|
|
 |
|
Raise a Bilingual Kid
Right now, you may be more focused on getting your baby to utter her first words, never mind what language she says them in. Or if you're teaching your toddler the alphabet, throwing in the ABCs in Chinese probably isn't on the agenda. But the perfect time to introduce your child to a foreign language is actually just when she's learning her first one. "A young child's brain is wired to pick up language naturally," says Nancy Rhodes, director of foreign-language education at the Center for Applied Linguistics, in Washington, D.C. "Between birth and puberty, children can learn multiple languages and echo accents easily."
Not only will a child generally learn a language faster and retain it better than an adult will, but being bilingual actually builds brainpower. Studies have found that knowing another language can improve children's English verbal skills, problem-solving abilities, and test scores. "Learning early on that an object can be described in more than one way (house, maison, casa), promotes flexibility in thinking and overall creativity," says Karen MacGilvray, director of education at Language Stars, a children's language program based in Chicago. "Parents are realizing how important it is to raise their children as global citizens. Inspiring enthusiasm for a second language is the best head start you can give your child."
What do you think of this story? Tell Us.
|
Related Links
|
Related Videos
|
Comments
Please confirm your comment by answering the question below and clicking "Submit Comment."
My husband and I are both English speakers but really want our 2 year old to have another language. We found a great site which my daughter loves www.growstorygrow.com. Great games and stories, and we're picking up French too!
1/24/2012 09:33:34 AM Report AbuseI speak to my daughter in Chinese a lot. Sometimes I sprinkle in a little Japanese or Korean, but I don't know those languages well myself, so I usually just say "I love you!" in those tongues. I think that a future career could be dependent on whether she is able to speak more than one language. In China, even the maids in a hotel must be able to speak either Japanese, Korean, or English in addition to native Mandarin. I don't think it's so far-fetched that the same will be true in the U.S.A.
12/28/2011 02:52:44 PM Report AbuseMy husband is turkish and I was afraid that she would learn to speak turkish and not english but my 21 month old know to talk to me and my family in English and my husbands in Turkish. In fact one day she was at my MIL's and asked her for a banana and when she didn't give her one because they were out My daughter thought she didn't understand and so ahe asked her in Turkish. It was so funny.
6/16/2011 07:03:58 PM Report AbuseMY 20 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER IS LEARNING ENGLISH AND SPANISH...SHE EVEN LEARNED HER FIRST FRENCH WORK "BOOONJOUR"!I SPEAK ENGLISH TO HER AND MY MOM WHO TAKES CARE OF HER SPEAKS TO HER IN SPANISH...SO SHE IS DOING WELL. I ALSO HAVE THE BABY EINSTEIN DVDS...SHE'S BEEN WATCHING SINCE 3 MONTHS...I REALLY LIKE BABY EINSTEIN....
6/1/2011 09:41:52 AM Report AbuseOk, so how are we supposed to raise a bilingual child if both parents speak English only. I read all this stuff, but nobody ever mentions DVD's or books, etc to teach toddlers Spanish. Does anyone have any recommendations?
4/5/2011 12:55:53 PM Report AbuseI speak Spanish. My husband speaks English. Our babysitter speaks Spanish. However, our daughter (25 months) speaks (so far) mostly English :-(. She has a few words in Spanish that she uses consistently and accurately, and she understands Spanish, but her vocabulary is mostly composed of English words and phrases. I didn't want her to watch much TV before the age of 2, but now I'm exposing her to cartoons in Spanish. We'll see if that motivates her to start producing in her second language :-)
4/2/2011 06:45:31 AM Report AbuseAt home we are bilingual, and I believe all kids are capable to do so too. Is not true when people say they will get confuse, my mother-in-law told me to talk to our babies only in spanish, because they will get confused. My 2 1/2 yr old girl understand both English and Spanish with no problem. If you do speak more than 1 language, please teach your babies to speak more than 1 language. Is amazing how they learn.
3/10/2011 10:38:06 AM Report AbuseWe speak Creole,french,English my husband and I, we tried to have our three children to do the same, but they decided to pick out creole instead of french as their second language, we are good with that as long they have a back up. We are really proud of them, they speak English and Creole fluently.
2/22/2011 02:18:12 PM Report AbuseWe speack english and spanish at home and are also learning Vietnamese as a family. OUr 17th month old says over 25 words mostly spanish some in English and a few in Vietnamese. Its definatly true that you should teach them from "infancy". Kids are like sponges.
2/15/2011 12:54:23 PM Report AbuseI am Brazilian, but was raised bilingual (English-Portuguese)due to my dad's travels. Now my kids are attending a bilingual school in Brazil and I could not be happier with the results. My 5 year old can have regular conversations with anyone both in English and Portuguese and my 4 year old understands everything you throw at him in both languages and is quickly starting to pick up some Spanish from a Mexican classmate.
5/3/2010 06:24:40 PM Report AbuseI speak Italian, my husband english and our nanny speaks spanish - our little one seems to have no problem understanding us all and he's only 11 months old - I grew up with Italian parents in London and was completely bilingual with no effort at all! I would encourage any parent to do the same...many people worry they may confuse their child but it's absolutely not true!
4/26/2010 01:24:52 PM Report Abuse