image credit: don't panic, by patrick hoesly, via flickr

I just discovered your website, which I find very useful and interesting. I’ve been thinking about bilingualism for some time now, from the time my now one year old daughter, Marina, was born. My greatest concern is that we would like for her to learn a second language right away for all the usual reasons: globalization, lack of jobs in Spain, cultural enrichment, the ability to travel with ease…

Our problem is that we learned English poorly: with little or no conversation and too much grammar, without native teachers…We do not feel able to teach her and we fear that the majority of the bilingual schools are not doing much to improve the system (I’m a teacher). On the other hand, the bilingual schools in Valencia (where we’re from) are expensive, especially if we want to have more children and give them all the same opportunities. And there are other disadvantages, like the educational style and the fact that they are far away.

My questions are: What can we do to help Marina learn English? Movies and cartoons in English? Should we save up money so that she can study abroad when she is older? A native speaking teacher at home once per day or once per week? Where can we find an ideal teacher? Thank you in advance for your response.

Miguel Ángel Mascarell

Dear Miguel Ángel,

First I want to encourage you to follow through with this bilingual project for your daughter. Of course, I’ll also tell you that it is not easy and it does require some effort and cost. But first and foremost, you should decide on a realistic project which will not cause you to sacrifice other essential things in your family.

Fortunately, there are now many ways to expose children to a new language. This no longer depends completely on parents or school. But we must always bear in mind that our children must be motivated to learn the language if we want this to happen in a natural way. This is the key, helping your child to feel motivated to communicate and interact in a language.

This is why movies and cartoons can be a useful tool if one of you sits down with your daughter to share this activity and talk about what you’re watching. Like I said before, motivation comes from interaction. Simply watching television can be a source of entertainment, but it is not enough to acquire a language.

I don’t know what your level of English is, but sometimes you don’t need to worry about speaking to them with an accent if you’re just trying to provide support and reinforcement for the language. For many parents who don’t feel confident about their English, it can be very helpful to read stories, so that they don’t have to worry about grammatical errors. If you feel up to it, you can buy bilingual books and have a favorite stuffed animal “read” the story in English when it is time to “speak/play” the second language. This is a shared activity with Mom and Dad, so this is a motivating way to expose your child to a new language.

Of course, this alone will not make your child bilingual. That’s why it is important that you give her opportunities to do activities with people who will only speak to her in English often enough for her to truly learn the language.

For young children, playgroups with parents, children and teachers who only speak English while doing fun activities can be very helpful. The idea is not to “learn” a language but rather to acquire it in a natural way.

Another option which would be appropriate for a child your daughter’s age would be to hire a native speaking babysitter or invite an au pair to stay at your home (you can find more information on this kind of services at www.soschildcare.com).

Finally, the idea of spending some time abroad is a great one. But there will be plenty of time for that. Now you can start with these other resources, while Marina is young and able to learn a second language naturally and effortlessly.

As you can see, there are several options for helping a child to learn a new language. But whatever you do, remember that the most important thing is to give your daughter opportunites to communicate and to create a need for her to communicate in English while having fun.

Best of luck!

Mariana Lombardo is an experienced children speech therapist. She does clinical work at SINEWS with bilingual families in the expat community in Madrid. Mariana is in charge of the workshops for bilingual families offered by SINEWS and she also gives personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families. For more information, please visit www.sinews.es.

