Questions answered

out of A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003).

What happens if parents don’t agree that their children should become bilingual?

What happens if grandparents and the extended family disapprove of bilingualism?

My children can speak two languages. How can I help them belong to two cultures?

What are the most important factors in raising a bilingual child?

Is it better for my child to learn a language early to secure better storage in the brain?

My child mixes the two languages. What should I do?

My child refuses to use one of his/her languages. What should I do?

Will my child learn two languages only half as well as a monolingual child?

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What happens if parents don’t agree that their children should become bilingual?

If there is disagreement in the family, consider writing down the pluses and minuses on a ‘balance sheet’. Rather than argue about one or two points and let emotions sway, consider the widest variety of factors mentioned in this book. There needs to be a long-term view of the development of the child. In the final balance sheet, who counts most? Consider the interests of the child and not just the short-term preferences of the parents. One danger is that one parent may insist on a personal strongly felt language opinion, without adequate consideration of what is in the best interests of the child.

With care and consideration, a parent may feel it possible to sacrifice an opinion in the best interest of the child. For instance, if the father worries that he cannot understand what the mother is saying to the child in her heritage language, is a child’s bilingualism to be sacrificed because of the father’s concern? With diplomacy, love and meeting problems as challenges to be overcome, solutions can be achieved and understanding gained. A father in this situation may find it possible to forgo understanding the conversations between mother and child to help the child become fluently bilingual. The challenge may be for the father to change rather than the child. Can the father at least gain a passive understanding of the minority language rather than a child lose out on bilingualism?

In short, disagreements need tactfully resolving. Open and frank, positive and empathic discussion is the route to resolution. The most important destination to discuss is the long-term interests of the child.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 9-10. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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What happens if grandparents and the extended family disapprove of bilingualism?

Disapproval of bilingualism may be found among monolingual grandparents and monolingual extended family members. For example, if an English speaker marries a French speaker, grandparents who are rooted in a tradition of monolingualism and monoculturalism may express a distaste for bilingual grandchildren. For such grandparents, their strong monolingual culture is seemingly being usurped and replaced by a diluted bilingual and bicultural experience.

There is also the historical legacy of bilingualism being identified with less intelligence, language under-development, problems of personal identity, and school under-performance. None of these attributions has been found fair or correct by research. Nevertheless, prejudices about bilingualism still abound, particularly among Western monolinguals.

Such disapproval, if based on prejudice, needs meeting with more up-to-date and better informed evidence. Information found in this book and other books (see page 189ff) maybe be used to counteract misjudgments by grandparents, uncles and aunts and others. Where bilinguals are characterized negatively, there needs to be a clear assertion that bilingualism tends to have advantages and raises individual potential.

A different type of disapproval occurs when grandparents or other feel personally excluded. Research and evidence are unlikely to affect such inner feelings of alienation. Therefore, parents of bilingual children need to be social as well as language engineers. There is a need to explain to children and grandparents alike how communication can best be facilitated. It is possible to explain even to young children that grandma and granddad may not understand them talking English and therefore they need to use Spanish. Young children become amazingly adept at switching to the appropriate language and have everything to gain from communication with grandparents in the latter’s preferred language.

Grandparents and others also need an explanation. Grandparents can be helped to understand the advantages of the child being bilingual, of the naturalness of the child switching between two languages, and that no loss of love or care is implied when a language is spoken that is not understood by grandparents. Where disapproval exists, diplomacy is needed. Bilingual parents and bilingual children are often relatively well equipped (language-wise and socially) to act diplomatically in case of disapproval. The very act of having to deal diplomatically with languages only adds positively to a bilingual’s life experiences and enhances their portfolio of skills and accomplishments.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 11-13. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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My children can speak two languages. How can I help them belong to two cultures?

In one sense, merely speaking a language to a child conveys culture to that child. Embedded in the meanings of words and phrases is always a culture. Through language, a child learns a whole way of life, ways of perceiving and organizing experience, ways of anticipating the world, forms of social relationship, rules and conventions about behavior, moral values and ideals, the culture of technology and science as well as poetry, music and history. Culture is reproduced in the child through the fertilization and growth of language.

However, it is possible to speak a language fluently yet not really understand, fully experience or fully participate in the culture that goes with a particular language. This is like saying about a person ‘they speak Italian but don’t act Italian’. It is paradoxically possible to be bilingual yet relatively monocultural. How can we lead a child on to identify themselves with a particular language culture? How can we help them belong to a particular language group?

