More and more parents are teaching their children a second language they themselves don’t speak as native speakers. Even more parents would like to do but don’t dare. The assumption that only native speakers can teach their children a second language is deep rooted but not supported by any evidence, on the contrary, it is done (by people who forgot to ask permission for it) and many experts in the field encourage this practice. Here are 8 reasons why you should challenge this assumption, and have a go at it if you really think that’s what you want to do.
- Language is a living organism, with time it can grow and develop. Your child won’t speak a foreig language the way you speak it, but most likely he’ll be better, often a lot better. As a parent you can lay the foundations and give the child the tools to learn a second language, later in life you’ll be able to offer more sofisticated input if you wish.
- There’s not such a thing as a pure accent. Many native speakers speak with really think accents, some people speak a foreign language with barely any accent. Let’s look at Englis for instance, only 2% of the UK population speaks the Queen’s English.
- Languages are a tool to communicate. Sometimes we become so obsessed with stylistic considerations that we seem to forget what a language is about: communicating. If I understand and am understood I gainaccess to a whole new world of ideas, people, opportunities. True, the better I am undertood the more I’ll be accepted, but accent isn’t the whole thing. I know people who lived in the US for years and still have a very think italian accent, that hasn’t prevented the, from making stellar carrers in US companies and multinationals. The have both talent and the linguistic means to get that talent acknowledged.
- You can and should provide multiple input for the second language. Teaching a child a second language is a long and demanding process but not one that you have to manage entirely by yourself, along the way you’ll be able to choose among many support tools, or people.
- Children have an impressive ability to incorporate input from different sources, averaging away all the extremes and creating their own blend, often superior to their parents’.
- This might be the only chance at hand. Sometimes there simply aren’t that many alternatives around. Immersion school, an au pair, a french aunty are not always available. In these cases either parents go for it or they forget about it and leave it to the standard school programme, which is seldom effective when it comes to languages.
- Whatever your knowledge of the second language you can find the right approach for you and your family. There is not standard way, but there certainly is a way which will allow you to get the most out of your competencies without nurturing unrealistic expectations and making life hard for anybody. Identifying the right approach, right for you and your family that is, can be difficult, but once done, you are half way there akready.
- If you really want it, you’ll make it. Motivation make anything possible, and when it comes to bilingual education motivation really is the key to success. Learning a language is such a long process, only those who stick to it will eventually make it. Plus motivation often comes with passion and fun, which are really useful ingredients too!
In conclusion, anybody can raise children bilingual, or rather anybody who really wants to raise children bilingual can do it. If that’s you, wait no further and jump to next question: How? (we”ll get there soon)
Picture by A Journey Round My Skull
Related posts:
All non native parents are not equalBilingual children in non bilingual families
6 Comments
Thank you so much for this article. I am NOT a native Spanish speaker. My husband’s first language was Spanish but after being educated in the United States, he lost much of his Spanish and spoke a mixture (Spanlish). We made the decision when I was pregnant with my first son that we would ONLY speak to him in Spanish. Almost four years later, I am proud to say that native Spanish speakers often comment on how well he speaks Spanish. I feel that we are a success story.
Adriana,
this is an interesting story!
May I ask you few questions if you don’t mind? Does your husband feel that speaking Spanish to his son has helped him recover his own mother tongue? Does he still speak Spanglish or does he speak Spanish now?
And how about English? I take you live in the US, has your son managed to learn also English? How old is he now?
Thanks for sharing your story!
L.
Thank you Adriana for the article.
I’m italian and I learned english 26 years ago for only 4 months in Cambridge. Then I had the great furtune to know sone english people in Sardinia 24 years ago and we are still good friends, we see almost every year. My english is good enough to have a good converasation, but sometimes I do need the dictionary(electronic- easier!) Of course my english level is not high but it’s quite fluent and some times I make mistakes, never mind.. my pronunciation is very very good ,english people say. In 24 years my english hasn’t been improved but it has been kept like this. My son was born 7 years ago and just from the beginning I wanted to speak with him in english. My wife speaks italian only. Then my wife and I realized that Lucas didn’t speak any language and he was amost 4!! We went to the speech therapist. She told me to use my english in definete part of the day for example when we where playing. That was. Now Lucas speaks italian for most of the time, he understands and he always speaks english by himself playing with “Thomas the tank engine”: isn’t that amazing? Of course now that he speaks his mother language we feel better but….after reading your article I’m sure that I’ll use my “poor” english more and more. Please if you can encourage me and other people like me ..do it.
Thank you , Claudio, Lucas and Daniela
I feel I am in the same boat.
I am native Spanish and have never lived in any English-Speaking country for longer than 1 month.
Still, I speak quite decent English and decided to speak English to my daughters. They fully understand English now although it is taking a bit longer for them to speak it. My eldest (almost 3) speaks English if you ask her to do it, but she replies in Spanish even if I ask in English (unless I say “in English, please!”). Still, this is changing day after day and I think we are in the right way.
Sometimes it is discouraging, but I see that the results are awesome and children’s capacity to learn a language is so big, that I strongly think it is worth the effort (even though some days it is hard to speak English… as it does not come out naturally).
It took me years to be able to fully understand English and they did it in less than 5 months!
Good luck everybody trying! And thanks for all the ideas and stories. Thanks for sharing!!!!
Congrats on your blog. Thank you for the tips and resources, they are really useful.
I am not an English native speaker, but I am teaching English to my son. I always sing a lot with him in English, read in English, play some specific videos in English… I think he enjoys the activities. For example, his favourite book is ‘A Very Hungry Caterpillar’, and he wants to hear the story every day (yes, every day, over and over again!).
For him, saying some words in English are far easier than in Spanish or Catalan, for example, ‘red’ is easier for him than ‘rojo’ and ‘vermell’. I am happy he enjoys singing, playing and living in English, but I don’t know what I am supposed to do once he learns to write (school is in Catalan). Should he learn to write just in Catalan and Spanish and, just after he masters both, start writing in English?
Bilingualism is complicated but also rewarding and fun!
Thank you for your tips!
Congrats on your blog. Thank you for the tips and resources, they are really useful.
I am not an English native speaker, but I am teaching English to my son. I always sing a lot with him in English, read in English, play some specific videos in English… I think he enjoys the activities. For example, his favourite book is ‘A Very Hungry Caterpillar’, and he wants to hear the story every day (yes, every day, over and over again!).
For him, some words in English are far easier than in Spanish or Catalan, for example, ‘red’ is easier than ‘rojo’ and ‘vermell’. I am happy he enjoys singing, playing and living in English, but I don’t know what I am supposed to do once he learns to write (school is in Catalan). Should he learn to write just in Catalan and Spanish and, just after he masters both, start writing in English?
Bilingualism is complicated but also rewarding and fun!
Thank you for your tips!
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