studies

image credit: eMail, via flickr

If you’ve tried to send an email to any of the bilingualreaders.com email addresses over the last few days*, you may have received an error message stating that our mailboxes were over their capacity. We’ve tidied up our inboxes just in case, but the server doesn’t seem to care and seems hell bent on its plans to block us from receiving messages for the time being. Thankfully I’m pretty sure our web developer will be able to easily resolve this issue fairly quickly, but our frustration with the server has helped me to realize just how dependent we are on new technologies. When I arrived in Spain for the first time a little over ten years ago, finding a place to check my email was fairly low on my list of priorities. Yet now it’s hard to imagine a day gone by without seeing what my friends across the globe are up to on Facebook (our apologies in advance for the 5 second self promotional reminder: by clicking here you can check out what Bilingual Readers is up to on Facebook).  The world has changed so much over such a short period of time, and most of my generation has thrived on this new global playground.

Or have we? Are we really taking advantage of all of the possibilities these new technologies have provided, or are many of us hindered by language barriers, which prevent us from gaining access to all the information our neighbors have to offer? We now have so many opportunities to connect with and learn from people all over the world in real time, but in order to truly take advantage of these possibilities, we must first be able to speak and understand the language of those we are trying to communicate with. Just think of all the treasures out there just waiting to be discovered (and I’m not referring to the gold and gemstone variety), if only we could understand one another!

Just one more reminder of the most important reason to teach our children languages at an early age. One of our main goals at Bilingual Readers is to give the next generation the tools it needs to be able to communicate with and learn from as many different cultures as possible. Who knows what a future filled with new technological developments will hold, but we want our bilingual readers to be as prepared as possible to thrive in this increasingly global community. Let’s start a revolution, one bilingual book at a time.

*Update: Good news! Apparently, our email addresses are working again!

image credit: Girl with book, via Flickr

There’s been a lot of buzz on the Internet recently about a new study published in the Archive of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, which states that “TV-viewing tends to decrease babies’ likelihood of learning new words, talking, playing and otherwise interacting with others.” To most of us this news comes as no surprise (there’s a reason it’s called a Boob Tube), but it does raise an important issue from a language development perspective since according to this study, “for every hour a television was turned on, babies heard 770 fewer words from an adult…Conversational exchanges between baby and parent dropped 15%, as did the overall number of vocalizations made by children.”

While banning television from your home forever is neither practical nor necessary (thank God), the bottom line is crystal clear: babies learn language best through direct interaction with their parents and other caregivers. This conclusion is even more important for families who are trying to raise their children in more than one language. Of course there are many ways for parents to interact directly with their children, but we at Bilingual Readers believe that one of the most effective ways is through shared parent-child reading.

We were especially impressed by the stark contrast between the above mentioned study and a 2007 study on shared parent-infant book reading by the Infant Toddler Specialists of Indiana, which showed that early parent-child book reading actually supports later language learning. Here are a few tips based on the results of this study, which we hope you’ll enjoy:

• Because shared book reading with infants is related to later language development, it is a good idea to encourage parents to establish reading time with their child as early as four months. This may create a pattern of behavior that holds throughout childhood.
• Being aware of the activity level of the infant is important, to ensure that more active infants (often boys, but sometimes girls) still have exposure to complex vocabulary and opportunities to have joint attention with their reading companions.
• Ways to make sure that an infant benefits from each reading experience include
responding to the infant’s interests, labeling pictures, using a variety of books, and using the infant’s non-verbal and verbal cues to have “conversations.”
• Although the reason why shared reading results in language benefits is not fully
understood, it is important to make time and space for parents to be responsive to their infants. Both the parent and the infant should enjoy each experience!

Happy reading!