Finding resources to support your child’s language development is something most parents of future bilinguals find themselves doing on a regular basis. It is also the question which is most frequently asked in parents’ forums. Therefore I have decided to start a...
Question My wife and I live in Trinidad & Tobago (my wife is a native, I am German) and we now have a 10 month old that we want to raise bilingually. I speak to him exclusively in German and my wife in English, but I speak to her in English even when he is around. In...
I don’t remember teaching my elder daughter to read … because I never did. I do however remember when a carer at her nursery told me that my 5-year-old used to read Finnish story books to other children. They found that she loved reading aloud to others and was able...
Question I have 3 and 5 year old children, with whom I speak the minority language, while they speak the majority language with their father and at daycare. They understand and speak my language without problems, though they use the majority language predominantly. My...
Question I come from Italy and my husband is German. We live in Germany. Our son is almost 1 year old and I only speak to him in Italian. The question I would like to ask is as I am likely the one who is reading to him, is it ok for me to read to him in German as well...
This is the third post in my four-part A-B-C for parents in families with more than one language. M is for Myths There are so many myths about bilingual children and how to raise them that I don’t know where to start. In my opinion, the most damaging ones are: 1. that...
We live in a time when an increasing number of people and families move from one part of the world to another, thereby crossing not only geographical but cultural and language borders. Quite often children grow up in a different country from their grandparents and it...
Like any other “project” in your life, bringing up your son to become bilingual is much more likely to have a successful outcome if you plan ahead. You may ask: “Why do I need a plan? I grew up to become bilingual without anyone making a plan for me!” This is true – I...
Word games are a great way to enhance your daughter’s vocabulary. They are easy to do as part of your daily life, they don’t require much planning, and – best of all – they are free and fun to do together. Naturally, it depends on your daughter’s age what kind of...
After reading the same story multiple times, ever felt the urge to shred the pages of your daughter’s favourite fairy tale book or to accidentally misplace it, so you could read something else? I know I did – I must have read the Billy Goats Gruff story hundreds times...