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June 30 2011
At Bilingual Russian, we are happy to host the June 2011 Blogging Carnival on Bilingualism. We had a great time reviewing the submissions from multilingual parents-bloggers from around the world and learning about their experiences.
One thing that we found particularly interesting is that all of the submissions came from female bloggers . So far, we don't know of a single male blogger who writes about his experiences raising bilingual children. There is something telling about this. We tried to stay away from the gender question, but it is looming -- are fathers focused on something else while mothers are focused on bilingualism? Fathers participating in raising bilingual children -- we would love to learn from you and your experiences -- please share in the comments below.
Another important challenge to explore is that most bloggers appear to be concerned with the technicality of languages: how much input their kids receive in each language, what method they use (OPOL -One Parent One Language or mL@H – Minority Language at Home), how their children use grammar, etc. and yet, no one brings up the question of what values they are communicatingto their children. Different cultures often have different value systems (for example, in America, individualism may be more valued than in China, and many other examples can be given) and we would be interested to learn how parents raising bilingual children approach this subject.
Onto the review of the submissions:
Letizia over at Bilingue Per Gioco starts a great discussion about the value of play in accomplishing language goals you are passionate about with your kid(s). We, as parents, are often focused on teaching our kids languages, math, etc, vs letting them play and explore and learn on their own.
Tye at Our Bilingual Journey (Nuestro Viaje Bilingue) shares a list of invaluable resources for people living in and around Atlanta to immerse themselves in Spanish.
Giovanna at Italobimbi traces the history of the OPOL theory and follows its evolution through the research of Suzanne Doepke. Furthermore, she reminds us that "a parent attentive to the child's language development will have more opportunities to identify deficit areas and to find solutions for them."
Roxana at Spanglish Baby realizes that as bilingual children grow up, keeping two languages and two cultures (Latino and American in her case) for her daughter separately will not be possible and, more so, should not be necessary. The two cultures will overlap quite a bit when it comes to friends and parties, and will develop organically depending on the amount of input the kids will receive in each language.
Tamara at Non Native Bilingualism learns that persistence yields surprising results, however long they may seem to lie dormant. After she changed her method and attitude, and started expecting only German from her daughter, her daughter started responding in German more and more.
Ariadne at Mudpie Mama sees her boys "flipping the language switch" and finds strength in flexibility. Many scientists have observed that this ability to switch in between two languages aids in creating greater brain flexibility among bilingual people.
Jan at Babelkid notices some interesting verb substitution by his child between German and English while the grammar remains intact.
Lynn at Open Hearts Open Minds uses both English and Spanish with her 22 months old son and sees him picking his favorite words regardless of their language and rejoices in the interesting game of figuring out where he chooses to use each.
Sarah at Bringing Up Baby Bilingual documents some of her 3.5 year old son's keen observations in reading, mathematics, and science. She sees him responding in English more often than in French and is looking for recommendations on how to guide him to purer French without making it a chore. She also notes the inevitable mixing of languages as in the great quote, "I am être-ing sage!"
Dominique From Dominique's Desk shares some tips on using oral recitation in two languages (English and Chinese) to tackle impromptu speech in two languages and to prepare for the Oral Assessment.
Steffi at Mommy Do That expounds on the multiplicity of benefits that bilingual playgroups can offer, including the realization that there are other bilingual children in the world, the fact that making new friends can encourage a minority language, and that meeting new parents can be a great resource for reading material and songs.
Salma at Non-Native Bilingual Adventures reminds us that talking more and including more words versus just telling our kids what to do in simple sentences will actually be quite valuable for their vocabulary later on.
Melissa at Where going havo? recounts a pleasantly surprising trip to America, the land of the unilingual, where her daughter "did not back off at all from her new speaking-Czech-with-Apo routine".
Smashedpea at Intrepidly Bilingual sees interesting developments in the way her 6 year old daughter chooses to use German and English language among adults versus children, reminding us "Everything is constantly in a flux," but that going in the direction of using two languages is a great thing.
Cordelia at Multilingual Mama strives to maintain strict OPOL but realizes that each time you fall off the wagon you have just another opportunity to get back on.
If you are just starting your journey on raising bilingual children and would like to learn what science and empirical research have to say, we would highly recommend to read the insightful research-based books the have been written about the subject.
If you didn’t had a chance to submit your bilingualism-related post to be included in the carnival, please feel free to leave a link in the comments section!
**Update** 07/08/2011:
We received additional submissions and wanted to make sure they are included in the Carnival.
Kiersten at Growing Flowers takes a family trip to her husband's homeland, East Germany, and sees her daughters exploring their fluent but perhaps dormant German personalities.
Jen at Trilingual Trio is surprised to hear that her au pair notices a distinctly English intonation in her son's German but comes to the conclusion that there are worse things in life than ending your questions with an upswing especially when you're four! :)
Commenters pointed out that in Germany (and a lot of other countries) Jan is a name for men, and Jan at Babelkid is a dad raising three bilingual children together with his wife Souad. Great to hear from you, Jan and Souad!