Raising Bilingual Children
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Posted by Margaret M. Williams Jan 16, 2009 |
Konnichiwa!
I may never be able to speak more than one language fluenty (though I'm always trying to learn!), but it looks as though I will have bilingual grandchildren in my future. At least I hope so. Now, to be sure, I am not rushing my son and his new wife, a beautiful young woman from Japan; but it seems that down the road children are inevitable.
The happy couple are currently living in Japan. He speaks both English and Japanese. She speaks Japanese and is learning English. They hope to move to the U.S. sometime. When they have children, what will the kids speak? My fervent hope is that any children they have will be able to speak fluently to both sets of grandparents. That is why I am doing my research now.
What language should a child in a bilingual (or even multilingual) family speak? (I vote for both!) When should the child start learning the second language? (My research says at birth.) What are the best strategies? (Turns out there's quite a variety of strategies. And tons of resources, both online and in print. ) Those are just some of the questions that parents (and grandparents!) have when they plan to raise their children to speak more than one language.
So you can bet I will be devoting numerous articles to the subject of raising bilingual children. Here are my first two:
I am fortunate to know many people who are raising their children to be bilingual. So I'll have lots of personal stories and tips & suggestions to offer. But I'm also checking with the experts (okay, yes, parents are experts, but I'm talking here now about linguists who do research). Now I had better get back to my Japanese Rosetta Stone.
Sayonara!