Revisiting one of my favourite topics – love for books, and why reading is so beneficial to a child’s language (and general) development!

1 – Reading time is bonding time
Sitting down to read to your son or daughter gives you the opportunity to bond with them in a very special way. In a bilingual family this is an excellent opportunity for each parent to have some one-to-one time in their own languages.

2 – Memories for life
Reading a book together creates memories for life. My eldest daughter loved the “Three Billy Goats Gruff” story and I must have told it to her hundreds of times. We still remember the different voices of the goats and how very scary the troll under the bridge was. I am now looking forward to reading the same story with even more gusto to my future grandchildren!

3 – Routine
Books are a great way to introduce routines into family life: bedtime reading being an excellent example of this. The story signals the time to go to sleep. Why not introduce regular reading at other times as well? You could start a ‘Sunday Story Time’ routine, where you read books in the different family languages. Or, you could make reading a book part of your holiday traditions or take a book with you to the park and read outside (weather permitting – I live in England!)

4 – Reading calms the mind
Reading at bedtime is the typical way to calm down, but it is an excellent way of relaxing in other situations as well. Books are the perfect counterweight to the ever-increasing amount of electronic devices children are surrounded by. With this I am not condemning ebooks – they to have their place (especially for avid readers going in holiday!), but I do think that a break from devices can only be good for all of us. Also, as one child quite rightly pointed out, books do not come with commercials!

5 – Real books are so much more than just text
Paper books can become life companions. I am not sure a child would hug an ebook reader, but I have often seen children embrace real books and excitedly look forward to the story. A paper book you can enjoy in so many ways. Think of the noise of opening a real book for the first time and the sound of turning its pages. Imagine the smell of a new book or perhaps your mother’s cooking book. Knock on a book’s cover to ask it to let you in and feel the smoothness (or roughness) of its pages … then immerse yourself in its world. (Sorry, didn’t mean to go waxing lyrical, but this is what happens with books!)

6 – Learning about your children’s interests
You will initially be the one to choose which book you are reading for your child, but soon enough your little ones will have their own favourites. By their choices, you get an insight into what lies close to their heart. You can then build on this and find more books and other resources in all languages your child is learning.

7 – Bringing out emotions
It is not always easy for children to express their emotions. A book that allows them to speak their mind through a character in the book can be the way to tackle emotionally difficult situations. By asking your child to describe how a character might think about a certain situation, you will learn a lot about how your child feels.

8 – Approaching difficult topics
Closely related to the above, a book can be the ideal way to start a discussion on a topic which you, your child or both of you find hard to speak about. There are excellent children’s books which tackle difficult issues such as bullying, racial discrimination, drugs and abusive behaviour, and are the perfect introductions to further conversations.

9 – Expands the vocabulary
It is a given that reading is an excellent way of teaching your children new words in the languages they are learning. If you happen to be the minority language parent or maybe even the only person talking your language to your child, it is not always easy to find a natural way of using certain words in everyday discussions. Reading about a topic is a good way of introducing new vocabulary. In a book, words get a wider context, which helps to memorise them, as do pictures that go with the text.

10 – Improves communication skills
With a more extensive vocabulary, your children can express themselves better in different situations. For bilingual children, this makes reading particularly important for the exposure to the minority language, as they might not come in contact with so many different speakers of the language in their day-to-day lives.

11 – Spurs the imagination
Fictional characters, adventures and places inspire children’s imagination, making them more creative in their own language use as well as writing. I am sure several imaginary friends have had traits of characters from books!

12 – Opens your mind
Reading about different people, places and ways of living also helps children (and adults for that matter) be more open-minded about new concepts and ideas. The goal for most multilingual families is to raise happy, tolerant, global citizens – being open-minded is at the heart of such a quest.

13 – Develops empathy
By reading about others’ experiences, children learn how to put themselves into other people’s shoes. Their understanding of what someone is feeling improves every time they get emotionally involved in book characters’ lives. This helps them be more empathetic in real life.

