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*YOU ARE HERE
How to proceed with teaching another language to your child:
There are a few ideals laid out by specialists that one may strive for. But should these ideals not be possible on a practical level, it does not mean we should give up on the idea. As pointed out before, bilingualism will always be attained in the end, it is just the level that varies. And it goes without saying that being bilingual even to a small extent is better than not being bilingual at all.
The Ideals include the following:
1. One parent, One Language 2. Minority language at home
Children learn more easily if there is a consistent division between the experience of each language. It would be ideal, for example, for the parent who stays at home with the children to speak the second or minority language, and for the other parent to come home from work and speak the environmental/local language. This is, however, a very traditional family scenario, which often no longer applies in today's transient world. If you are a single parent, for example, and have no parents or other relatives to help you, you will have to tackle both languages yourself. If this is the case, you could try speaking in one language and repeating directly afterward in the other. You could follow this method even if you do have a traditional family setup but you want to teach a third language - such as a situation where the mother is bilingual in two minority languages. Three languages can be assimilated just as well as two when done in the same coherent and consistent fashion. There are of course many other methods and you should choose the one most suitable and natural for you and your family. (click here to read a few other methods)
3. Whatever method you choose, it is important that you remain CONSISTENT in it.
Decide upon the best method for your family situation and stick to it. This consistency will help your child to sort the language patterns out in his\her head. Remember, the level of success your child will enjoy is directly linked to how well you plan this out as a family and stay with it. This consistency should apply to the whole family, i.e. the method you choose should be the same you use for all your children. Speaking different languages to different children may cause feelings of insecurity and/or rivalry.Also, it is not a good idea to suddenly start speaking a new language in place of the usual one or the child may experience this in a negative way. The drastic change may be emotionally unsettling. Again, repeating the new language after the usual one is a good way to get started as it is not too much of a change all at once. Abruptly stopping a language can be equally upsetting for a child, so beware of those professionals who may advise you to do this when they find out you are teaching bilingualism. If their reason stems purely from an anti-bilingual stance and there is no real need for you to stop teaching the second language (such as described in the special warning section), it may be best to get another opinion.
4. You should try to create a 'rich' environment for learning.
The more exposure the child gets to a language and the more vocabulary they hear, the deeper their understanding will be. This really is the key to their future level of bilingualism. So you should try to create an environment filled with different kinds of stimulation in the minority, or in both languages. Together, try to sing nursery rhymes, playtime songs, read books, watch movies, play games, etc. This will also help your child to get a cultural feel for the language, which you can later embellish upon. Teaching the culture behind the language is something you can do directly later on, either also from books or videos, or better still, visits to the country of origin.
5. The child should be taught to read and write in the language they are not learning at school.
Learning to read in one language does not mean the child will simply 'pick up' on how to read in the other, this has to be taught, even if the languages share the same alphabet. Some professionals think it best, however, to wait until reading has been fully acquired in the first language, before starting the second - when the languages share an alphabet. (If the languages have the same alphabet, the child will very quickly learn to read in the second language anyway.) They also say that if the alphabets are different, then both can be started simultaneously. Writing in the second language will have to either be taught by yourself (and this means hard work!) or be learnt in private lessons.
One Final Point:
You should not make bilingualism a big issue for your children. Try to let it happen, from their point of view at least, as naturally as possible. They should not be forced to speak a language, just encouraged. And they should not be punished for not wanting to speak the second language, for instance, in front of school playmates. This is a natural phase and is linked to the child's identity with regards to the children concerned - he may not want to seem 'different' . You may, however, if this gets to be a habit at home too, ask the child to repeat herself in the other language - you could always pretend you do not understand what she is saying, for instance.
*FYI: For easy viewing and printing offline simply down simply download the small PDF file (Adobe Acrobat Reader) by clicking HERE. (If you don't have Acrobat Reader you could download it HERE)
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