When discussing the language skills of children in multilingual families, you occasionally come across the situation where a child has learnt to understand a language, but is unable (or unwilling) to speak it. Quite often you will find this described as passive...
“You must start speaking your language to your baby from day one!” “She is already three and you haven’t started yet? She won’t sound like a native!” “If you don’t introduce the language before he goes to school, you have missed your chance!” “Older than seven and he...
When more than one language is spoken in a family, parents in face the choice of whether their child should learn both (or all) languages in parallel or if they should let the child’s skills in one language become established before starting to learn the second (and...
With a child comes endless love, happiness, exploration and a huge responsibility. A whole new person for us, the parents to cherish, enjoy, play with to learn from and to teach. … to teach … We may not be teachers, but teach we will, just by being us, the parents....
Growing up bilingual is another aspect of my early childhood which was a given for me (last week I wrote about how I took for granted my right to speak my mother tongue at school). I really had no choice, as my mother spoke Finnish with me and my father Swedish. They...
A bit of an obvious statement, you may think. Unfortunately, it is not. Instead, it is a problem many children in the developing world still face: not being able to attend school in their mother tongue. United Nation’s International Mother Language Day is celebrated...
Every single child is lovable and should be loved, just for existing in this world. Today, my list is about the specific lovability factor of bilingual children, as they are my favourite topic: Create and maintain relationships The more languages bilingual...
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I am delighted to introduce you to today’s guest blogger, Dr. Mary-Pat O'Malley-Keighran. She is a lecturer, author, researcher, speech and language therapist, and lover of all things to do with speech, language, and communication. She has over 20 years’ experience of...
Welcome the first part of an exciting new series 'Multilingual Family', where I interview families from different parts of the world. I have the pleasure to introduce you to the lovely family of Karolina, Oscar and their 2-year-old, gorgeous daughter Natalia. They...
Wow – time truly flies when you are having fun! Three years ago I was nervous, but most of all excited to push the Publish button for my first ever blog post. The liquorice mint tea and chocolates accompany me today as well (although the snow came earlier this year). ...