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minority language at home

Q&A: Should parents of bilingual children not speak the majority language at all?

by Rita Rosenback | May 23, 2019 | Coaches, Majority language parent, Q&A Being the parent in a multilingual family, Rita R, School-aged children

Question Hello! We are Americans living in Kuopio, Finland (for over 10 years). We have a daughter who is almost 19 months and goes to Finnish päiväkoti (=kindergarten). I was told by the neuvola doctor (paediatrician) to not mix languages and only speak...

Q&A: Should a mL@H family switch strategy to support a child’s school language?

by Marianna Du Bosq | Jan 21, 2018 | Coaches, Marianna DuBosq, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, School-aged children

Question Hello, My husband and I live in Chicago and both speak Spanish and English. My native language is English and his is Spanish. We have both spoken to our 19-Month-old daughter in Spanish since birth as we figured that eventually she would inevitably...

Q&A: Switching from OPOL to mL@H to maximise the exposure to the minority language?

by Rita Rosenback | Oct 22, 2017 | Coaches, Non-native language, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, Rita R

Question Hi, I am wondering whether it would be helpful to change our approach. My daughter is 23 months old and I've been speaking German with her, while my husband has been speaking English. I am a stay-at-home mom and we are living in Germany, so German is...

Q&A: Should a bilingual family swap from OPOL to mL@H when moving to a new country?

by Rita Rosenback | Aug 17, 2017 | Coaches, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, Q&A Moving to another country with a bilingual / multilingual child, Rita R

Question Hello, thank you so much for this website, it has been such a great resource and source of positive reassurance on our journey to raise bilingual children. I have a question regarding switching the language method in the family. My husband is American,...

Q&A: How to help a bilingual child with the majority language when using mL@H?

by Rita Rosenback | Nov 24, 2016 | Coaches, Q&A Being the parent in a multilingual family, Rita R

Question Dear Coaches Thank you for the opportunity to ask a question! My name is Irina, I am Russian stay-at-home mum and I live in London with my English husband and our 6-year-old son. My husband knows Russian well, so we have chosen to speak Russian at home to...

Q&A: When should parents in a mL@H family switch to the majority language?

by Rita Rosenback | Sep 22, 2016 | Coaches, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, Rita R

Question Dear Rita, I'm raising two children in the United States where they will learn English naturally from their surroundings but I speak to them in Greek about 90-95% of the time and my husband also speaks to them in Greek but more of a mix of the two languages....

Q&A: Choosing the family language strategy after a move: when the minority language becomes the majority one.

by Rita Rosenback | Sep 15, 2016 | Coaches, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, Q&A Moving to another country with a bilingual / multilingual child, Rita R

Question Dear Rita, Thank you for your wealth of knowledge and great posts! So far bilingual has been easy, since both my husband and I are German and we live in Texas. We both speak our native German with our almost 2-year-old daughter and with each other. She learnt...

Q&A: How to pass on a minority language when both parents work?

by Rita Rosenback | Jul 14, 2016 | Coaches, Q&A Choosing the right family language strategy, Rita R

Question Hi, I'm currently pregnant but have started questioning so many things about my kids already. Me and my husband both are from India settled in US. My parents do not understand English and can speak only in native language. I would like my kids to learn and...

Q&A: How to increase the minority language exposure for a toddler?

by Marianna Du Bosq | Feb 4, 2016 | Coaches, Marianna DuBosq, Q&A How to motivate a bilingual / multilingual child to speak a family language, Toddlers

Question Hi, I am Brazilian and my husband is German. We live in Germany and raise our almost two years old son bilingual. We do OPOL with our son and our common language is mostly German. My husband speaks Portuguese but not so well. At the moment my son attends a...

Q&A: How to prepare a bilingual toddler for a move to another country?

by Rita Rosenback | Oct 8, 2015 | Babies, Challenges, Coaches, Family life, Practical advice, Rita R, Toddlers

Question Hello, I'm looking for resources and advice for educating our daughter who is now nearly 7 months old. My husband and I currently live in the USA but will be moving to Germany when our daughter is 1 1/2 years old. I'm a native English speaker (US). My husband...

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