image credit: eppny, by woodleywonderworks, via flickr

I have a two year old son, and I have always wanted my children to be bilingual. I’m from Venezuela and I have a bit of a foundation in English from when I spent 6 months as an exchange student in the US and during several visits later on. But since I have spent the last 8 years in Spain my contact with English has lessened. When I went to the US for two months this year, I realized that I had lost much of my English. On the other hand, my husband speaks no English. As I’ve already told you, I have a great desire for my son to be English, so I have been trying to speak English to him from the time he was born. This is becoming difficult because it is much more natural for me to speak to him in Spanish and sometimes I mix both languages. Sometimes I realize I’m not sure if what I’ve said is correct. My son also watches cartoons and movies in English, he knows the alphabet in English and can distinguish each letter, he knows his shapes and colors, can count up to 20, has a vocabulary of about 130 words in English and says some sentences in English. My husband has a terrible level of English and I try to keep him from speaking English to our son, but it’s hard. I don’t know if what I’m doing is right. What else can I do to help my son grow up bilingually? There is a bilingual school in Vigo, but we can’t afford it. I have thought about visiting my family in the US for two months each year and sending my children to camp or some other activity which would allow them to be immersed in English. I see that children come here from Russia and the Sahara and speak Spanish after a month, so why shouldn’t my son also speak English if I make an effort to take him to the US every year? My son also loves it when I let him watch videos with flashcards which help him learn words in English. He never gets bored.

Ancari

Dear Ancari,
I loved your question because it touches on two fundamental issues:

What are we willing to sacrifice so that our children can become bilingual?
and Do our children need to have a native-like dominance of a language or do they simply need to be able to work or communicate with others in that language?

The answer to the first question should never be “anything at all”. In fact, we should never sacrifice the quality of communication between a child and his parents. Speaking to a child in a language that we feel uncomfortable speaking and which is an imperfect tool for transmitting more complex messages with nuances can have great disadvantages (of course, this all depends on the parent’s level in that language, since there are many people who became bilingual later in life and who feel very comfortable speaking their second or third languages).

So when the sacrifice is too great, it is important to choose a different strategy. Of course, if the language is not present at home and/or at school from the beginning your child won’t be an early bilingual, but we shouldn’t forget that there are other kinds of bilingualism.

Like me, for example. I am a late bilingual with a clearly dominant language: Spanish. But I’m a psychiatrist who works in English with the international community in Madrid on a daily basis, and I have friends I speak to exclusively in English (because they don’t speak Spanish) without any problems. Sometimes I can miss out on popular expressions or I can’t find a certain word, or perhaps I may lack specfic vocabulary for specialist terminology (legal or construction terms, for example), but I make a living in English and I can effectively communicate in English, thereby opening many doors for me and broadening the geographical scope of my relationships. What’s my secret? My parents, both Spanish, sent me to camps abroad and invited English and North American exchange students to our home for the summer when they couldn’t afford to send us abroad. When I was a university student and even afterwards I always looked for opportunities to study in other countries (England, Holland, the United States). If my parents had hosted a foreign university student or if I had had family to speak with on a daily basis via SKYPE, I’m sure I would have become even more fluent in English. You are right when you say that it’s never too late and it is not essential to make sure a child is bilingual from an early age in order to give him the opportunity to learn other languages later on.

Of course, all of this will depend upon each child’s linguistic abilities and his preference for languages.
For more ideas on how to stimulate a second language when both parents are monolingual, be sure to check out this response to a previous question: “Help! What can I do to raise my daughter to become bilingual?”

Best of luck,
Orlanda

Dr. Orlanda Varela is a Child Psychiatrist and the Coordinator of the educational project for Bilingual Families at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute in Madrid. SINEWS organizes bilingualism workshops for parents in Madrid, as well as personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families with specific language development problems. For more information, please visit sinews.es.

image credit: innocence, by thedreamsky, via flickr

Hello,

I have two children, one is 4 and the other 17 months. We have decided to speak Spanish as a family and English at school. I never speak English to the children, but my Irish husband speaks to them in English if there is no one else around or if they are alone in the supermarket (without me).

My question is about my 17 month old, who is starting to speak. For now all of his words are in Spanish, but next month he will be hearing more English when I go back to work. I work from home for about 23 hours a week, and someone will be taking care of my son in the house.

I enjoy the fact that my 4 year old always speaks to me in Spanish, and I’m worried about the little one mixing languages (I think this is normal) and the older one trying to speak English with me. How should I react if my child says “water” to me instead of “agua”? I have read many of your previous responses, and I know you say that children only speak a language if they see a need to speak it. If I react when my child says “water” he may not feel the need to say “agua”.