14 – Reduces anxiety
Children often worry when they are about to experience something new, which is understandable. There are the big occasions in life such as the first day of school, a new sister or a brother or a move to a different country or a different house down the road, or simply the first night away without mum or dad. Reading about how other children have coped in these situations allows your child to feel more relaxed and prepared for the situation.

15 – Books are good company
Children who have learnt to love books will always have company. When they learn to read themselves, books are the friends that are always there for them, ready to keep them entertained. A child that enjoys reading rarely uses the words “I’m bored!” Books are also very convenient: easy to take with you anywhere, hard to break and do not need batteries or charging!

16 – Reading is the key to other learning
A fondness for books is an invaluable help when your child goes to school. Anyone who has a love for reading has an innate thirst of knowledge, which is beneficial for learning other subjects such as science, maths, history, geography and other languages.

17 – Better writing skills
The more you read the better you will be at writing. This is something that is important especially for a child’s minority language, which usually is not trained as much as the language used at school. Seeing words in a written form is vital for learning to write.

18 – Improved concentration
Children who love reading can concentrate on their tasks better than those children who are less ardent readers. Never be upset with your children if they cannot hear you when they are immersed in a book – it (usually) means that their ability to concentrate is top notch!

19 – Brain training exercise
Reading is a complex task that activates several areas of the brain and as such has a positive impact on them. Research has shown that reading an interesting book can cause heightened connectivity in the brain.

20 – Enhanced logical reasoning
When children read books, they learn to understand abstract scenarios as well as cause and effect situations. Both of these skills help them in logical reasoning, which comes handy in many aspects of their day-to-day lives and even more so at school and later on in working life.

21 – Wider cultural understanding
Culture and language go hand in hand. Reading is particularly beneficial for understanding the minority language culture, as there might not be as many opportunities to experience the culture first hand.

22 – Love for reading will be passed on
Children who have learnt to treasure books will, in time, pass this passion on to their own children. A benefit that moves on from one generation to another – how good is that!

23 – Last but not least: reading is FUN
Books are a fun way to explore the world, to learn new and exciting things, to let your imagination loose or just to enjoy a well-written story or poem. When you have fun, you are motivated to do more. The more you read, the better your language skills get!

In my series on different strategies for raising a bilingual child, I will today introduce an approach, which you may not have heard about: two parents, two languages (2P2L). Previously in this series, I have written about one parent/person, one language (OPOL), minority language at home (mL@H) and time and place (T&P).

With the 2P2L strategy, parents are bilingual themselves and use both languages in their interactions with the children. The language choice depends on many different factors: school matters can be discussed in the language used at school, films and books in the language they are presented in, and hobbies and sports in the language they are conducted in. The choice of language can also depend on who else takes part in the discussion and whether the family wants others to understand (or not understand!) their interactions. Both languages are used roughly the same amount of time. Being bilingual and switching from one language to another is the norm of the family, and the parents are the role models for this behaviour.

The inspiration to bring in this strategy came from Professor Annick de Houwer’s research into multilingual families, which you can read about in her book “Bilingual First Language Acquisition”. One of her findings was that in families with bilingual parents who spoke both of their languages with the children, a slightly higher proportion of the children (79%) became bilingual, compared to OPOL families (74%). The difference is not massive, but it is there, and certainly warrants a closer look at the 2P2L approach.

Traditionally most studies about raising bilingual children have been conducted with families who say they follow the OPOL approach. Professor de Houwer however found that in her study of 1356 families actually only about 17% of them used the OPOL strategy! The 2P2L was used by 42%, and in 41% of the families, one parent used only one language, while the other used two.

Within the last mentioned families, the success rate was highly dependent on which language both parents spoke with the children. If the shared language was the minority language, the success rate was 93%, but it sank to less than 36% if they used the majority language. In other words, the minority language was the one losing out in this scenario.

What about consistency, can we forget about it?

So, if 2P2L, a strategy where both parents speak both family languages, is more effective than OPOL, can we stop discussing about consistency? In certain family language setups, the answer will probably be ‘yes’, but in others it is definitely still ‘no’.

