Question Hi all! We are an Italian family of three, our son is now 20 months old. We always speak Italian at home, with me mixing Italian and English. My son attends an Italian nursery school, but is highly exposed to English as we also have an...
Q&A: Is it necessary to arrange additional tuition for a child’s minority language?
Question Hi, My question is, do you need to set aside time for language lessons either by parents or professional for the minority language? My 3-year-old daughter speaks Spanish (we live in Spain) and English (minority language) and she is well on her way to...
Q&A: Choosing the school language for a bilingual child – one of the home languages or a third one?
Question Hello, My daughter is two years old. We live in Beirut, Lebanon. Our community language is Arabic. Our schools provide education either in English or in French. Some schools teach both English and French languages equally. Since birth, my daughter was...
Q&A: How to maintain and support minority languages in a multilingual family?
Question Hello, I am currently pregnant with our first child and my husband and I are trying to make a family language plan. I am American so my native language is English, but I also know a good amount of French and a few words and phrases in Ewe. My husband is...
Q&A: How to support a small bilingual child with the school languages?
Question Hi The best way to learn a language? We live in the country (Spain), of course. Well this is our problem: We have a son who is three and a half. He was born in Barcelona. We have lived here for many years. I'm English and his mother is Danish. We both...
Q&A: How to implement a combined OPOL + Time and Place family language strategy?
Question Hello, I have a question regarding raising a trilingual child. I was raised bilingual by my German father and English mother. I grew up in Germany but have spent a substantial amount of time living in the UK also. My husband is French and we live in France...
How to be successful at raising bilingual kids
This is the time of year when we are all encouraged to make resolutions to improve different aspects of our lives. As parents of bilingual kids we are no exception to the expectation of making promises to change our behaviour to ensure that our children grow up to be...
Q&A: How to introduce two minority languages to your kids?
Question Hi Rita, Thank you for the lovely pieces of advice. I am Mongolian and my husband is Italian. We have two kids aged four and and two years. We live in the U.K and we always used English at home. My daughters are absolutely great at talking and expressing...
Q&A: What to do when a bilingual school-aged child’s minority language is the stronger one?
Question Hello, I wonder if you have any recommendations. My daughter is seven and has lived in Italy since she was 8 months old, however she didn’t start going to school till she was 5. At home I (mom) speak to her in English only and everyone else (including...
Q&A: Deciding whether to speak a native dialect or an almost native language with a child
Question Hi, I have been struggling with the decision of which language to speak to my daughter. She is now nine months old. So far I have spoken to her mainly in French. I am half British and half Moroccan. I grew up speaking English with my mother, Moroccan...