Mónica Amaya

Dear Mónica,

The emotional aspect of communication is so important, isn’t it? I understand your concern about keeping your communication with your kids in Spanish, but you don’t need to worry. I understand that you live in Spain and your husband is Irish. Even if your children go to a 100% monolingual English school, they will probably speak to one another in Spanish. They will probably watch tv in Spanish and they will need to use Spanish if they want to buy candy in a shop. It is highly like that Spanish will be their dominant language and that they will want to speak to you in Spanish.

It would be very odd for a child to choose the minority language to communicate with a parent who speaks the majority language to him. It is so unthinkable that in all our years of working with bilingual families, we have never seen a case. (This doesn’t mean that it is impossible, since there may be a child somewhere who has decided to behave this way , but it would be very strange.)

On the other hand, it is common for children who have been exposed to two languages from birth to mix words in both languages (between the ages of 18 months and 3 years). They may do this because they have heard the word more in one language or because they like the way it sounds, but that doesn’t mean the child is choosing to change the language he speaks with you. This is just a normal phase in the learning process.

You should not be concerned about this at all, and if you respond to these “mixed words”, you are in no way reinforcing a language change. This won’t happen because children can sense your strongest language and they will unconsciously speak to you in that language. This is a very interesting skill in children. Even if you make an effort to speak to them in a language that isn’t your strongest, they generally respond in what they intuitively feel is your native language.It’s as though they have radar.

Your goal is not about individual words (like “water”), but rather it is about finding the most effective way of communicating with a person. And in your case your child will choose Spanish to ask to you push him on the swings or to beg you to let him stay up late with the grown-ups.

There will be mixing, but don’t be too concerned. Your younger child will react like your older child did. Children don’t tend to become too confused in these cases.

Dr. Orlanda Varela is a Child Psychiatrist and the Coordinator of the educational project for Bilingual Families at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute in Madrid. SINEWS organizes bilingualism workshops for parents in Madrid, as well as personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families with specific language development problems. For more information, please visit sinews.es.

A fabulous interview with Sinews Multilingual Therapy Institute co-founder Orlanda Varela was just published on the El País blog, “De mamás y papás”. As always, Orlanda gives some excellent advice about raising bilingual children, what to do when a child refuses to speak one of his languages, foreign language education in schools and much more.

She also mentions Barbara Zurer Pearson’s amazingly practical guide for parents, Consigue que tu hijo sea bilingüe. Many thanks to Orlanda and blogger Cecilia Jan for helping spread the word about the benefits of bilingualism!

Reminder: The experts from Sinews are also available to answer your questions in the “Ask Sinews” section of our blog! Just send your specific questions about raising bilingual children to info@bilingualreaders.com and be sure to visit our blog to read expert advice from Sinews.

image credit: beach ball language activity, by brandi jordan (via flickr)

If you’re a regular reader of Bilingual Readers, you may know that our entire company’s mission is based on two main principles: a passion for great, high quality books and a passion for languages. We often publish articles about the benefits of bilingualism to encourage parents and educators to expose children to multiple languages from a very early age. In previous posts we’ve discussed studies that have shown the many cognitive benefits of bilingualism (for example, bilingualism appears to improve reading speed and comprehension), but until now I had never seen a study which demonstrates that bilingual children are actually much better prepared to learn new languages (in addition to their native languages) as they grow up. That’s why I was so excited this morning when I read about a new study which provides scientific backing to a theory that many have believed in for years.

In a new study published by Janet Werker from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, researchers asked the following questions based on a previous study which showed that bilingual children could distinguish between their two languages soley by observing facial cues from bilingual speakers:

“Is this a specific sensitivity just to the two languages that the baby is being exposed to? Or as a function of having to pay attention to the cues that will distinguish the two languages in their world, if they’re growing up bilingual, do bilingual babies learn something more general? Do they learn to pay attention to the cues in language that might allow them to keep any two languages apart?”

