Author Archive: Ute Limacher-Riebold

Keeping our languages alive when living abroad – FIGT presentation

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At my kitchen table conversation– session I held at the 20th FIGT conference this year in The Hague I focused on the languages we collect during our life, and how we can keep them alive while living abroad, in different countries.

Why kitchen table conversation?

Because that’s where all began 20 years ago at Ruth van Reken’s kitchen table. I wanted to honor the format where all began, because I, myself, have the most significant conversations and discussions at my own kitchen table. Of course, the one at the venue of the conference was not a real “kitchen table”, but we had a great discussion about “my” topic.

Ruth van Reken at FIGT 2018 in The Hague

How can we keep our languages alive?

Many international families struggle to maintain their home languages if they are not among the most dominant ones, i.e. if they are not English and sometimes Spanish, French and German, depending on the country they live in. What seems an easy task for the first years of a child can become a real challenge once the children attend daycares and schools who don’t provide sufficient support in the other language.

I see this every day with my clients and friends: our children are tired from school and rarely find the after school classes in their home languages pleasant, fun. Many families send their children to weekend schools, where, once again, they will sit down and “learn” a language that, in other circumstances and settings would just “come natural to them”: they would be fully immersed, literally showered by it.

For all these families, maintaining their language can become a great issue. If they don’t find a community that speaks this language, or they don’t connect with this community for different reasons, parents find themselves as being the only ones of providing linguistic input for their children.

Moreover, speaking a language in a restricted group, i.e. among family members, doesn’t allow the language to “breathe”: we tend to use the same kind of vocabulary because we tend to speak about the same topics, our language “shrinks”, like a plant would shrink and wither, if we don’t nurture it.

For our children it is even more important to have regular and diverse input in our home language as they are still building their vocabulary, they are still becoming “natively fluent” in the language, which, as we know, takes up to 8 years of constant, daily (!) practice.

What if:

  • our children don’t speak their language with peers?
  • the daycare or school doesn’t support our home language?
  • weekend lessons are not enough to foster the language or are not an option?
  • our partner or extended family can not support our language?

Then this language will stagnate or die.

I have seen this many times when I was a child, and throughout my work with multilingual families: languages are abandoned because it is too much to ask to one person or a small group of persons to work on it, and if it is about more than one or two languages within the same family it becomes almost impossible to maintain them.

This is why I recommend to be very clear about the following points: 

– what language is important for our family – because extended family, friends speak it? 

– who talks this language on a daily/weekly basis with our children and us?

– what are the short and long term goals for all our languages qua fluency?

Are these language goals and expectations S.M.A.R.T.?

Many multilingual families struggle with agreeing on the languages they want to prioritize. Should we keep Swissgerman or prefer German or Italian instead? Should I learn my partners’ language? What if we move to a country where none of our languages are spoken, where there is no community in that language? – I help families maintain their languages on the move, make short and longterm plans. 

Language lives, changes over time, adapts to new circumstances and needs to be nurtured if we want to keep it alive.

How can we make sure that we keep our languages alive? 

  • By speaking them on a regular basis – daily would be perfect, but weekly needs to be enough sometimes.
  • By not listening to the no-sayers, those who tell us that it is too difficult to keep up with all those languages, and by following those who, like us, want to enjoy our languages and see them grow.
  • By thinking out of the box: if we can’t immerse into the language by traveling to places where it’s spoken, form our micro-world in our home.
  • By finding other speakers on- and offline, and talking about topics that challenge us to learn new words, new concepts. Our vocabulary will grow by repeating new words in different contexts, learning new registers of the language, jokes, metaphores, how to do maths in all our languages.

With our languages it is like with our cultures: we shouldn’t have to choose one or two of them to call “our own”, we have the right to choose them all.

Our languages shouldn’t be minoritized and marginalized. They all have a right to be spoken and heard.

