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Bilingual children, grandparents and extended family

L. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:34:11 +0000

Quite often in OPOL families parents give up using the minority language in presence of the extended family, a sign of respect towards those who don’t understand the language. It is certainly a very good thing to involve the whole family, but it doesn’t necessarily need to happen at the minority language’s expenses. And by the way, what makes you think that grandparents refuse the second language altogether?

Involving the whole family in your bilingual project is often easier than you might think, providing you communicate it clearly and strategically:

Explain what you are doing, your objectives and motivation, and how this will impact your children
Address your relatives’ doubts and fears
Actively ask for help and support
Offer your support to the whole family, make sure this experience is positive for them too
Acknowledge and reward their efforts

Explain what you are doing, your objectives and motivation, and how this will impact your children

The whole family cares for children and understands that the world they’ll live in is different from the world they grew up in. Also, normally grandparents understand that for children of mixed origins it’s important to communicate with both families. So don’t assume that they won’t understand what you are trying to do, but talk to them. Explain in detail why you think bilingualism in important for your children, both in terms of personal development and of future opportunities. Tell them which methodology you chose and why it is important to be consistent with it.

Address your relatives’ doubts and fears

Anybody who doesn’t have a direct experience of bilingualism is confused about it, and this is very normal. Certainly it is puzzling to see a one year old child switching among languages and it is fair to wonder whether this will confuse him, or her. Just to put things in perspective, when research started to focus on bilingualism it did so with the assumption that bilingualism was bad for children and determined to prove it. It took decades of systematic research to prove it was otherwise and some of these prejudices are actually hard to kill. So don’t get mad at grandma if she’s worried for the child, but spend some time explaining to her how things are and answering her doubts.

Also, quite often grandparents or other relatives might just fear that they will be cut out from the child’s life, unable to understand him or her. Don’t underestimate these fears, rather address them. Explain to them that the child will learn the majority language without any problem and will always be able to communicate with them, tell them that the child might mix the languages in the beginning, but will sort them out soon enough, that learning a second language does not impair first language acquisition. Listen to them and reassure them.

Actively ask for help and support

People like to get involved and engaged, to feel responsible and part of a project. So don’t just ask them to watch you, ask them to help, make them aware of the role they can play and the impact of their actions. Make the children’s successes their successes too.

Grandparents and relatives can assist you in many ways: they can encourage the child, they can play minorità language DVD or CD when you are not around, they can answer the the child’s simple requests even when they are expressed in the second language, they can just accept a bilingual conversation and be positive about it, etc.

Offer your support to the whole family, make sure this experience is positive for them too

As mentioned above, all too often resistance stems from fear, fear of not being able to cope or of being let out. It’s up to you to give everybody the support needed, so that this experience will be pleasant for all.
Translate what you say to the child into the majority language, answer their questions, help them understand the few simple words a child might say in the second language (water, potty, sleep) so that they can satisfy his or her needs. In short, help them learn with the child.

Acknowledge and reward their efforts

Understanding and speaking two languages is very easy for you, but terribly difficult for your relatives, don’t ever forget this. Acknowledge and praise their efforts, make them feel good about it. If grandma gives a glass of water to a child who’s asking for some Eau praise her, celebrate both the child’s and grandma’s success.

Finally, few words on my personal experience. My parents, A.’s grandparents, don’t speak any foreign language, they have some basic knowledge of English – grandmother – and French – grandfather. However they do understand why learning a second language is so important for A. and supported my efforts from day one.

Initially I would translate for them everything I said to A., or if I didn’t they asked me to. Then they started to ask less and less, and I began to rely more on gestures to help them understand what I was saying. Then grandmother began to translate for grandfather when he didn’t understand, and I encouraged her to do so, as this is a great way of learning and she was happy when she got it right (learning is very rewarding at any age! Later in life people are more likely to lack opportunities than enthusiasm for learning). A. is now 21 month old, few days ago I told my mother “Well, you have been learning quite some English too. Haven’t you?” “We certainly did!” was the proud reply, “We are really learning a lot!” Here you go, two pigeons…

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How reading, DVDs and even videogames can become an opportunity for language stimulation

L. — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:08:26 +0000

The importance of reading to rchildren cannot be overestimated. Reading is critical for language development, but also for children’s personal development, for acquiring the ability to understand oneself and the world and to elaborate experiences. It goes without saying that for bilingual children reading is also essential to stimulate language. However the link between reading a language can be made stronger by associating reading with language stimulating activities.

