Bilingual Education at Home for Young Children

Bilingual education in the school systems is a hot topic these days, but language learning isn't just for the classroom. By regularly using a second language at home, even in a small way, you can help your child gain the life-long advantage of being bilingual.

If you're comfortable speaking the language you want your child to learn (the "target language"), one of the simplest teaching methods is simply to talk to your child in that language. Depending on the child's age, you can either speak the second language exclusively or use the child's native language as needed. It's a myth that using a child's first language to explain the meaning of words and phrases in the target language will slow their learning. On the contrary, it will almost certainly speed up their learning and help them express themselves more accurately in second language. However much of the second language you use, be prepared for a latency period in which your child may understand, but out of uncertainty or shyness, will still speak only in their native language. If you're introducing a language the child's never experienced before, accept replies in the native language for at least a month, but encourage them to use the new language.

Make it fun
Because language in almost every part of life, learning a new language can be combined easily with entertainment and hobbies. The Internet is an invaluable resource for getting in touch with foreign languages and cultures, whether you just download material or order physical products. Music, movies, and computer games a useful bilingual education tools for any age. While younger kids might prefer sing-along songs and cartoons (including the popular Muzzy videos made by the BBC), older ones can enjoy pop music and movies. If you listen or watch with your child, instead of using the time for passive entertainment, try to discuss the meanings of songs or actions of characters in the movies, using as much of the target language as possible. When you can't do this, at least jot down a few new vocabulary words to review later.

Comic strips, jokes, and tongue twisters also go over well with kids because of the challenge involved in "getting" the joke or mastering the tongue twister. Whenever possible, fit some language learning in with something your child already enjoys. If they have a strong interest in a particular subject, look for bilingual or target-language-only books and videos related to it. Depending on the child's level of knowledge, they may not understand everything, but they'll get more exposure to the language.

Put yourself out there
It's hard to see the point of becoming bilingual when you never need a second language in real life. To keep your child motivated, make sure they know what they're learning isn't just something in books, but a living language used by real people. Even for kids who like book learning, practice using the language in conversation is important. Just like adults, children can build up passive knowledge of a language, yet be unable or simply too unsure of themselves to speak it. For young learners, hearing a native speaker has another benefit: a good accent. The quality of pronunciation a young child hears can mean the difference between their developing a near-native accent and forever struggling to pronounce "foreign" sounds.

If you don't have any native or fluent speakers handy, look for relevant cultural centers in your area where you can attend events and get to know people. If there are no cultural centers per se, seek out restaurants, shops, or places of worship where you might be able to use the target language. Private lessons with a native speaker are great, but if they aren't in your budget, see if you can team up with other parents interested in the same language and get a small class together to divide up the cost. The Internet can also work great for social networking. For older children, try sites like www.mylanguageexchange.com or www.language-buddy.com to find "keypals" to e-mail or chat online with. If feasible, arrange phone conversations, too. Another option is to participate in an online forum in the target language.

Get active
Games and everyday activities make fun ways to fit bilingual education into the day. When you look for activities, keep in mind whether your child has a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic (learn by doing) learning preference, so you can choose activities that suit their natural learning style. For very young children, look for nursery rhymes you can act out. With kids old enough to follow directions, games like "I spy" or "Simon says" are especially well suited to language learning. If you use songs to transition between everyday activities (like a "pick up the toys" song or a "get ready for bed" song), try creating a song in the target language or at least involving a few words from the language. Reading stories aloud is a simple way to use more of the target language, but make sure your child actually understands what you're reading. Try acting out scenes with the child or asking questions about the story.

Older kids and even adults can use games like charades or twenty questions (in which the players make up questions trying to guess what the game leader is thinking of, rather than the boxed game with pre-written questions). Classroom language teachers usually have dozens of games in their repertoires, but if you can't get in touch with a local language teacher, plenty of example games are available online at teachers' resource sites.

Everyday tasks can also be turned into bilingual education opportunities. For example, you might pick one night a week to choose a food popular in the country where your target language is spoken and let your child help you make it. Use the target language to name the ingredients and give the child instructions. Just making your grocery shopping list in the target language You can also take advantage of social situations, like ordering a meal in a restaurant or arranging to meet with a friend, to encourage active bilingualism. These common situations give you a chance not just to teach necessary phrases, but to discuss how the same activity might be different in another culture.

Learning a new alphabet
Even if your target language's alphabet isn't dramatically different from the child's native one, it still needs some attention. Two languages may use the same letters, but pronounce them differently. If the target language uses a very different alphabet, though, you may need to spend a few weeks or months on it, depending on the child's age. It helps immensely if the child already has at least a beginner level vocabulary in the target language before they try to learn the letters. This way the words they're reading actually mean something to them. Also, be aware that some children will be able to read before they can write and others can write the letters before they can consistently remember what sounds those letters represent.

Flashcards are a common method for teaching alphabets, but they don't work for everyone. The problem is they're completely unnatural. When we read, it's not just individual letters, but whole word shapes. What's more, in an unfamiliar alphabet, the letters you do know help you make out the ones your memory can't quite bring up, similar to the way you might make out words in bad handwriting. This is why it's important for children to know at least the sounds of the words they're trying to read-so they can "sound out" words as they go.

Instead of flashcards, start out by letting your child draw each letter as the shape of a word that start with that letter. For instance, in English a child might draw the letter T as a tree or B as a butterfly. Afterward, collect some more words that start with that letter and add them to the picture with or without their own drawings. This method lets the child spend several minutes forming each letter while connecting it to a word and a sound, which makes all this information easier to remember than with flashcards alone.

Another technique for young children just learning to write is to make stencils or cut out forms from sandpaper to use for rubbings. Kids can use these to make signs for their rooms.

For older children, let them get creative by making an alphabet scrapbook. Make a book with a page for each letter, then ransack some old magazines and newspapers in the target language for words and pictures that go with each letter. If you can't get material in the target language, use what you can find locally, and instead of words, cut out pictures and label them in the target language.

Who needs grammar?
While little kids may not take well to gap-fill worksheets, some attention to grammar is necessary. Children have a way of learning phrases as sound patterns without actually understanding the words they're saying. To use English as an example, a child might know the sound "leemeealoan" will make someone who's bothering them go away, but not know what the individual words "leave me alone" mean, much less how to form imperatives or use the accusative case. To make sure your child understands grammar well enough to construct their own sentences, pay attention to those little words like pronouns, prepositions, and articles. Try to incorporate these into games sometimes, too. If the child makes a grammar error during normal conversation, often it's enough to just repeat what the child wanted to say with the correct grammar. As they speak, listen for muddled pronunciation and make sure they can pronounce each word separately. Give young children a little extra motivation by pretending you don't quite understand them when they use incorrect grammar. Ask, "Do you mean…?" using the correct phrasing.

Keep it light
However you decide to introduce your child to a second language, try to let their learning progress naturally. Language fits so well into daily life that there's no need to turn bilingual education at home into a chore your child will think of as "just work." After all, wouldn't you rather instill them with a love of language learning than make sure they never make a grammar error? Use everyday situations and entertainment to bring bilingual education into your home and your child will have a foundation in language learning that will last a lifetime.