***

Some thoughts & quotes about languages:

Knowing another language is like possessing another soul (Charlemagne)

The limits of my languages are the limits of my worlds ( adapted from Ludwig Wittgenstein)

I am all the languages I know, some I only understand, others I speak, read and write. (Ute Limacher-Riebold)

Languages are the vehicle of our thoughts, they open the door to the other culture, its values, beliefs, habits and so much more. (Ute Limacher-Riebold)

The development of language is part of the development of the personality, for words are the natural means of expressing thoughts and establishing understanding between people. (Maria Montessori)

Poetry is not a matter of feelings, it is a matter of language. It is language which creates feelings. (Umberto Eco)

– What about you?

– What are the languages you are nurturing and keeping alive?

– What are the obstacles you encountered while trying to keep your languages alive?

TinyEYE online speech therapy from your home or school

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In my practice as Language Consultant I sometimes work as mediator between parents and schools when there are some misunderstandings concerning the speech and language development of the child.

Speech therapists usually help the child either during school hours or after school with the school language. They usually work closely with the teachers in order to provide the best support to the child.

What many parents of bi- or multilingual children don't know is that their children should get this support it in all the languages they speak!

As not every parent is a linguist or a speech therapist, who can provide this support themselves or at least bridge between the languages.

Also, finding a speech therapist who is expert in the school and the home languages is very difficult.

The online service offered by TinyEYE can be a solution for some.

I'm very thankful that Mila Rozema, TinyEYE British-Dutch speech and language pathologist, agreed on answering a few questions about the services TinyEYE can offer to bi- or multilingual families.

 

  • What age group are you targeting with TinyEYE?

TinyEYE is an online speech therapy company that has been helping clients of all ages for many years now. From children with speech and language disorders to teenagers who stutter and adults who have had a stroke.

 

  • How does this work?

To be able to know whether a person needs speech therapy, one of our TinyEYE speech therapists plans in an intake interview with you. During this interview you can elaborate on the problem and the speech therapist will ask questions about the medical history. The speech therapist will then give advice and discuss starting up speech therapy or not.

 

  • What kind of information do you need from parents and schools in order to know if you can help the child (or adult)?

Our TinyEYE speech therapists find it important to get in contact with others involved in the client’s daily life. Think of teachers or doctors.

 

  • Is the speech therapy you're offering at TinyEYE covered by the health insurance?

Our online speech therapy is fully covered by the Dutch health insurances.

 

  • What about multilingual children: can your speech therapists provide the service in more than one language?

Our speech therapists are also specialized in working with multilingualism and different cultures. We can test and treat in different languages.

 

  • What are the languages do your speech therapists cover at the moment?

The languages we provide are: Turkish, Dutch, British, German, French and Malayalam.

 

  • Is this service available worldwide or do you only serve specific time-zones?

Our services are world wide. Flexible hours, so time difference isn’t an issue at TinyEYE!

 

  • Can parents assist the online sessions together with their children?

The good thing about online speech therapy, is it can take place from the client’s home environment. This means parents can be present during the speech therapy of their child for example. We also work with international schools. In some cases the equipment is set up at a school and we see children online, during school time.

 

  • Do you use online games when working with the children or do you also give homework they can do offline?

When working with children, we use our TinyEYE speech and language games. We then place these games, with personal instructional video’s in their homework so they can practice whenever they please. When working with adults, we use a large screen, writing or photo material. All therapy materiaal is integrated in our software programme.

 

  • How long does a session last?

The duration of a TinyEYE session is 20 minutes. Short but effective. We tend to plan in two or three sessions a week.

 

  • Some families who live in remote areas where they don't have the appropriate speech therapy for their children, also struggle with internet connection problems. What system do you use when working with the clients online and is it safe for children to use?

We use our own TinyEYE software programme for the live audio-visual sessions. Client and speech therapist login via the website. This programma doesn’t need a strong internet connection so families living in remote areas or in the mountains can also receive online help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To see a brief introduction of the bilingual speech therapists, please click on the following link: https://tinyeye.eu/en/about/ and https://tinyeye.eu/wie-zijn-wij/

 

 

 

Please don't hesitate to contact TinyEYE if you are interested in online speech therapy for yourself or someone you know.