Not surprisingly, the results of this new study seem to suggest that bilingual children develop cognitive abilities that help them differentiate between languages. Since monolingual children lose this ability when they are around seven or eight months old, this gives bilingual children a significant advantage when they are learning a third language. So there you have it, one more reason why raising a child in two or more languages can be extremely beneficial in so many ways! Click here to read an interview with the study’s author, who has lots to say about the benefits of bilingualism for young children.

Our friends at Sinews have written a great article on raising bilingual children on dirigirenfemenino.com. As always, the experts at Sinews have great advice for all those parents who are struggling to give their kids the gift of bilingualism.

image credit: dominio de las lenguas, via Público (click to view full size image)

If you’ve been reading us for a while, I’m sure you know that we try to avoid political discussions about bilingualism and the minority languages spoken in Spain. This is primarily because we believe that there is plenty of evidence to support the fact that a bilingual upbringing has loads of benefits, regardless of which combination of languages you choose to teach your children. One of the most recent studies on the subject demonstrates some of the many cognitive advantages bilingual children and adults have over their monolingual peers. Click here for more in-depth information on the benefits of bilingualism. So we strongly encourage parents to raise their children bilingually, whether that means English/Spanish, Arabic/French, Polish/Chinese or whatever language combination you feel motivated to share with your children.

That said, a interesting article in the Spanish daily newspaper Publico recently caught my eye. Under the headline “La recuperación de las lenguas aún es un reto” (Language Recovery is Still a Challenge), the article uses pictographs and numerical data to show the evolution of each of Spain’s minority languages over the last 30 years in those regions where each language is spoken. It’s especially interesting to see the challenges each region has faced over the years and the impact that social and political support for these minority languages has had on the recovery of each language.

The main (non-political) conclusion we can gain from these statistics is that it takes work for children to learn any language that is not the primary community language. Children first need to be exposed to a language and then they need to feel a motivation to communicate in that language. Just as those communities who have supported the use of their minority languages and worked for more opportunities for children to find a practical use for those languages have seen a growth in the percentage of the population that is truly bilingual, any family that makes the choice to raise their children bilingually will see greater results if they take active steps to both expose children to the language and create real opportunities for them to use the language on a daily basis. Best of luck to those of you who are fighting to give your children the wonderful gift of bilingualism!

As some of you may know, the annual European Day of Languages was celebrated on Saturday September 26th. This annual celebration was created by the Council of Europe to “alert the public to the importance of language learning and diversify the range of languages learnt in order to increase plurilingualism and intercultural understanding.” Of course we at Bilingual Readers agree wholeheartedly with that mission and are always working hard to provide resources for bilingual families to help children develop language skills through reading. For us, every day is a great day for celebrating languages, but this sort of celebration is a great opportunity to raise this important issue with the general public at least once a year.

This year the Council of Europe included a list of interesting facts about languages and bilingualism, which we thought we’d share with you today. Here are just a few highlights:

*There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world - spoken by six billion people divided into 189 independent states.

*Many Europeans (and Americans) think most people speak only one language, but in actual fact at least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.

*No language is in itself more difficult than any other – all children, in fact, learn their mother tongue in the same natural way and with equal ease.

*In its first year a baby utters a wide range of vocal sounds; at around one year the first understandable words are uttered; at around three years complex sentences are formed; at five years a child possesses several thousand words.

*The mother tongue is usually the language one knows best and uses most. But there can be “perfect bilinguals” who speak two languages equally well. Normally, however, bilinguals display no perfect balance between their two languages.

*Bilingualism brings with it many benefits: it makes the learning of additional languages easier, enhances the thinking process and fosters contacts with other people and their cultures.

*Bilingualism and plurilingualism entail economic advantages, too: jobs are more easily available to those who speak several languages, and multilingual companies have a better competitive edge than monolingual ones.

Have a great day and remember to celebrate your languages and cultures every day!