Through meeting speakers of their two languages, visiting a variety of cultural events – from markets to sports matches, from religious meetings to rustic festivals – parents can introduce their children to the cultures that surround each language. Where first-hand experience is not possible, television and video tapes allow second-hand experience. Introduction to the broadest range of cultures that goes with each language will potentially broaden the horizons of the child, open up more and new opportunities, and give a world view where there are fewer barriers and more bridges.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 17-18. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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What are the most important factors in raising a bilingual child?

Children are born ready to become bilinguals and multilinguals. Too many are restricted to becoming monolinguals. No caring parent or teacher denies children the chance to develop physically, socially, educationally or emotionally. Yet we deny many children the chance to develop bilingually and multilingually.

Language is about communication (and identity). We need language to communicate information, to build relationships, to play games and tell stories, to make new friends and work in groups. Some bilingual parents fuss endlessly about correctness or grammar, accuracy of vocabulary, not mixing two languages, and skilled interpreting and translating. Instead, the most important factor in raising bilingual children is to make their language development a pleasure, a positive and enjoyable experience. Children need to value their two languages, two cultures and in a modest way, become aware of the advantages of being bilingual and bicultural.

Parents who make the development of proficiency in two languages a crusade, a source of conflict, a series of mini crises, a competition against monolinguals are likely to work against themselves. A language castle is simultaneously built and attacked. A child has learned that bilingualism is associated with pressure, anxiety and correction.

It is important that children’s attitude towards their two languages (and their motivation to extend their two languages) is encouraged continuously. Show delight at small steps forward in bilingual development. The occasional pat on the back, a quiet ‘well done’, a wink or a smile works wonders for a child’s language ego. For example, when a child correctly switched languages in front of grandma so she understands, or automatically translated something for a friend to help relationships in a group, gently show your delight. We all need encouragement to carry on learning and refining our skills. Encouragement and aptly directed praise will provide the positive ambience, the caring ethos and helpful family atmosphere to surround the development of bilingualism.

When the child speaks a minority language, encouraging use of that minority language may need to be more rather than less. When there is discouragement in the street, little reinforcement on the screen and in the school playgroup for minority language usage, parents are often pivotal in fostering favorability of attitude among the children to that minority language. It is important to amplify that minority language rather than the majority language, especially in the early years. The winds of influence usually blow in the direction of the majority language: mass media, employment, communication with bureaucracy, for example. Therefore, the balance of language experience needs tilting in favor of the minority language. While ensuring the child becomes fully fluent in the majority language some sheltering from incessant blasts of the pervasive majority language is important.

A most important factor in raising a bilingual child is the language that surrounds language. The gardener cannot make the language seeds grow. All the gardener can do is to provide certain conditions: a rich soil, light, water and careful tending. Language growth in children requires the minimum of pruning – these are tender, young plants. Correcting language continuously, getting the child to repeat sentences is the kind of pruning that research shows to have almost no effect, even a negative effect on language growth. The role of the language gardener is to provide a stimulating soil – a variety of pleasurable environments for language growth.

This does not mean that all that is needed is encouragement and care. The language gardener also needs to plan, to prepare the soil, to water, fertilize and sometimes weed. Language growth can be slow. There will be many anxious days when tender young shoots are wilting in the heat of the majority language and in dander of breaking among the strong winds of peer pressure. The parent as language gardener can help maximize those conditions that are open to influence, but parents cannot control the growth of language.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 26-27. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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Is it better for my child to learn a language early to secure better storage in the brain?

One recent area of research on bilinguals is how their two languages are stored and used in the brain. For example, if someone learns two languages from birth, with bilingualism as their first language, are the two languages stored differently in teh brain from someone who learns a second language at school or in adult life? A frontier-breaking piece of research from Joy Hirsch and her colleagues at the Department of Neurology, Cornell University Medical Center, New York used new brain imaging techniques to show a difference between early bilinguals (e.g. both languages learnt before three years of age) and late bilinguals.

In a region of the brain called Broca’s area, there is a language-sensitive site. Joy Hirsch and her colleagues used a technique called ‘functional magnetic resonance imaging’ to show whether a bilingual’s two languages are stored in close proximity or were relatively distant in the human cortex.

The basic finding is that in early bilinguals, the two languages are found in distinct but adjacent sites. That is, when two languages are learnt from early childhood, the languages sit next door to each other in the brain. This suggests that similar or identical regions of the brain serve both languages. In comparison, among late bilinguals, the native and second languages are stored in more separate areas.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 31-32. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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My child mixes the two languages. What should I do?

Consider yourself a very typical family. There are probably only a few bilingual families where the child does not mix the two languages, at the very least in the early stages. Language mixing is given other labels:

• transference (transfer between two languages);
• codeswitching; and
• interference between languages.