 

 


Mila Rozema, British-Dutch speech and language pathologist at TinyEYE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

       

                                        

What is speech? What is language?

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When I explain to people what I do, that I focus on language and communication but that I also can help with the speech, as I have studied and taught phonology, I often need to explain the difference between speech and language.

What is Speech?

With speech we refer to the articulation of the sounds, the phonological skills, the speech fluency and the voice. 

When I focus on the speech of a person, I focus on her or his ability to use the human vocal tract:

  • Physically produce the individual sounds and sound patterns of his/her language (Articulation)
  • Produce speech with appropriate rhythm (and free of Stuttering behavior)
  • Produce speech with an appropriate vocal quality for his/her age and sex.

When a child or an adult has problems to pronounce a sound, we focus about the phonological level of his/her production of language and try to help with it.

 

What is Language?

Language is a system that consists of the development, acquisition, maintenance and use of complex systems of communication. Every language – German, English, French etc. – has its “symbols” that can be words, either spoken or written.

Most languages also have gestures that are a form of non-verbal communication, or non-vocal communication, where bodily actions communicate or accentuate particular messages. For example, waving hands to say “goodbye”.

What determines a language are the socially shared rules that include:

  • semantics: what a word means. In different contexts “star” can refer to the bright object in the sky, a celebrity or a bright person etc.
  • morphology: how to make a word so that it can function in the sentence and make sense: friend (a friend), friendly (a friendly person), unfriendly (someone who is not friendly) etc.
  • syntax: how to put words in an order so that the message is understood (we also talk about grammatically correct sentence): Lisa drives the car, and not *Car Lisa the drives
  • pragmatics: the ways in which language use is patterned and how these patterns contribute to meaning. In all languages, linguistic expressions can be used not just to transmit information, but to perform actions.

 

Language without speech

Speech and language are related, but we don’t need speech to have language. When we use sign language, speech is not involved. Sign language has its own set of rules to govern how it is used: its own symbols, syntax, pragmatics, etc.

 

What is communication?

Communication, then, is the process of conveying a message or meaning to establish a shared understanding to others. We don’t need speech or a shared language to communicate.

We can always use our hands and gestures that make others understand what we mean or draw pictures of what we are looking for. By using gestures and pictures we can communicate without using speech or shared language.

 

Communication is always the first goal

Sometimes a person’s ability to communicate with speech and/or language is so impaired, that Speech Therapists need to bypass those methods and use an alternative or augmentative communication (AAC) system to get the child communicating as soon as possible.

This could be by using signs, pictures, or an electronic device to give the person the ability to communicate his or her wants and needs.

Once the person starts communicating, we can focus on trying to improve the speech skills so that he/she can use speech to communicate his/her wants and needs. 

Just think about toddlers who still don’t talk: they are communicating through gestures, facial expressions, and body language even though they aren’t using a lot of speech yet.

– Although speech and language are related to each other, they are different.

Please watch my interview with Speech and Language Therapist Weronika Ozpolat.

 

The advantage of being bilingual for children with ASD

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I have followed the debate concerning the “bilingual advantage” concerning executive functions and hoped that this would also be tested for children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders).

Prof. Aparna Nadig from the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at McGill University recently published a paper in Child Development, on her findings demonstrating that the “bilingual advantage” concerning cognitive flexibility that was already observed in bilingual children, also applies to Autistic children who are bilingual.

These findings are very important for families with ASD children, as it will help them make important educational and child-rearing decisions!

I know from my practice that many bi-/multilingual families are advised that “exposing a child with ASD to more than one language will just worsen their language difficulties”, but like Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero, the paper’s first author (and recent McGill PhD graduate) says: “there are an increasing number of families with children with ASD for whom using two or more languages is a common and valued practice and, as we know, in bilingual societies such as ours in Montreal, speaking only one language can be a significant obstacle in adulthood for employment, educational, and community opportunities”.

I might add that for multilingual families, being multilingual is an vital part for their children to connect with all the family members, and therefore even more important than the reasons indicated by Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero! 

