Whether or not parents of bilingual children need to be consistent with their language use all the time is one of the topics that divide the opinions of mothers and fathers bringing up their children in a multilingual family. My choice of wording in the title probably makes my stand clear: yes, I do think that consistency is vital when raising a bilingual child. However, I want to hasten to add, this does not mean that children of parents who are not consistent will automatically not learn both (or all) family languages.

My opinion about the importance of consistency is based on the findings that children from families where parents are consistent in their language use are more likely to become active speakers of both (or all) the languages of the family. Note the phrase ‘are more likely to’ – it does not say ‘are the only ones who’. To increase the chances of succeeding in raising a bilingual child, I usually recommend going down the consistent language use route whenever possible.

Another reason I am an advocate for consistency is that it creates a habit. When speaking a certain language becomes a routine in a family, the language has more staying power than if it is used in a more random manner. If you manage to stick to your language with your kids, this is what they will expect you to speak to them all the time and they will answer in the same language. You will also find that elder siblings may become even greater proponents of the language consistency by correcting their younger brother or sister if they happen to speak the “wrong” one. By the way, if you would like to stay consistent more often, one way of doing it is to increase the time when you read to your children.

So yes, be as consistent as you can, but also don’t let the striving for consistency become something so rigid that it takes away the joy from speaking your language or, even worse, creates a communication barrier. Language is all about making connections and creating bonds through communication, if the opposite happens, then it is time to review how the languages are used in the family. With this, I am not saying at all that you should not try to steer your child to use the right language, for example by repeating in your language what your child just said to you in the “other” language, and thus creating a natural bridge back to the preferred one. It is about finding the right balance between the two extremes.

Every family and every parent is different – an approach which is perfect for one maybe out of the question for another. It makes me sad when I notice, for example in various forums, parents of bilingual children condemning others’ ways of raising their children by saying that the parent must stay consistent, otherwise the child will never learn the language. This is simply not true. The child may well get the consistent exposure from somewhere else, be it a grandparent, another relative, a friend, a community or activity group. As long as children are regularly and often enough in an environment where there is a real need to use a language in interaction with others, they will learn to both understand and speak it.

Also, parents have different expectations on the level of fluency they want for their children. One family may want their kids to be fluent in all the family languages and therefore decide to stay strictly consistent all the time. In another family a parent may not feel comfortable in insisting on their children using a certain language, or the parents are happy with lesser language skills. Whatever a family’s choice is, we should respect everyone’s decision – after all, some language knowledge is better than none at all!

Amazing Baby Brains

Babies are amazing, and a new study published in May 2012 in the journal PLoS ONE only adds to this view: Babies of ages 7 months and 8 months weed out situation with just the right amount of information to make for the most efficient learning. These situations turn out to be not too simple (that's boring) and not too complex (that's too difficult to be worth their brain time). Read on to see how the researchers looked into babies' brains.

 
Playing With Baby

Lead author Celeste Kidd (shown here) says it's easier to study babies than adults, who know they are taking part in a psychology experiment.

Baby Screen

Each of the baby participants sat on his or her parent's lap while watching a screen. The parents wore headphones and a visor so as not to distract the little ones.

Colorful Boxes

In one of the experiments, babies watched a computer screen on which objects would pop out of three colored boxes. The researchers changed when and where the objects would appear, with some sequences being more complex (more surprising) and some very simple and predictable. A simple sequence would be one in which a shoe, say, popped out of a pink box 10 times; there's a good chance the next "event" would also be a shoe popping out of a pink box.

Baby Gaze

As long as the babies stared at the screen, the events being played out continued; but as soon as they looked away, suggesting no more interest, the trial ended.

The Lookaway

Across two similar experiments, babies consistently lost interest when the video became too predictable, which meant the probability of a subsequent event happening was very high.

Funny Faces

So if your little one is getting fussy by the funny faces you're making, change it up and add another expression or sound to boost the learning potential.

Bilingual tots use cues such as pitch or word duration to tell two languages apart.

Babies in bilingual environments can learn to distinguish the grammatical structures of two different languages at a young age, a new study finds.

 
The research shows that bilingual tots use qualities like pitch and duration of sounds to keep two languages separate.

And infants can perceive these differences between languages at just 7 months. "There are a lot of cues just at the surface level in language that babies can use to get a leg up," study co-author Janet Werker, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia, told LiveScience.

Learning two languages can be challenging, especially when the two tongues have opposite word orders. For example, in English, "function" words (like "the" or "with") precede "content" words, for example: "the dog," "his hat," or "with friends." The content word also has a longer duration when spoken. In Japanese or Hindi, by contrast, the content word ("dog") comes first, and has a higher pitch than the function word ("the"). In most languages, function words occur more frequently than content words.

To understand how infants master languages with different word orders, Werker and colleagues studied 7-month-old infants exposed to English and another language (such as Japanese or Farsi) at home, as well as infants from monolingual homes.