If you take the last example, where one parent speaks the majority language and the other both the majority and the minority one, the success rate was only 36%. If the minority language parent was consistent with using only the minority language (the family would then follow the OPOL strategy), the odds rise to 74%. If you have read my posts before, you know I have always been a proponent of consistency, especially for the minority language parent – for reasons of exposure and language preference. This research confirms my belief in its importance. Being consistent is however not important in a 2P2L scenario, as the child will have enough exposure to both languages.

What about confusing the child with many languages?

Using several languages in a family does not confuse a child! This is persistent myth that unfortunately still pops up in forums and less informed articles. Children can effectively distinguish between different languages at an early age and will not get “mixed up” by parents using more than one language. I would still try to keep to one language in one sentence, though, until children learn to use both languages separately.

Who should use 2P2L?

To use this strategy, both parents should be comfortable in speaking both of the family languages. The best outcome will be when both the languages are also spoken in the community, so that the child can easily be exposed to them from other sources. The child should also have access to other resources in both languages, including books, magazines, films, TV programs, cultural events and so on. Ideally, the child should also spend time with other children who speak the same languages. It is important that the child is motivated to actively use both languages and there are opportunities to do so.

To sum it all up – does “doubling” the languages used by parents double the benefits? No, it does not, but it may well make life easier for many bilingual parents who find the OPOL strategy difficult to follow and is in fact, at least statistically, the better option for them.

What are your thoughts about the different family language strategies? Were you aware that there are several different approaches that you can take when bringing up a bilingual child?

Last week’s post was about the more popular of the bilingual family language strategies: one parent/person, one language or simply OPOL as it is generally know. This week it is the turn of the approach called minority language at home, with the slightly more complicated acronym of mL@H.

As the name indicates, a family that uses the mL@H strategy only speaks a minority language with each other. The family’s common language can, but does not have to be the native language both parents. The children become sequential bilinguals, as they learn the minority language first and the community language later from other sources, normally when starting nursery or school. (In an OPOL family, the children are normally simultaneous bilinguals, which means that they learn both/all their languages in parallel.)

The mL@H system has its obvious advantages, in so far that it is clear who speaks what language to whom in the family and that there is no need for translations within the home, but you will also come across words of warning if you search for advice on mL@H.

Some have claimed that it requires “strong nerves by the parents, since the child may not catch up with his monolingual peers in the majority language until around 5 years of age”. Yes, it may feel a bit worrying to send your little one out into the world with no or only limited knowledge of the language they will be surrounded by all day. Experience has however shown that children are very adaptable and quickly pick up a language once submersed in it. A “risk for complete linguistic isolation”, even a small risk, is a bit far-fetched in my mind – children do not need a common language to find ways of playing together and coming up with alternative ways of communicating!

Another caveat, equally unlikely in my opinion, is that if parents “decide to speak the minority language at home, but not in public, [their] child might feel that this language is not being good enough to be spoken in public. This may affect the child’s identification with the minority language.” Generally mL@H families always speak the minority language, independent of where they are – it is unusual to switch language at the door step (although there are families who do this). I strongly believe that parents should not only pass on their language, but also their pride in their language and culture and by doing this, the child will not regard the home language being second rate.

The mL@H may not have been as popular as OPOL in the past, but today it has the support of several experts. In her research, Professor Annick De Houwer found that 96% of children growing up in a family that uses mL@H become bilingual, making it the strategy with the highest overall success rate. Professor François Grosjean also favours this approach, because it “has a clear advantage in that the weaker language (the home language) will receive much more input than if only one parent uses it”. Professor Barbara Pearson Zurer finds that with mL@H “parents are carving out a domain for the minority language where it doesn’t have to compete for the child’s time and attention”, thus giving the minority language a solid base.

Should every family raising bilingual children now switch to mL@H?

Of course not. Statistically the answer may be ‘yes’, but in real life this is not possible. The mL@H approach works well if parents have a language in common in which they are comfortable enough to make it the only language they speak to their children. If one parent feels awkward (or, perish the thought, both do) and not confident about using the language, I cannot recommend the mL@H approach. I have said this many times before, and I will say it again, the very purpose of language is communication, if the choice of language becomes something that negatively affects the relationship between a parent and a child, in my opinion, it is not the right choice. There are other ways of making sure your children become bilingual, not being able to fully connect with your offspring is too high a price to pay. Also, OPOL has worked wonderfully well in many families and may well do for you, too! (Also keep an eye out for next weeks’ posts on further approaches).