I recently read a very interesting article on language stimulating techniques. The article has been written by a speech therapist on her blog Tinyeye, and was initially meant to address techniques that can be associated with video or computer games, however they work very well with books too. When interacting with the games or videos, but also when you are reading, make a point to use some language stimulation techniques. For example:

Wait and watch: Look at your child to see what he is looking at – then give it a name. i.e.) Rocket! You see a red rocket!
Describe: Be the commentator who occasionally says, WHOOSH! … Ohhh bumpy ride!…That’s a big dog!….You picked blue!. If you are consistent with what you comment on, your child may start to automatically comment on the same types of pictures or actions. For example, if you say 1 2 3 BLAST OFF or GO every time the rockets flies, your child may start to do that on his own.
Silence: No need to talk all the time – leave space for the child to make comments, to process information, or to just enjoy. He is learning by doing.
Copy Cat and Expand: To grow language, imitate what your child says. (He says, doddie – you day DOGGIE!). Then take one more step by adding one more word, as in BIG DOGGIE!
Repeat x 3: If you were learning a new language, you would need to hear a word over and over again to really understand how to say it and what it represented. Keep this in mind when you are naming objects and pictures. For example, if the picture or object is a bus, you might casually say bus…bus… bus!… hi bus!!!
Earn it to Learn it: Help your child learn that his listening ears and words are magical because when he listens or uses his words, cool things happen on the screen. Maybe the magic word for making the rocket fly is GO! Each time, your child is encouraged to say GO (before you click the mouse to make it go). Pick a word or sentence that fits your child’s success level.
Helpful Word: Use the activities as an opportunity to learn useful self advocacy and social words such as: hi, bye, help, again, more, done, yes, no, my turn, your turn, please, thank you…

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Schooling options for Bilingual Children

L. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 09:59:39 +0000

Choosing the school can be really difficult and painful in normal circumstances, but for bilingual families it is even more so, as they often have to compare apples with oranges, plus their own personal experience (i.e. their memories about the school they went to) can be of little or no help at all. We spoke about Day Nursery, Kindergarten and language classes, now let’s address the really tough decisions: the REAL school, starting from the primary school.

What we’ll look at is:

International School
Bilingual School
The local school
How to choose a school

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

The International school, which can be American, English, French, German, ect. follows the programme and methodology of the relative country, and classes are delivered in the corresponding language, which in most cases is a minority language relative to the hosting country.

The majority language, say Italian for people living in Italy, is studied as a second language, although normally there is an understanding that this is the language of the hosting country and therefore there are few hours per week in the language. As a result, it is very common for children to have deficiencies in the majority language, particularly in writing, although this really depends also on the child himself, the support he receives at home, whether parents read to him in the majority language and encourage him to read, and finally from the overall schooling path (will he attend only the International school or will go for the International school first and then move to the local school later, or the other way round?).

The approach to the International School changes dramatically depending on whether the family is of the same nationality of the School or perceives it as foreign. I.e. whether the school is meant to maintain the original language and culture, or to introduce the child to a different language.

If the school belongs to the parents’ nationality most likely they will know exactly what to expect, the questions for them will regard more the price (more on this later) and some consideration regarding the integration of their children in the local society. It is not uncommon for such schools to be attended by a very specific group of people (international, well off, etc etc) and to be quite remote from the “real world”. Whether this is OK or not is for the parents to decide, but the recommendation is to give this some real thinking as it has bigger implication for the child’s development than one would imagine. Let me just mention to you that children who grow up in a country other than their original one have been object of extensive research and have been found to have typical behaviours, they have been labelled Third Culture Kids, we’ll come on this later on, it’s a very very interesting matter.
Different story for majority culture/language families that choose an International School because they want their children to become bilingual, or choose a school from theit own same language but differnt style 9thing British vs. American). The warning there is that School programmes and teaching styles can vary greatly, and this can cause some perplexities among parents. Accept that in some countries some subjects are treated better than others (for instance Italians are traditionally far better at humanistic subjects than scientific ones) and that methodologies can be very different from what you are used to. The language is certainly not the only thing you should consider when you take such a decision. Problem is, it’s not easy at all to gain some clarity about the different programmes and quality of the schools. Some help can come from the OECD reports, see Education at a Glance 2008. Beware though, you’ll find no magic formula but assessments on many different parameters, and making your own choice might prove difficult and time consuming.