This study is an important milestone for the research concerning bilingualism and ASD, and I hope there will be more data to confirm the positive effect of bilingualism on task-shifting activities.

– I will regularly update this post. If you would like to be notified about changes on this subject, please send me a mail at info@UtesInternationalLounge.com.

Read also: 

Being bilingual may help autistic children, McGill University

Being bilingual may help autistic children, Independent

Le bilinguisme serait un atout pour enfants bilingues, La Presse

As for children with other disabilities, please read:

Language learning is possible for all 

Myths about Bilingualism/Multilingualism

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This is a short (!) overview of some common myths about bilingualism/multilingualism – I will be updating this list in May/June 2024, so, if you came across any myths you want me to include, please let me know in the comments.

They are all assumptions based on old theories about bilingualism and bilinguals (and multilingualism), but have all been proven wrong.

If you would like to know more about how to raise bilingual children and how to become and stay bilingual when you’re adult, then don’t miss my Free Online Webinars.

 

English

Deutsch

 

Myths about Bilingualism

Mythen über die Zweisprachigkeit

 

This is a short overview of some of the most common myths about bilingualism.

Dies ist ein kurzer Überblick über einige der häufigsten Mythen zur Zweisprachigkeit.

 

They are all assumptions based on old theories about bilingualism and bilinguals (and multilingualism), but have all been proven wrong.

Dies sind alles Annahmen, die auf überholten Theorien über Zweisprachigkeit und Mehrsprachigkeit beruhen, sich aber inzwischen als falsch erwiesen haben.

 

If you would like to know more about how to raise bilingual children and how to become and stay bilingual when you’re adult, then join my free online live webinars.

Falls du mehr über zweisprachige Kindererziehung und vor allem darüber erfahren möchtest, wie das langfristig erfolgreich möglich ist, dann versäume nicht meine free online live webinars.

 
  • Bilinguals have equal and perfect knowledge of their languages
  • Zweisprachige beherrschen beide/alle Sprachen in gleichem Maße

 
  • Mixing languages is a sign of laziness in bilinguals
  • Das Mixen von Sprachen ist ein Zeichen von Faulheit

 
  • OPOL is the best approach parents should use if they want their children to grow up bilingual
  • OPOL ist die beste Strategie, die Eltern anwenden sollten, wenn sie ihre Kinder zweisprachig erziehen wollen

 
  • Bilinguals are born translators
  • Zweisprachige sind geborene Übersetzer

 
  • Bilinguals acquire all their languages in childhood
  • Zweisprachige erwerben ihre Sprachen während ihrer Kindheit

 
  • Bilinguals have no accent in different languages
  • Zweisprachige haben keinen Akzent in ihren jeweiligen Sprachen

 
  • Bilingualism is a rare phenomenon
  • Zweisprachigkeit ist ein seltenes Phänomen

 
  • Bilinguals express their emotions in their first language
  • Zweisprachige drücken ihre Emotionen in ihrer ersten Sprache aus

 
  • All bilinguals are bicultural
  • Zweisprachige sind auch bikulturell

 
  • Bilingual children speak later than monolinguals
  • Zweisprachige Kinder sprechen später als Einsprachige

 
  • Bilinguals have a double or split personality
  • Zweisprachige haben eine doppelte oder gespaltene Persönlichkeit

 
  • The home language has a negative effect on the acquisition of the school language
  • Die Familiensprache wirkt sich negativ auf den Erwerb der Schulsprache aus

 
  • A child with learning difficulties can not be/become bilingual
  • Ein Kind mit Lernschwierigkeiten kann nicht zweisprachig sein/werden

 
  • Children raised bilingual will always mix their languages
  • Kinder die zweisprachig aufwachsen, mischen immer ihre Sprachen

 
  • Bilinguals are two monolinguals in one
  • Zweisprachige sind zwei Einsprachige in einem

 
  • If your child turns silent you have to drop a language!
  • Wenn euer Kind nicht spricht (oder aufhört eine Sprache zu sprechen), müsst ihr eine Sprache fallen lassen!

