I have been reading many articles on the benefits of bilingualism lately and I decided to gather some of the best ones into one post and share them with you. This is one of my favourite topics, so I have already written about it on different occasions: how languages have helped me in my career, my daughter’s experience of being bilingual, how bilingualism gives you a confidence boost and how it makes you focus better.

The most significant advantage which has been reported recently must be the fact that “bilingual patients developed dementia 4.5 years later than the monolingual ones.” This was the outcome of a research lead by Dr Thomas Bak. It also concluded that “bilingual switching between different sounds, words, concepts, grammatical structures and social norms constituted a form of natural brain training, which was likely to be more effective than any artificial brain training programme”. For further details, read BBC’s article Speaking a second language may delay dementia. The full research paper can be bought here.

Bilingualism has also been found to enhance a child’s working memory as shown by a research  conducted at the University of Granada under the supervision of Ellen Bialystok.  The “working memory includes the structures and processes associated with the storage and processing of information over short periods of time.” You can read more about this in the article Bilingual children have a better “working memory” than monolingual children

In their article Being Bilingual Makes You Smarter The social network Verbalisti  write that “the bilingual experience improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks.”

Bilinguals are better at multi-tasking. “Children who grow up learning to speak two languages are better at switching between tasks than are children who learn to speak only one language” as explained in Bilingual Children Switch Tasks Faster than Speakers of a Single Language

Bilingualism makes you more open-minded and sensitive to others:  “bilinguals have an enhanced awareness of other people’s points of view, born from their deeper understanding, from an early age, that some people have a different perspective.” This probably makes bilinguals better managers as well as stated in the Financial Times article The Multilingual Dividend

Another study found that bilingualism enhances your listening ability. It showed that in a noisy environment bilinguals are “better at detecting the different sounds, therefore enhancing attention.” Read more in the article Study Indicates Bilinguals are Better Listeners (Literally).

Bilingual children are less easily distracted. Judy Willis MD, a neurologist, teacher and author states that “compared to monolinguals, the bilingual children develop greater attention focus, distraction resistance, decision-making judgment and responsiveness to feedback”  and that “research supports encouraging parents to retain use of their native language in the home” in her article Neuroscience and the Bilingual Brain - More languages lead to more efficient processing.

If you grow up as a bilingual you are often also bicultural. In his article Advantages of Being Bicultural - Biculturals show greater creativity and professional success Prof François Grosjean lists the benefits as “having a greater number of social networks, being aware of cultural differences, taking part in the life of two or more cultures, being an intermediary between cultures” as well as having “greater creativity and professional success”.

I will finish with a great infographic which says it all:

How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual - Infographic

May the peace and power be with you.

Motivation is the key to any language learning, never more so than for a bilingual child keeping up with the minority language.

1 – Habit

If you consistently stick to speaking the minority language with your children, they are less likely to want to switch to the majority language with you, even when it becomes the main language of their day spent at nursery or school.

2 – Need

Nothing is as motivating as the need to speak a language. Without coercion, come up with situations where your children will want to communicate with monolinguals in the minority language. Think of play dates, Skype calls, sports and other activities in the language.

3 – Travel

Being immersed in an environment where the minority language is the common language in the society is one of the most efficient ways to give the language a boost. Several parents have seen their children’s confidence in the minority language progress in leaps and bounds after a stay in a place where they are surrounded by the language and other speakers of it.

4 – Fun

Make using the language fun – think of activities in the minority language which engage your children and make them want to speak it. This could be games, hobby groups or even computer games in the language

5 – Positive feedback

I am a great believer in giving positive feedback. In the long run, encouraging a behaviour which moves towards the desired goal is far more effective than being told off for using the wrong language. Keep it realistic though: children see through you very quickly if they get praised no matter what they say. Your feedback needs to be honest.

6 – Incentive

Children respond well to different incentives, but always make them age-appropriate. Your five-year-old will love getting a smiling sun sticker on the wall chart, but for your teenager you need to figure out something different. I also think it is sometimes okay to bribe your children to get them to speak your language. However, use bribes sparingly and save them for crucial situations when your children show tendencies to drop the minority language.

