Bilingual Families

Does your family or community speak more than one language? Do you wonder how to help your children successfully learn or keep those languages? Do you want your children to have the gift of bilingualism and aren’t sure where to start – or how to keep going? Every multilingual family has unique language needs. Bilingual Families is a guide for you and your family. It combines academic research with practical advice to cover the essential elements in successful bilingual and multilingual development. Use this book to: Learn about language goals – and how to set them Create a 'living' family language plan that develops and grows with your family Learn how to talk about multilingualism with your children and other key people in your children's life, like teachers and relatives Recognise when you might need further support An indispensable guide for your family’s language journey.

This book looks at how families can support and increase bilingualism through planned strategies. One such strategy is the one person-one language approach, where each parent speaks his or her language. Over a hundred families from around the world were questioned and thirty families were interviewed in-depth about how they pass on their language in bilingual or trilingual families.

Lots of new parents these days have the opportunity to bring up their child with two or more languages because of increasing job mobility and the global community. The benefits of bilingualism and biculturalism such as higher cognitive skills, an awareness of language and sensitivity to other cultures, are being increasingly recognised. However many parents don’t know how to start, what methods to use or where to seek help when facing problems. Now Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert, a mother of three trilingual children, teacher and linguist who has lived and worked all over the world, has written a book which provides an inspiring approach to passing on two or more languages to your children. In Language Strategies for Bilingual Families she considers several methods of bilingualism and focuses on the one-person one-language approach, in which each parent speaks his or her native language and is responsible for passing on his or her culture. Suzanne questioned over a hundred bilingual families about their experiences and she interviewed thirty families in depth. The results of her study are linked to current academic research, but the book is both readable and relevant to non-academics and provides fascinating insights into being a multilingual family. It will prove an exciting and stimulating read for potential and current mixed-language families.

How do bilingual brothers and sisters talk to each other? Sibling language use is an uncharted area in studies of bilingualism. From a perspective of independent researcher and parent of three bilingual children Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert discusses the issues of a growing bilingual or multilingual family. What happens when there are two or more children at different stages of language development? Do all the siblings speak the same languages? Which language(s) do the siblings prefer to speak together? Could one child refuse to speak one language while another child is fluently bilingual? How do the factors of birth order, personality or family size interact in language production? With data from over 100 international families this book investigates the reality of family life with two or more children and languages.

An up-to-date, accessible guide for parents of bilingual children.

This book will show you why YOU are the best language teacher for your child, even if you only speak one language and HOW to start using the target language at home. The best part is that you will be able to implement this method to your daily routine with only 5 minutes per day! Inside you'll find: - Tips on strengthening your relationship with your child because relationships are the foundation for second language acquisition - The stages of your language learning journey Strategies to help your child during each stage Useful *Spanish phrases and vocabulary to use during daily interactions with audio. *Our method and strategies can apply to learning any language - An actionable roadmap for your language learning journey

This book explores the question of family language policy in multilingual households. Presenting six case studies which focus on the experiences of parents and children in French-English bilingual contexts, the author draws conclusions about the impact of parental language management on the family as a whole which can be applied to transnational families from other linguistic backgrounds. While many parental guides on bilingual childrearing have been published in recent years, little attention has been paid to the possible impact of such language strategies on the experiences and interrelationships of bilingual family members. This book is unique in focusing in depth on the psychology and experiences of the child, and it will be of interest to readers in fields as diverse as sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, sociology of youth and family, and child psychology.

The lives of many families involve contact with more than one language and culture on a daily basis. Growing Up with Two Languages is aimed at the many parents and professionals who feel uncertain about the best way to go about helping children gain maximum benefit from the multilingual situation. This best-selling guide is illustrated by glimpses of life from interviews with fifty families from all around the world. The trials and rewards of life with two languages and cultures are discussed in detail, and followed by practical advice on how to support the child’s linguistic development. Features of this third edition include: a dedicated website with new and updated Internet resources a new chapter giving the perspective of adults who have themselves grown up with more than one language a new chapter presenting research into bilingual language acquisition with information about further reading new and updated first-hand advice and examples throughout. Una Cunningham is an Associate Professor in Modern Languages at Stockholm University, Sweden. She and her husband, Staffan Andersson, have raised their four children to speak English and Swedish in Sweden.