Last week we talked about the power of using bilingual play to help your child’s language development along. We all know that bilingual games can do wonders for helping children learn a new language or reinforce a minority language they’re already hearing at home, so I was very excited when Jessie from Gogolingo.com asked me to try out this new website, which uses a concept called “playful immersion” as a way of teaching language through on-line games. Gogolingo.com defines itself as providing “research-based, age-appropriate activities with individualized progress reports that customize to your child’s personal learning curve.” After playing around with my own little lingo (a lingo is a little bear-like creature which your child is supposed to help learn a new language), I got to know the site a bit better and thought I’d share some of my observations with our readers.

What first caught my attention was the huge level of parental involvement. In the Grown Ups section of the site, gogolingo makes it clear that they “want to partner with YOU - your child’s first and most important teacher - to help your child develop a life-long love of languages.” Now that’s a statement we at Bilingual Readers can agree with wholeheartedly! Each time a child plays on the site, the parents receive an email notification of what the child learned that day with helpful hints on how to reinforce those concepts. There are forums for parents to discuss their concerns, language learning tips of the day, individualized progress charts, external resource links and even reminder emails when your child hasn’t visited the site in a while.

As for the games, they are simple, fun and tailored to each child’s age and language level.* We were also pleased to find some great literary focused games, geared toward helping children learn the abc’s and read storybooks in Spanish. At this point in time the only language combination available is for for English speakers who want to learn Spanish, but Jessie assured me that they will be adding new language combinations (Spanish speakers who want to learn English are the next on the list!) as soon as they’ve perfected the product. In that sense, you can help out by contacting gogolingo.com directly with any suggestions you may have.

Of course, when it comes to language development, on-line language games are no substitute for direct parental interaction, but they can be a great complementary tool. In order to maximize the effectiveness of these on-line games, make sure you sit in as much as possible on your child’s play sessions at gogolingo.com or any of the other bilingual on-line game sites we recommend in our Just for Kids! section. Have fun!

*The possibilities of tailoring the program to your child’s specific needs increase with the premium model. You can see a comparison of the free vs. premium package here: http://www.gogolingo.com/membership/)

image credit: School Girls playing Hopscotch_Cuba 042, via flickr

We all know that children learn all sorts of important skills from playing, but did you know that child’s play is also essential for language development? The truth is that children use play to discover the world around them, develop their imaginations, form bonds with their peers and learn many other important life skills. According to a recent article by Marisa Constantinides for TEFL Matters, there are nine different types of play (conceptual games, visual perceptual tasks, auditory perceptual tasks, fine motor tasks, artistic activities, material play, physical play, representational object play and fantasy play), which all contribute to developing various facets of your child’s language skills. Of course there are specific games which may help parents from bilingual families gently nudge children into using developing language skills in both languages. Here are a few time tested Spanish/English favorites, as well as some more modern ideas, to get you started:

*I Spy/Veo veo: This guessing game reinforces vocabulary and sentence structure by repeating the same little rhyme over and over again with the child. It also teaches deductive reasoning skills and can be played pretty much anytime, anywhere. Older children can play a sort of 20 questions version of this game, in which the child may ask you 20 questions to help narrow down the item you “spied”.

*Mother May I?: This time tested favorite, along with Simon Says and other similar games, teach children how to listen to, give and follow orders. They also teach vocabulary and help develop fine motor skills.

*Songs and Nursery rhymes: Singing songs and reciting nursery rhymes with your children is another great way to reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure. The rhythm and rhyme of this sort of language also makes it easy for children to remember and reproduce. Who doesn’t remember the songs and nursery rhymes of his youth?

*On-line games: For this new tech savvy generation, it’s never to early to play on-line games. There are all sorts of bilingual and language learning websites which can help your child develop their language and technological skills at the same time, and many of them are even free! You can check out a few of our favorite English and Spanish language sites for kids in the Just for Kids! section of our resources page.

We should never underestimate the power of bilingual play for children of all ages, so have a blast!