7 – Be a great role model

The importance of you as a role model for your child can not be underestimated. Show pride in your language and use it whenever you can. Read books – any books: biographies, chick lit, novels, non-fiction, cooking books, you name it – you children will also want to read. Teach them about the culture of your language: traditions, food, clothing, arts, sports, history, fashion, movies …

… and 3 things to avoid:

1 – Refuse to talk

I have heard of parents answering their children only when they are addressed in the “right” language. This is a very drastic approach and in my opinion, not to be recommended. You should never stop communicating with your child. The very essence of language IS communication. The choice of language should not become a battle ground or be associated with feelings of being forced to do something.

2 – Pretend not to understand

This might be a bit controversial, since I know several parents have pretended not to understand their children when they use the majority language. They have also probably succeeded in getting their children to speak only the minority language. I am however not keen on this approach, as it is a short term solution and you might be accused of lying.

3 – Threaten with negative consequences

As I mentioned earlier, I am all for positive encouragement. You may get your children to speak the minority language by shortening their playtime or refusing treats if they use the majority language, but you are creating a negative atmosphere around the language which is not conducive to your children’s willingness to use it.

May the peace and power be with you.

Getting an answer in the “wrong” language is something which especially minority language parents dread, and which gives rise to question such as:
– Is it the start of a slippery slope which may end in the majority language taking over as the language of communication in our family?
– Have I not done enough or the right things to encourage the use of my language?
– How can I reverse this trend and get us back on track again?

There are four major reasons that parents and children give when asked what was behind the change in the language use, and these can be summarised as want, need, habit and time.

1. Don’t want to

“She didn’t want to speak it anymore” or “He preferred the majority language after going to school” – these are the most common reason parents state for when a child has stopped using a minority language. Wanting to speak a language is the most important motivator and guarantor for keeping a language active. The important thing is to understand why the ‘want’ seems to all of a sudden vanish. The language a person speaks is a big part of their personality, no matter the age, so to drop it is a big change, and there is always an underlying reason for it. Each child is different, so it is vital that you try to find the cause for what has made your child make this choice.

Some questions to ask:
– Are there any negative connotations with the language?
– Does your child feel compelled to speak the language?
– Has your child been made uncomfortable for either speaking or not speaking the language?
– Has anyone made fun of your child when he or she has spoken it?
– Has there been bullying at school because of the language?
– Has anyone criticised or overly corrected how your child speaks the language?
– Is your child shy and afraid of making mistakes?
– Does your child not see the value in using your language?
– Or, is it just a phase in their life when the answer to everything you suggest is No! ?

By exploring these options and discussing with your child, you will get a better picture of the situation, which will put you in a better place to address it.

2. Don’t need to

“Why use it, everybody understands me when I speak the majority language anyway?” – children are very pragmatic and usually take the path of least resistance. If they do not experience any real need to use a language, and they have an option they feel is easier – to speak the majority language – it is not surprising if that is what they decide to do. Next to wanting to speak a language, needing to use it is a key factor for making sure a child not only understands, but also speaks the language.

Again, for you to create the right type of motivation, to make you child want to maintain the minority language, it is a question of finding out what drives your offspring and what you can do to change the situation. I know that several parents have (successfully) used the tactic of refusing to understand their child if spoken to in the “wrong” one. I am not saying this is a strategy that should not be used at all, but I confess that I am not a big fan of it. The risk of creating negative associations with the language is great and the approach may backfire. Also, I for one, would have felt devastated if my mother or father had ever refused to communicate with me because of my language choice.

My preferred option is to find ways to draw your child towards your language by finding the right way to motivate her or him. Again, every child is different, and a parent is the best expert on what makes their kids tick, so work with what spurs your child on. Different types of rewards, trips to where the language is spoken, play groups and fun activities in the language are great boosters for its use.

3. Don’t have the habit

“We just got out of the habit of speaking it” is another comment I have heard from families where the minority language has lost its importance. To create any habit you need to consistently take certain actions. To make speaking a language a habit, you as a parent need to continue using the language with your child even if your child does not speak it to you. Ideally, also find other people with whom your child can practise it. If you are the only speaker where you live, set up regular on-line calls with relatives and friends to expand the circle of people that your child communicates with in the language.

Habits change when life circumstances change – as long as a child stays mostly in a home environment, it is usually fairly easy to maintain a minority language as the common language. However, attending nursery or going to school in the majority language brings with a huge shift in the language habits for a child, so these are crucial phases in the language development stages of your bilingual child.

