Myths in raising bilingual kids

1. A non native parent can’t raise a bilingual in another language to her native one
2. Just using CDs and foreign language tv will raise a bilingual child.
3. Bilingualism will make my child slower and not everyone can be bilingual
4. The child will be confused and should learn languages one at a time

Many of you know I teach Spanish, it’s not my mother tongue, many of my spanish teachers weren’t Spanish as I was growing up and in many secondaries and now primaries many language teachers are not native! However I believe teaching is a gift and an art and not everyone has the passion and gift, there are bad native and bad non native teachers and the same applies to good too. I have researched extensively the topic of bilingualising my kids and whether I will do them a disservice, I don’t think they will be upset that I am trying daily and I can share some of the angst within this article raising a child in a language not my own but as I have read and heard, children will and do correct us. My own son told me today that I speak funny at times, which can happen in moments of fatigue, I can’t quite speak any language!

2. And 3 Many families feel the need to justify their language strategies, i have a few times but its your child and if we listened to everything we really would lose our minds. Recent studies have proven speech delays are a myth. With my middle child i think I relied too heavily on cd, DVDs etc and forgot about the need for interaction in the language and play dates etc, once my son allowed me to read stories in the language, his language improved and now he corrects and helps his father speak the minority language Five myths of bilingualism now my parents are proud that he can speak two languages, I wish everyone is my family felt the same!

Other authors have studied Special needs and bilingualism Downs Syndrome and bilingualism. A rich tapestry of interaction and immersion is recommended. I’m not the only source of Spanish in my kids lives thankfully and that’s great for them too.

4. There is no need to learn a language one at a time, it is very unusual to think like that, many countries boost multilingual populations look at Belgium or Holland, this article also supports multiple learning learning languages good for the brain

To sum up..

Learning a language at anytime is good, learning together is brilliant too…the benefits outweigh any negatives I believe!

Part of the multilingual blogging carnival