BILINGUAL SCHOOL

Bilingual Schools follow the programme of the hosting country, but offer some hours in a second language. It’s important to know how many hours per week there are in the second language, it could be as little as 3-4 ours per week. It’s equally important to understand which classes are taught in the second language, are they only language and literature classes or also different subjects, like history, science and gym just to give an example?

Also this option presents both pro and contra, namely the child will be more immersed in the local culture, but the learning of the second language will be slower. If the second language is the family’s first language, they might not be fully satisfied with the learning of their language, particularly in writing. So again, the family might have to supplement the school’s teachings at home.

LOCAL SCHOOL

Sending the children to a local school might be a difficult decision for expatriates family. The considerations are similar to what we saw above.

The pros are normally the price, which can be become a major concern in families with few children (in most countries these schools are state owned, and in some countries- like Italy- quality is by no means inferior to private schools).

The contras are that the family will have to support the child in learning the family language, particularly for reading and writing, that the parents might not feel at ease with helping the child in a language other than their native one, that the programme and methodology might differ from what they are used to.

Whether full immersion in the local culture is a pro or a contra is for the family to decide…

HOW TO GO ABOUT CHOOSING

We hope one thing is clear at this point, that there is no right or wrong answer, but many considerations that need to be made in order to take a decision. So here is what I suggest you reflect on:

Try to understand the programme of each school and how it differS from what you are used to. It’s important for parents to trust the school and its teaching methodology
Second language learning: how many hours per week are taught in the each language? How does this split evolve year by year? Are teachers native speakers? What’s the percentage Of foreign pupils?
Distance for home. It looks triviaL but it isn’t… Choosing a school far away from home is a commitment you take for few years, make sure the logistics are manageable, for everybody
Cost, auch… It will depend of course, but make sure you know how the costs evolve over the years, it is not uncommon for costs to start off reasonable and then escalate in few years time. Also make sure you are clear on all the costs involved: fees, meals, uniform, extracurricular activities, trips, etc. Just to give a frame of reference to those living in Italy, in Rome an International School costs around 9.000 to 11.000 Euros per year for a first grader
Will it be necessary to supplement reading and writing teaching at home for the family/majority language? Does the school offer assistance? Can the family manage?
How to help children with homework in a language other than your own. In general this shouldn’t be a major issue, but again, it’s for you to know your limits (without underestimating them…)
School environment. As mentioned some schools have a very strong culture, sometimes quite elitist. Make sure you get a view on this and decide whether it would fit your family and your child or not. In some countries bullysm is also quite a serious problem, so make sure you understand whether this is the case for the school you are considering and how the school is addressing the issue.
Religion. Quite a few schools, particularly bilingual ones, have a strong religious culture, this is certainly true in Italy, but possibly in other countries too. In some cases the school might even be associated to a religious movement, think Opus Dei just to make an example. This link is not always obvious, but is important parents are aware of it early on and decide whether it fits their values and objectives, so ask the question, and ask around if you can.
How to find schools? Impossible to give tips for everybody. Let me just give some hints to people living in Italy: www.romeschools.org, http://italy.usembassy.gov/usa/education/schools-it.asp, however these lists are not exhaustive.

So, what shall I do?

I’m afraid nobody else but you can take this decision. But it’s a tough one, so start thinking about it well in time and don’t rush your decision, if you have the choice, that is.

And if you have already gone thorugh this, please share your experience with others, so that we can learn from each other.

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Books, CD and DVD for bilingual children discounted on Amazon

L. — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:36:40 +0000

There are few good news for you, and I’m very happy to share them.

Bilingual For Fun just opened its Amazon Store: Bilingual For Fun Bookstore. There you can find books, CD and DVD for children, plus of course books on bilingualism for parents. Everything you’ll see there has been selected by me, not by a random search engine, and then if you want to buy something different you can add anything else on your basket.
Right now at Amazon there are some really interesting sales, particularly for DVD, which can go from more than £12 to less than £4, books are discounted too, although not as much. I don’t know how long these prices wil last, so if you’re planning to buy some stuff you might want to do it now.
Buying through our store is an inexpensive way to support the blog, so if you like it and would like to give something back, that’ s a nice way to do it. Every time to buy at Amazon you can just enter through Bilingual For Fun Bookstore and then go ahead and buy whatever you want, even if it has nothing to do with bilingualism.