Many people are concerned about the purity of a language – language standardization. Listening to a person mixing two languages is anathema to the purist. While the purity of a language is an important issues, from the child’s point of view, any language mixing helps the message to be communicated and understood. While hybrid languages (e.g. constantly mixing Spanish and English) may be temporary (e.g. in early childhood), they can also occasionally be relatively stable and shared by a large group (e.g. the mixing of Spanish and English in certain parts of New York).

Mixing is typical and to be expected in the early stages of bilingual development. However, many parents do not like to hear children mixing two languages.

Parents can help in the process of language separation by various do's and don'ts. The most important is to avoid criticizing, or constantly pointing out mistakes, revealing anxiety and concern. This is unlikely to have a positive effect on a child’s language development. On the contrary, it is more likely to make the child inhibited in language, anxious about their bilingualism and may slow down language development. A constant focus on language correctness and form is unnatural for the child, who is more interested in facts and ideas, stories and activities. For the child, language is a means to an end, not an end in itself. Language is a vehicle to help move along the road of information exchange and social communication.

Parents can also ensure that language boundaries are usually kept. Languages spoken by a parent need to be separate whenever possible, at least in the early infant years. A parent who speaks one sentence in French to a child, the next sentence in English, may latently be teaching the child that languages can be mixed. However, children tend to learn quickly with whom they can codeswitch, and with whom they should use one language almost solely.

One form of language separation is the one parent-one language strategy. Each parent speaks a different language to the child. An alternative is if both parents only use one particular language, with the other language used in different contexts (e.g. in the school, for religion, in the mass media, in the community). When language is separated along divisions of different people, different contexts, even different times of the week or day, a child is learning that language compartmentalization exists. Mixing may still occur early on., but boundaries enable a smooth transition to a stage where children keep their languages relatively separate.

Whether or not a young bilingual mixes two languages may be affected by differing factors such as:

• the amount of separation a child experiences in listening to the two languages (different people and in different contexts);
• the balance of the two languages in the child’s home and community life;
• the quality of language experience in both languages;
• the quality of language experience;
• parents acceptance (or not) of mixing the two languages;
• and the experience of mixing in the community

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 63-64. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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My child refuses to use one of his/her languages. What should I do?

Within most bilinguals, there is language shift and movement. Languages do not stay static and equal. In the teens, there is often movement towards a prestigious majority language. Having worked so long and so hard to produce bilingual children and gained a measure of success, parents may find it hard to accept that their teenagers turn towards one language rather than another. A child may refuse to speak one language in the home, preferring to operate in the higher status language used in the peer group. This is quite customary among language minorities.

The locally felt status and prestige of a language plays a major part in acceptance or rejection of a language. Even young children pick up the pecking order of languages in the family and the community.

Sometimes, rejection is short-lived. Just as adolescents go through fads and fashions with clothes, eating habits, sleep, so there are language fashions. Language change may be temporary, reflecting peer group culture, a symbol of growing emotional and social independence from parents and family life, growing self-assertiveness and the need for a distinct, independent self-identity from the family. Children often don’t want to appear different. They want to conform to the status-giving behavior of the peer group. This may entail a temporary non-use of one of their languages. Teenagers also feel sensitive towards those who are excluded from conversations. When non-speakers of a language are present, they want to include them in all conversations.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), pp 65-66. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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Will my child learn two languages only half as well as a monolingual child?

The answer to this question is a definite ‘no’. There is no known limit to a child’s language learning capacity. It is not the case that the monolingual has one well filled language balloon and the bilingual two half filled language balloons. The child has enough capacity in the brain for learning two or more languages. Some two-thirds of people in the world are bilingual and these show that bilingualism and trilingualism are perfectly possible.

It is likely that the bilingual child will not have as large a vocabulary in each language as the monolingual child. Generally, a child’s total combined vocabulary in two languages will far exceed the monolingual’s in one language. Bilingual children usually have enough vocabulary to express themselves easily and fluently in either language. There may be occasional periods when the bilingual child seems a little behind the monolingual in learning a language. However, this lag is usually temporary. With sufficient exposure and practice, the bilingual child will go through the same language development stages as the monolingual child. Occasionally, the speed of the journey may be slightly slower, but the route through the developmental stages is the same.

This was an excerpt from the following book: A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker (Second Edition, 2003), page 66. To read the more than 120 questions and answers in Colin Baker’s book, purchase the book directly from the Multilingual Matter’s website: www.multilingual-matters.com.

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