This article shows the results of a study of 24 bilingual families with children between 0-5 years old in Washington D.C. , and also summarises previous research in bilingualism. The study comes to the following conclusions:

1. Bilingualism and language delay: monolingual and bilingual children meet major language development milestones at similar times.

2. Bilingualism and language confusion: the aproach “0ne-parent, one language”, while generally recommended, can also result in passive bilingualism. Parents in general do not need to fear language confusion if they opt for another aproach such as using the minority language at home. Parents also should think more about the quality and quantity of exposure to both languages that their children receive.

3.  Bilingualism and television: human interaction ist better than recorded sounds for fostering language learning.

4. Bilingualism and inteligence: bilingualism should not be viewed as predictor of greater intelligence or as an overall indicator of high academic performance. Bilingual children gain specific advantages in targeted areas such as greater understanding of language as an abstract system.

Read the full article here.

1. Just talk that talk: the kids  need to hear the language on a daily basis. They should hear differents accents and vocabulary choices. And you can always supplement with DVDs, CDs and friends.

2. Start young and work on your own skills: If you start early you have more or less two years before the child can speak to improve your own language skills and get use to speak the language.

3. School, Tutoring, Travel, and Other Training.

4. Using other resources. Even if you doesn´t understand by bilingual books. The child can learn a lot about the written language.

5. Bee Strict, but not too strict.

6. It´s hard, but well worth it.

More about this article here.

This articles speak about the advantages of  using nannies: On one side, it helps immigrant families and their descendants to help pass on heritage. On the other side, parents seek a “foreign-language nanny” to to start early with their children in learning another language.

The article recomends that parents look after other opportunities for their children to hear other speakers using the same language. This can be obtained through school, through visiting a restaurant, cultural center or traveling abroad.

The article also recomends that nannies use consistently the same language with the child to play, to sing, and  to read aloud.

If you want to read all the article look here.

This article speaks about the rising tendence to learn a second language in the earlier years and gives some examples about this tendency. The article reminds us that the younger the children start to learn a second language, the better it is. And also that it is better if you keep the “one parent one language rule”.

But the most  important aspect of the article it is how you teach language to your child. Johansen suggests that the best methode is making the child feel that he is only playing.  Language becomes most interesting if you use it to play instead of using serious adult-child-conversations. The author, suggests  for instance:

• The use of audio tapes, but limiting the length so that the child does not get bored.
• Videos and CD-ROMs that present vocabulary,  in a funny and creative way.
• Books, especially those that the child already knows, and likes in his predominant language.
• Attending some kind of  language play group, were the child sing and play in other language.
• Games which help to develop the second language.

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“Bílingual Parenting” íst divided into two parts. In part one she speaks about the decision to raise her children bilingually and her search for information about the topics, she tell us about the advantages and disavantages of bilingual children and about the different methods of raising a bilingual child. Important is her personal advice to parents to decide early the goals to arise for the child and the family: completely bilingual vs just some passive knowledge. She also speaks about the difficulties and problems and how important it is to have faith in your own instincts and good feelings. She remembers us that many doctors and therapists have good advice and that others have not been so deeply involved in the area of bilingualism.

In the second part of the article the author speaks about her own experience and how important  is to speak only one language to the child, sing songs and nursery rhymes, watch videos, read books, use educational CD-ROMs and visit a playgroup and the country of the minority language.

If you want to read  the article, click here.