In case you want to buy French or German books, La Librairie e Die Buchhandlung will be ready soon too. In fact I wanted to show you the three of them at once, but then I saw the sales and thought I’d better let you know about it.

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Animal sounds in different languages

L. — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:48:52 +0000

Children love animals and reproducing animals’ sounds, and this as far as I know is true in all cultures and countries. However, funny enough, animal sounds do change from country to country, or to be pedantic, the way people reproduce animal sounds change.

This is no minor thing, in bilingual families you’ll see daddy saying that the dog goes woof woof, while mummy insists it goes ouah ouah. Even more, you’ll see mummy and daddy shaking their heads. Somehow, I don’t kow why, it’s easier to accept that people speak different languages than to come to terms with the idea that animals do the same… May be it’s because animals’ noises are something we learn as kids and never question ever after? I don’t know, but I know that this is important, the animal sounds are normally part of our fond childhood memories, and they are closely linked to the language, or languages, we speak.

So, if you are in a bilingual family, or you family lives abroad, how do you manage multiple animal sounds? I would say you should alsways use the sounds corresponding to the language you are using, and if you are lost, here you can find some help, this site reports the animal sounds in 17 languages, including Japanese and Urdu.

Furthermore, on Wikipedia we found some pages with the verbs corresponding to the animal sounds, here they are for Italian, English, German and French.

My personal experience is that this can be pretty tricky, let us know how it works for you…

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Roaring Lion picture by Tambako the Jaguar

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Summer vacation options for Italian-English bilingual children

L. — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:38:27 +0000

An italian mom who is raising her child bilingual in English, although none in the family is an English native speaker, asked some tips about how to find Enlish speaking opportunities for the summer vacation. Of course a trip is always a good idea, although the trip is expensive and is always done with family, which speaks italian… Here’s a nice alternative idea, which suits nicely both children that live in Italy and children who live abroad and have some italian origins: Arte al Sole.

Arte al Sole is a summer camp for international children focussed around fine arts, promoting creativity, enjoying nature and local cuisine. It’s run by Shannon: mom, american (she lives most of the year in the States), fine arts expert, passionate about Italy and italian arts.

I asked Shannon whether she thinks Arte al Sole camps would suit bilingual children, that’s what she says:

“Our summer camp welcomes a few bilingual children every year, and many from Italian American families who are not necessarily bilingual but have had Italian language exposure or instruction throughout their childhood.

It’s interesting, because, as I’m sure you know, there are many English language intensive summer programs for Italian children to practice their English, but I’ve heard from Italian parents these past few years that in many cases their children don’t perceive this option as a “fun” experience, and so they inquire about Arte al Sole because it has an appealing artistic/cultural curriculum that they feel their children would enjoy, but is conducted primarily in English with staff and other children who have the ability to speak Italian if necessary. So, the “playful” or “fun” aspect seems to subtly lend itself to the variety of multilingual experiences among the kids.

It is different every year, but the children really do enjoy sharing their language abilities among each other in a relaxed, natural way, which is so endearing. This year we have a few children who attend international schools in Italy and a few who attend Italian state schools from families with Italian mother/American father or vice versa. The remainder are American families organizing their summer vacation in Europe around attending this camp, many of whom are Italian American or have a strong connection to Italy .

So, in summary, the program supports bilingualism truly through an emphasis on the “play” aspect and on the children’s natural desire for cultural exchange. I can very strongly say that when the kids are allowed to proceed on their own level and at their own initiative in language exchange, they flourish more than when it is perceived by them as imposed or mandatory. Furthermore, we have some wonderful local Lucchese artists, cooks, and a book author who conducts our tour of the center, so the children are always so polite and in a sense honored to share their Italian language/or English as appropriate in a respectful way with the teachers who have either English or Italian as their native tongue.”

I think it’s a great idea, and I believe that it takes passion to live in the States and organize summer camps in Italy, and when things are done with real passion they always have something special about them.

If you have already experienced Arte al Sole’s camps please share your experience, or if you are planning to do so please let us know too, but be fast, as the first session is sold out since April already!

My baby is bilingual, how can I help him learn English too?

L. — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:40:37 +0000

I’ll give a straight answer to this question (which I’m hearing quite often now): Don’t.

