Growing Up With Two Languages

Growing Up with Two Languages provides a highly accessible account of the stages of language development, describes and evaluates the various systems and strategies that can be adopted and looks at the problems that can occur when a child is exposed to two languages and cultures. Combining research-informed advice and the experience of parents raising children as speakers of a wide range of languages in every populated continent in the world, this book and its associated web material will answer questions, offer tried and tested strategies to keep children speaking a minority language, and provide material to enlist the support of the extended family, teachers and others. The perspective of adults who were themselves raised speaking more than one language is included. New to this edition is a chapter focusing on families raising children as speakers of indigenous and threatened languages as well as chapters for teachers and health professionals who want to know more about multilingual child language development and how they can support parents to continue speaking their language with their children. With new and updated first-hand advice, Internet resources and examples throughout, this book also includes a chapter that introduces important recent research into multilingual children and further reading guides for those who want to know more. This book is for parents who are raising or plan to raise children as speakers of more than one language, and for the teachers and healthcare workers who meet and can support them.

Growing up with Two Languagesis aimed at the many parents and professionals who feel uncertain about the best ways to help children who are in contact with more than one language and culture to gain maximum benefit from the situation.

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.

This book is based on an eleven-year observation of two children who were simultaneously exposed to three languages from birth. It tells the story of two parents from different cultural, linguistic, and ethnic-racial backgrounds who joined to raise their two children with their heritage languages outside their native countries. It also tells the children’s story and the way they negotiated three cultures and languages and developed a trilingual identity. It sheds light on how parental support contributed to the children’s simultaneous acquisition of three languages in an environment where the main input of the two heritage languages came respectively from the father and from the mother. It addresses the challenges and the unique language developmental characteristics of the two children during their trilingual acquisition process.

Primarily aimed as a practical resource for parents, but also of interest to students and researchers because of its unique content, this book includes recollections of and advice on many of the common issues or dilemmas that arise in multilingual families.

'Bringing up a Bilingual Child' is aimed at (existing or soon-to-be) parents in families where more than one language is spoken, as well as anyone in the extended circle of family and friend of such multilingual families, as well as for anyone coming into contact with them. The aim of the book is to help multilingual families to create a supportive environment for children in which they naturally grow up to speak more than one language. The intention is to give you an easy-to-read-and-use guide to multilingual parenting, providing motivation, ideas, advice and answers to any questions parents may have.

This bestselling book is for anyone - parents, teachers and language professionals alike - who need advice on how children can get the most from a bilingual situation. In Growing Up with Two LanguagesUna Cunningham-Andersson and Staffan Andersson provide a highly informative account of the stages of language development; describe and evaluate the various systems and strategies that can be adopted; and look at the problems that can occur when a child is exposed to two language and cultures. Illustrated throughout with the real life experiences of fifty families around the world, this book concludes with clear practical advice on how to support and document a child's bilingual development, and how to make the most of the Internet.

If you would like your children to experience the benefits of becoming bilingual, but you aren’t sure how to teach them a second language, then Raising a Bilingual Child is the perfect step-by-step guide for you. Raising a Bilingual Child provides parents with information, encouragement, and practical advice for creating a positive bilingual environment. It offers both an overview of why parents should raise their children to speak more than one language and detailed steps parents can take to integrate two languages into their child’s daily routine. Raising a Bilingual Child also includes inspirational first-hand accounts from parents. It dispels the myth that bilingualism may hinder a child’s academic performance and explains that learning languages at a young age can actually enhance a child’s overall intellectual development.