Another thing to keep in mind is to pay close attention to your own language use – do you yourself quickly switch to the majority language, even if it is not necessary? Are you being a good, positive role model as a speaker of the language?

4. Don’t have the time

Time is of the essence to us all, but there is really no difference in time when saying something in one language or another. So, if your child says that it is quicker to say it in the majority language, what he or she really means is:
– I don’t know the right words.
– I don’t know how to form a correct sentence for what I want to say.
– I am afraid of making a mistake.

In other words, what needs addressing is not the time aspect but the knowledge of the language and the confidence to use it. Ways of addressing these, apart from the obvious of generally using the language more with your child, are for example to encourage reading books and magazines, preparing for new experiences by learning the relevant vocabulary and constantly giving positive feedback whenever your child speaks the language.

Reading is a great habit to have from the very start – if you nurture a love for books in your child, he or she will benefit from it in so many ways later in life. When something new is going to happen in the family’s life, speak about with your child in your language – make sure the vocabulary becomes familiar before the change. Speak about nursery, routines, instructions, school, classroom, teachers, subjects and so on – this way your child will not need to start looking for words when telling you about what happened at school.

What do you think? Have you experienced this and what worked/didn’t work for you?

May the peace and power be with you.

The custom is to make resolutions for the new year, but as we all know, most of them fall by the wayside well before the shops start stocking chocolate for Valentine’s Day. As a parent of a bilingual child, what could you do instead? My advice is to forget about resolutions and think more about habits. A habit is not as onerous as a resolution. With a resolution, if you fail once, you have broken the promise you made and that’s it – the resolution has melted away to the taste of the chocolate in your mouth. With a habit you can just pick it up again and keep going. That means less pressure, which can only be good for parents, especially when it comes to something like bringing up bilingual children. Here are five habits for you to implement into your daily life throughout the year – if you already have these habits, treat yourself to a … nice fruit salad!

1. Have patience

It takes time to create something great – it might sometimes feel that your little one takes far too much time to utter those first words in your language, puts a sentence together or knows which word belongs to which language. Learning a language, never mind two or three languages, is actually a humongous task and we are all different. Your child (like my younger daughter) might belong to those who need to take more time to get ready to speak. If you are truly concerned, speak to a language therapist who is used to dealing with bilingual children.

Also remember to have patience on those days when you think that you are not on track with your language plan for your kids. It is not a personal attack on you if they respond in the “wrong” language, nor does it mean that they have given up on the language. Circumstances change and it is important that you change with them if need be – by increasing the amount of language exposure, staying even more consistent or asking for others’ help.

Make patience a habit.

2. Give positive feedback

Show your appreciation when your child makes progress in speaking you language. Make it clear how happy it makes you that you can communicate in your language. Try not to let your feelings come to the surface at those moments when you feel that all is not going as well as you would like.

Find out what spurs your child on and use this to your advantage when coming up with rewards for sticking to your language. I know you can not bribe your way through the learning phase, but it may well make some sticky situations easier to overcome.

Make giving positive feedback a habit.

3. Keep reading

Read those bedtime stories and make sure you have a lot of reading material easily available. When you feel you have read all the books you have more often than there are pages in them, look for on-line stories. It might not always be easy or cheap to get hold of books in your language if you live far away from where the language is spoken, but you can always find stories on-line.

You can also ask others for help with the reading. Arrange Skype sessions with the grandparents (or other relatives or friends) during which they read different books – maybe some that they remember from their childhood.

Make reading a habit.

4. Chat away

Talk to your child – get used to speaking to your baby about everything that you are doing. Ideally start this habit already before your future bilingual is born (be prepared for some odd looks if you do it out in the public, though). Speak about anything, be it chores, gardening, shopping, holiday plans or the neighbour’s cat.

Some research has found that chatting a lot to your child can be equally effective as reading when it comes to language and general cognitive development. So especially on those days when you know there will be no chance for a story time, make sure that you chat away throughout the day.

Make chatting to your child a habit.

5. Have more fun

Associating your language with fun things to do will be a strong motivating factor for your child to learn it and keep on speaking it. Establish routines when you play certain games only in your language, or weave word play exercises into your daily life.

Make having more fun a habit.

What are your best habits when it comes to bringing up a bilingual child?

May the peace and power be with you.