in the conversation.
La Vieja: At one time or another children are reluctant to speak a second language if they are not "obliged" to do it. The thing is that if they do not see the need to use the second language they will not make an effort to use it. Once they realie that they need the language to comunicate with a parent, relative or friend they take an interest and try to speak it. Don't give up, try to speak as much Spanish as you can to your children. Even if they don't answer in Spanish they are taking it in, unwitingly learning it.
That's what my mother keeps telling me! I guess I just needed a kick up the behind, and I think reading your hub was it!
La vieja: It works. My 5 year old kept refusing to speak Spanish until my grandmother came to visit and stayed with us for a few months. Once he realized that he could not communicate with her in French he slowly started to speak Spanish and because he had been hearing me speaking Spanish for long enough, he picked up very easy and became rather fluent in only a few months.
Don't give up!
Hi. Thanks for this hub. I struggled to keep my daughter speaking French and she refused once she got the hang of talking with her very monolingual dad. French is not my mother language and I gave in too easily. We enrolled her in classes and she protested for over a year. Then we rented a cabin in Costa Rica from a Frenchman. She loved his dog, so I told her the dog only speak French. Lo and behold, she suddenly began speaking French to the dog! When we came back home, I found an interactive CD for adults that she liked much more than her kids CDs and has been translating and speaking it since. It's in there, just a matter of bringing it out!
ladylux: that is what I mean, if a child needs to use a language to communicate she will learn it and make an effort. It is difficult for a child to understand the need to learn a language that has no use, but once they realize that the language is necessary to communicate or that it is fun to be able to use another language, they just take it in no problem.
Always try to make it a game, like you did with the dog and not a task. Good luck!
Thanks for this great hub! I was thinking about this a lot. Do you think that it is possible for child to learn 4 language? Fx in case that mom and dad have their own home language, they speak in English but live in place where they use other language? :)
abchs_princess: You are welcome. I think it is possible. There are many known cases.
However, my personal experience is limited to trilingual children -Mom: 1st language, Dad 2nd language and environment a 3rd language. I am convinced that as long as the child feels a need for a language he will learn it.
When we went to Italy my children started learning Italian (their fourth language) because they wanted to play with Italian children. Unfortunately as soon as we came back to France and they didn't feel the need to speak Italian, they lost interest.
Well, that is true, if you go somewhere and learn some words from new language, later on if you do not use it, you just forget! Unfortunately it is like that in most cases...
Thanks for saying that it is possible! I needed to hear that:)
And once again, great hub! It is big true about question "Will my baby be confused?". Sometimes people get worried about things that they should not be. I am worried now, even before time :)
abchs_princess: No need to worry that much. Children can deal with multilinguism much better than adults. All you need to do is to provide a rich environment where they can develop their language skills.
Thanks for advice Princessa!
fishskinfreak2008 says:
2 years ago
Very interesting