English is clearly the one language we all need to speak now, so all to often parents of bilingual children are worried that their child should learn English early on too, but obviously don’t know how to go about it. I really want to challenge this assumption, and I’d say that if a family is bilingual but English is not part of their portfolio, it’s probably better to just leave it aside for the moment, at least when the children are very young. And these are some good reaons for that:

trilingualism is more difficult than bilingualism, it requires lots’ of consistency and exposure to all three languages, which is difficult to achieve if one of he languages is neither spoken at home nor in the community
the child will learn English eventually anyway, no need to worry about it. In fact people who can speak two languages are more adept at learning a new foreign language than their monolingual counterparts
the native language is necessary for a serene upbringing and for staying connected with one’s orginins and family, it shouldn’t be sacrificed for the sake of a language of pragmatic use, like English is
parents shoudl ask themselves too much and get stressed about it, by having unrealitsic expectations and quite you might set yourself up for failure, become frustrated and end up abandoning bilingualism all together
better to do one thing properly, rather than doing two things so-so
don’t ask too much of the child, a child is just a child, his/her priorities are to be loved and cared for, to play, have fun and discover the world, going to language classes shouldn’t be part of the picture (assuming that the family environment in this circumstances is not best placed for learning the language)

Children who can speak two languages are better at learning a third language

L. — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:18:58 +0000

This interesting article based on research from Nothwestern University shows how bilingual children are better at learning a new foreign language than monolingual children. The implications are ery relevant for all multilingual and international families, who don’t need to worry about their kids learning English too early on (when English is not part ofb the family’s languages that is): sooner or later they will, so don’t worry about it!
Exposure to 2 languages carries far reaching benefits

Do Language Classes deliver Bilingual Children?

L. — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:16:41 +0000

We have been talking about kindergarten schooling options for bilingual children, and we’ll soon talk about primary schools too, however let’s spend few word also on language classes.

For parents that would like their children to grow bilingual, language classes are often considered an alternative to international/bilingual schooling, a less intense but a far less expensive alternative. As a result all over the place new language classes for children are being created, starting from 3 year old. Mostly these courses offer English as a foreign language, but in English speaking countries alternatives like French, Spanish and (yes!) Italian are also on offer.

The reason is simple, young kids’ minds are very flexible and learn languages easily. What is not clear is how the courses intend to exploit children’s gift for languages, nor which objectives and targets do they set with regards to language acquisition.

This is a very important point, and if you are considering enrolling your child on a language course I encourage you to ask this specific question: What are the objectives of this course?

As far as I know research says that yes children learn languages easily, but they need consistent exposure to it, they cannot learn a language with one or two hours of classes per week. However I might be wrong, may be they do learn few words, like Hello, Bye Bye, Dog e Red. May be they’ll just learn that there are other languages in the world and grow curious about them. Whatever it is, it is essential that objectives are made clear to parents, so that they can decide whether they are worth the effort (money and time wise).

In a couple of occasions I have had a chance to ask this question to schools offering language classes for children, and I must say I received honest answers. They didn’t promise that after a year of classes a 3 year old child would speak sentences in English, not even that he would have used words actively. They said he would have familiarised with the language. Which is still an important thing, but is it worth the cost and effort? And I’m not talking only of the cost in terms of money, or in terms of the time the parents have to put in it. Is it really worth sending a 3 year old to language classes? Shouldn’t his/her life be only about playing, discovering the world, loving and being loved? Are we asking too much from our children? (this is a subject I’ll come back to, a very very important one, I think)

The morale of the story is not that language classes are bad, not at all. The point is that parents should think about it, ask questions, reflect on the pro and contra before enrolling their children on their courses. And may be also start from the assumption that such classes are meaningful only if they are supported by activities at home, between parents and children.

If you did send your child to language classes please share your experience.

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Learning a second language is good childhood mind medicine, studies find

L. — Tue, 19 May 2009 07:02:45 +0000

An interesting article on Bilingual Children from the Cornell language Acquisition Lab.

The article confirms that bilingualism has no negative impact on children, on the contrary it stimulates them positevely, and it also gives some very useful practical tips to parents, which I copy below (however I still encourage you to read the whole article):

Tips to teach a child a second language
• Surround the child with more than one language through conversations and social groups using different languages; the earlier the better.
• Maintain home (heritage) language when a second language is being learned outside the home.
• Expose children to multilingual settings and give them plenty of opportunities to play with children who speak the second language.
• Provide fun and interactive language-learning environments (e.g., music, dance and film) in both languages, and often with children of similar age.
• Promote reading and storytelling in multiple languages.
• Maintain a positive attitude toward languages and cultures children learn.