So who should use the mL@H strategy?

The obvious candidates for the mL@H system are migrant families who move to a place where the language the family members already speak with each other changes from being the majority language of the community to being the minority one. A move is a big upheaval in any family life, keeping the same language is beneficial on many levels. It offers a continuum in a situation where most other aspects of their life change and serves as a “safe haven” for the family language.

mL@H is also definitely worth considering if both parents know a common language well enough to be using it on a daily basis and in different scenarios with their children. If I had to decide whether to speak a language which is not my native one with my child, I would ask myself questions such as: Would I feel comfortable to discuss a difficult matter in the language – an example would be that my child has been bullied at school, could I find the words to express myself? Will I resent not using my mother tongue later on in life? Changing a language you speak with your child is not easy, I know this for sure. Note that you do not have to be accent-free or even perfectly fluent (whatever those terms mean) to speak a certain language with your child – your little one will not pick up your small deviations from the agreed language norm (but may well soon start pointing them out to you).

Taking the above into account, would I recommend that you choose mL@H as your family language strategy? Yes, I would, if it feels right for you.

What about you – is mL@H your strategy of choice? How are you getting on?

Every child is good at something and as parents we love seeing our children do well. Bilingual children have an added advantage in different situations in their lives – and they often get really good, and – depending on their personality – sometimes cheeky with their language skills.

1. Correct their parents’ language

Children in multilingual families often grow up to become fluent, native-like speakers of the language of the community they live in – and do end up correcting their mums and dads! I have certainly been on the receiving end of this since we moved to England – and I am very thankful for it … really, honest!

2. Get better results at school

Bilingual children on average do better than their monolingual peers at school. Long gone is the myth that speaking more than one language will confuse a child and detract from learning other school subjects.

3. Don’t think being bilingual is anything special

Children growing up acquiring many languages don’t find it unusual or even that special to speak two, three, four or even more languages. It’s just part of their normal daily lives.

4. Amaze adults with their language skills

While they themselves don’t think that speaking many language is a great achievement, adults do find their skills amazing. Especially those who have tried to learn a new language themselves as adults find it difficult to get their head around a five-year-old confidently switching between three languages.

5. Enjoy it if their language is a school subject

Bilingual children get a “free ride” if one of their languages is a subject they have to study at school – you may think that your kid is using this time to learn something new, but actually, they are just enjoying a class where they can do well without much effort at all. I remember myself relaxing during the Finnish lessons at my Swedish-speaking school.

6. Giving cheeky incorrect translations

“How do you say it in your language?” – children can sometimes be really cheeky and give a translation which is not quite right. My Finnish-speaking aunt and her friends used to help a Swedish-speaking farmer when they were teenagers. The farmer thought that the girls could possibly work a bit harder and asked how to say that in Finnish. My aunt told him to say “Huilata! Huilata!” which actually means “Take a rest!”

7. Pretend not to know a language

Adults tend to forget that children can be bilingual, and children may well pretend not to know a language … and then secretly listen in on conversations. Remember this when you next time say something in your language when you are out and about.

8. Use a secret language

Bilingual siblings have the advantage of having a common secret language when they are among monolinguals. Not only does this help to convey “important” messages between them, but it also adds to their bond with each other and the language.

9. Make their parents proud

Language is an important part of every person’s identity and parents would normally want their children to learn the language they themselves have grown up with. Experiencing your child switching languages when speaking to different relatives in the extended family fills your heart with joy and pride.

10. Grow up with many additional benefits

Thanks to how bilinguals use their brain when speaking more than one language and switching between them they have found to be more creative, more open-minded, more flexible in their thinking and culturally more aware than monolinguals. Fantastic attributes to look forward to in the bilingual adults our children grow up to become!

May the peace and power be with you.