Raising Children Bilingually
Parents in Australia who speak a LOTE (Language Other Than English) have a resource which their children can acquire. Acquisition of two languages, however, requires some effort both on the part of parents and children. It is important for parents to make a conscious decision regarding the bilingual upbringing of their child, to be clear on the reasons for it and the strategy they are going to follow to achieve their goal. It is also important for parents to be consistent in using the appropriate language to the child.
A LOTE can be introduced to the child at birth or after the first language has been established (i.e. after three years of age), through a method which will be determined by the family circumstances and parental language proficiency. If the parents' goal, for example, is that their child should learn to separate the LOTE and English in their speech, then they need to set the example and not mix the two languages.
Parents also need to make language learning a priority in their family by giving the child opportunities to interact with other native speakers of the LOTE and by providing LOTE materials such as books, games, audio and video cassette.
Seminars
The Centre's "Raising Children Bilingually" seminars for parents, care-givers and educators have been very successful regular events since 1990. The Centre started offering these workshops nationally in 1995, including language-specific workshops organised on request.
Although the content of seminars varies according to the target audience, central issues and questions raised and discussed in the workshops include: the effect of bilingualism on the child's intellectual, social and linguistics development as well as on school achievement; attitudes of the community towards bilingualism; and practical strategies to encourage children to maintain a LOTE.
Other Resources
A number of resources have been developed by the Language and Society Centre to aid parents who are raising children bilingually. Additional LASC resources can be found on the LASC Publications page.
A 45-minute video Growing up with English Plus has been produced by the Centre. This video presents a number of ways of raising children bilingually, especially if one of the parents is a monolingual English speaker. It answers queries and dispels myths through the presentation of typical family situations in Australia and experiences related by members of bilingual families. The families featured use Australian Sign Language, German, Italian, Mandarin/Chinese, Latvian, Serbian and Thai, as well as English.
The video is available C/- Language Australia GPO Box 372F Melbourne 3001 (fax 03 9926 4780).
An informative guide in booklet form has been developed on raising children bilingually. This guide contains extensive information on a range of issues associated with bilingualism in the home, such as types of bilingualism, models of bilingual and second language acquisition suitable to a variety of situations, how to start and maintain bilingualism in the family and so on. This guide also describes the experiences of Australian parents and children related to early bilingualism in Australia.
The booklet, entitled Raising Children Bilingually (Janssen and Pauwels 1993) is available from the Language and Society Centre.
Workshops are also offered by the Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Communication at the University of Melbourne.