The researchers created a made-up language of 11 words that mimicked the function and content patterns of a true language, where function words occurred more frequently. During the experiments, the babies sat on their mothers' laps and listened to a constant stream of these made-up words.

Half of the babies heard words with differences in duration, while the other half heard words with differences in pitch. All of the babies heard two different "languages" — one in which frequent words came before less frequent words, and the other in which less frequent words came first. [In Photos: How Babies Learn]

The two different languages were broadcast from different parts of the room, and researchers monitored how long the infants spent looking at the source of these sounds. Researchers interpreted a longer gaze to mean the baby was picking up on those differences in word frequency to tell the two fictional languages apart.

The scientists found that bilingual babies looked longer at the source of sounds that matched their expectation of word order, which suggested the infants were using the pitch and duration clues to keep the two languages straight.

For instance when the higher-pitched word came first, a cue that it was a "content" word, the bilingual babies gazed in that direction longer than if that high-pitched word came second. The same occurred for duration, with infants staring longer in the direction of word pairs in which the longer-duration word came second compared to cases in which it came first.

By contrast, monolingual babies showed no difference in looking times; in other words, they didn't pick up on differences in pitch or duration. The results help increase understanding of how syntax, which includes the order of function and content words, is acquired in languages.

The findings also help to debunk the misconception that bilingual infants face disadvantages in language development, according to Werker. "Even though it might look like a more complex task to learn two languages at once," Werker said, "babies do so quite easily."

The research was detailed Feb. 14 in the journal Nature Communications and presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Some time ago I wrote a post on what you need to consider when you want bring (back) a family language into your child’s life. I also wrote a piece on motivating your child to use the minority language and become an active bilingual. Many parents have asked me to follow up with some practical ideas on how to tackle the quite often difficult task of getting your child used to another language and how to make it fun. And yes, I will keep it practical – I will not suggest that you get a pet, like I did, and I will keep to tips you can do on your own without necessarily involving other speakers of the language.

The main thing to keep in mind when planning your strategy is that your child should want to speak you language and this want should come from within. Your child should feel motivated to use your language because it gives them a rewarding feeling. The reward can come in the form of having fun, playing a game, generally spending time together, making new friends, reading books, watching movies or cartoons etc. If your child is not motivated or does not feel the need to speak your language, your task will be much harder, so spend some time on coming up with ideas that suit your child. Here are some to start with:

1. Toys which speak the language

Pick a toy that you know your child will like – it might have to be a new one, if old ones already have an established language! It can be anything from a toy train, action figure or doll to a toy animal or cuddly toy, as long as it can have a character and go on an adventure. Give the toy a back story, for example: it was born/made in the country where your language is spoken, lived in a specific city/town/village and its name is a typical one for the language. To make it even more authentic adorn it with a flag or a piece of clothing that represents the language. If you have read my posts before, you know that I am especially fond of hand puppets for this purpose: they are very versatile and can take on a distinct personality of their own. You could also give the hand puppet traits that make it resemble your child – this can make your child want to communicate more with it! Once you have your toy, doll, figure or hand puppet, make up interactive stories that your child will want to participate in, e.g. it can ask your child simple questions about something your child is interested in. Note that the toy should only speak your language and you can jump in and help your child with words needed for the conversation, but only be the translator when it is really necessary. Your child can for example try to guess the meaning of a word and the puppet will express by its reaction if the guess is totally wrong, heading in the right direction or get all excited when the guess is correct.

2. Stories and fairy tales

Read your child’s favourite story or fairy tale in your language. Adjust the level of language complexity based on how much your child already knows of your language. Ideally use lots of pictures to support the story. If you notice that your child does not understand, rephrase what you just said to make it easier. On the other hand, sometimes it might be better to read a completely new story, if the favourite one “must” be read in a specific language. If possible, try to find books that were originally written in your language and which also convey some of the culture in the story.

3. Cartoons and comic books

Many cartoons and comic books have been translated to different languages and this might be an inroad to making your language the means of communication between you and your child. Often you can also find toy figures for the characters and you can use these to extend the stories and make up new adventures. If you can get your child interested in a comic or cartoon which was originally made in your language, all the better!

4. Positive feedback

I strongly believe in positive encouragement. Tell your children how well they are doing and show how happy it makes you to hear them use your language. Be proud of their achievements, no matter how small. Also talk with them about why it makes you happy and proud when they speak your language with you. You know why it is so important to you, but they won’t know unless you tell them.

5. Rewards

You may have heard me say before that you can not bribe your child to speak your language, which is still true, but to get past the first hurdles or an especially difficult phase, I think it is fine to use whatever positive means to support the use of your language. Make the rewards age-appropriate, starting with a simple sticker chart to gaining some privileges and maybe a trip together. You will know best what works for your children. The rewards should always be of real value to your child, which more often than not does not mean material value. When you show your dedication by spending some of your free time or making an extra effort, you are being the positive role model they need to make them also want to speak your language.

Which “tricks” have you used to make your child want to speak your language?