My husband's first language is Arabic and mine is English. My husband speaks English fluently (pretty amazing considering he really didn't have much formal learning!) and I speakVERY little Arabic. [Although, thankfully colloquial- I think it would be worst if I only knew Modern Standard Arabic] We are trying to raise our daughter to be bilingual (and later tri-lingual).
I have another friend who recently posted on Facebook about some problems she sees about raising her daughter bilingual. I have quite a few friends now who are trying to raise their kids to be bilingual and - as with all learning and dealing with individual kids- all the styles and kids' response are different. I should note, all of these families have one person who was raised (until at least HS) outside the U.S.
One of the things that seems to come up at this point- 18 month to 4 years- is wondering if the child is getting enough of X language. I think it's always important to remember that kids are just learning language and how to communicate at this point- what they say may not make a whole lot of sense in one language or the other! Yes, they may show preference, but I don't think this means that they are NOT learning another language.
The trick really seems to be keeping up language as they get older and as they get into more formal language learning settings. (ie, school) THAT's when I hear that kids will stick to one language (and forget the other) because it's what everyone else is saying. That is the difficulty for language learning in the home- if you have more than one kid, they may speak to each other only in one language. And that language may be the language of what's in the schools they are in.
So, what does that mean? I think it means several things.
1. Each child is different and they may always prefer one language to the other. We can't expect that they will just combine languages when they talk (like they do as young children).
2. Encouraging the non-dominant language is very important. The dominant language is usually whatever is spoken in the household until they start school; it may change if the dominant language in school is not that of home. The key word in this statement is to encourage. If learning the non-dominant language (since they don't get that in school- grammar, writing, reading, etc) becomes a chore, they may learn the words, but not the language and therefore their communicate may be a bit stiff. Which, is fine, but probably not desirable. (I think back to my own Spanish classes in HS about this!)
What a friend did, which I think is brilliant, is take her kids to her home country each summer and enroll them into a local summer program (ie, soccer). The kids do something they like, PLUS they MUST speak the language of the other kids. The language becomes more normal and not something forced or uncool. Plus, they keep up with the changes to the language by being around the native speakers.
3. The child may NOT become fluent in X language. While there is so many articles and studies that show how receptive kids are to learning a second language, there are a lot of factors. How are they learning English? What type of exposure do they have to X language? TV? Movies? Family conversations? Lectures? Books? Language is as much a cultural skill as a communications one and it's hard to exactly duplicate it without going to X country with the native speakers from time to time. (which is not always possible- we struggle to go every other year)
I REALLY hope my daughter becomes bilingual. Her daycare lady is from Morocco and speaks Arabic to her. We hope to send her to a immersion public school in Arabic. We hope to go home every other year to Jordan. And I talk to her mostly in Arabic.
BUT, my husband and I talk mostly in English to each other. MY family (which actually lives across the country) doesn't know Arabic. And my daughter (2 1/2 years) often translates what I say into English. "Roo he shmel?" "Yea, let's go left!"
At least she UNDERSTANDS it, right? (and to be fair, she will translate the other way around- usually around my mom. I think she thinks it's funny)
So, I am trying to get my husband to ONLY talk to her in Arabic. Unfortunately, right now that ends up be him quizzing her with words (which, thankfully, she knows). So, I figure the best thing will be for me to up my language and for us to hope to go to Jordan frequently!
Wish us luck and good luck to everyone else out there!
I have another friend who recently posted on Facebook about some problems she sees about raising her daughter bilingual. I have quite a few friends now who are trying to raise their kids to be bilingual and - as with all learning and dealing with individual kids- all the styles and kids' response are different. I should note, all of these families have one person who was raised (until at least HS) outside the U.S.
One of the things that seems to come up at this point- 18 month to 4 years- is wondering if the child is getting enough of X language. I think it's always important to remember that kids are just learning language and how to communicate at this point- what they say may not make a whole lot of sense in one language or the other! Yes, they may show preference, but I don't think this means that they are NOT learning another language.The trick really seems to be keeping up language as they get older and as they get into more formal language learning settings. (ie, school) THAT's when I hear that kids will stick to one language (and forget the other) because it's what everyone else is saying. That is the difficulty for language learning in the home- if you have more than one kid, they may speak to each other only in one language. And that language may be the language of what's in the schools they are in.
So, what does that mean? I think it means several things.
1. Each child is different and they may always prefer one language to the other. We can't expect that they will just combine languages when they talk (like they do as young children).
2. Encouraging the non-dominant language is very important. The dominant language is usually whatever is spoken in the household until they start school; it may change if the dominant language in school is not that of home. The key word in this statement is to encourage. If learning the non-dominant language (since they don't get that in school- grammar, writing, reading, etc) becomes a chore, they may learn the words, but not the language and therefore their communicate may be a bit stiff. Which, is fine, but probably not desirable. (I think back to my own Spanish classes in HS about this!)
What a friend did, which I think is brilliant, is take her kids to her home country each summer and enroll them into a local summer program (ie, soccer). The kids do something they like, PLUS they MUST speak the language of the other kids. The language becomes more normal and not something forced or uncool. Plus, they keep up with the changes to the language by being around the native speakers.
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| I thought this was a great image! http://www.joanwink.com/scheditems/BilBasicsHandout.pdf |
I REALLY hope my daughter becomes bilingual. Her daycare lady is from Morocco and speaks Arabic to her. We hope to send her to a immersion public school in Arabic. We hope to go home every other year to Jordan. And I talk to her mostly in Arabic.
BUT, my husband and I talk mostly in English to each other. MY family (which actually lives across the country) doesn't know Arabic. And my daughter (2 1/2 years) often translates what I say into English. "Roo he shmel?" "Yea, let's go left!"
At least she UNDERSTANDS it, right? (and to be fair, she will translate the other way around- usually around my mom. I think she thinks it's funny)
So, I am trying to get my husband to ONLY talk to her in Arabic. Unfortunately, right now that ends up be him quizzing her with words (which, thankfully, she knows). So, I figure the best thing will be for me to up my language and for us to hope to go to Jordan frequently!
Wish us luck and good luck to everyone else out there!