 
  • Young children soak up languages like sponges
  • Kleine Kinder saugen Sprachen auf wie Schwämme

 
  • Adults can not become bilinguals
  • Erwachsene können nicht zweisprachig werden

 
  • Bilinguals score lower in standardized tests
  • Zweisprachige schneiden in standardisierten Tests schlechter ab

 
  • You have be gifted in languages in order to learn two languages at once
  • Man muss sprachbegabt sein, um zwei Sprachen auf einmal zu lernen

 
  • Bilinguals always dream in their first language
  • Zweisprachige träumen immer in ihrer ersten Sprache

 
  • Bilinguals will never reach the same proficiency as monolinguals
  • Zweisprachige werden nie dasselbe Sprachniveau erreichen wie Einsprachige

 
  • Parents who are not native-speakers of a language will pass on their accents to the child
  • Eltern, die nicht ihre Muttersprache mit ihren Kinder sprechen, geben ihre Akzente an die Kinder weiter

 
  • A single parent can not raise a bilingual child
  • Ein Alleinerziehender kann kein zweisprachiges Kind großziehen

 
  • Patchwork Families should only speak one language
  • Patchwork-Familien sollten nur eine Sprache sprechen

 
  • The language you count in is your first language
  • Die Sprache in der man zählt, ist die erste Sprache

 

 

Nederlands

Français

Italiano

Mythen over meertaligheid

Mythes sur le bilinguisme

Miti sul bilinguismo

Dit is een kort overzicht van enkele van de meest voorkomende mythes over twee/meertaligheid.

Voici un bref aperçu de certains des mythes les plus courants sur le bilinguisme.

Questo è un breve panorama dei miti più comuni sul bilinguismo.

Het zijn allemaal aannames gebaseerd op oude theorieën over tweetaligheid en tweetalige  (en meertalige), maar zijn allemaal als fout bewezen.

Ce sont toutes des hypothèses basées sur de vieilles théories sur le bilinguisme et les bilingues (et multi/plurilingues), mais elles se sont toutes révélées fausses,

Sono tutti presupposti basati su teorie antiquate sul bilinguismo e sui bilingui (e multilingui), che sono tutti stati smentiti.

Als je meer wilt weten over het opvoeden van tweetalige kinderen en hoe je tweetalig kunt worden en blijven als je volwassen bent, mis dan niet mijn gratis online webinars.

Si vous souhaitez en savoir plus sur comment élever des enfants bilingues et comment devenir et rester bilingue à l’âge adulte, ne manquez pas mes ateliers gratuites en ligne.

Se desideri saperne di più su come crescere figli bilingui e su come diventare e rimanere bilingui anche in età adulta, assicurati di non perderti i miei webinar gratuiti online.
  • Tweetaligen hebben een gelijke en perfecte kennis van hun talen
  • Les bilingues ont une connaissance égale et parfaite de toutes leurs langues
  • Bilingui hanno una perfetta  e pari conoscenza in tutte le loro lingue
  • Het mengen van talen is een teken van luiheid bij tweetaligen
  • Mélanger les langues est un signe de paresse chez les bilingues
  • Mischiare le lingue è un segno di pigrizia
  • OPOL is de beste benadering die ouders zouden gebruiken als ze willen dat hun kinderen tweetalig worden/opgroeien
  • OPOL est le meilleur approche que les parents devraient utiliser s’ils veulent que leurs enfants deviennent bilingues
  • OPOL è l’approccio migliore se genitori vogliono che i loro figli crescano bilingui
  • Tweetaligen zijn geboren vertalers
  • Les bilingues sont nés traducteurs
  • Bilingui sono traduttori nati
  • Tweetaligen verwerven al hun talen in hun kinderjaren
  • Les bilingues acquièrent toutes leurs langues pendant leur enfance
  • Bilingui acquisiscono tutte le loro lingue durante l’infanzia
  • Tweetaligen hebben geen accent in hun verschillende talen
  • Les bilingues n’ont pas d’accent dans leurs différentes langues
  • Bilingui non hanno accenti nelle loro diverse lingue
  • Tweetaligheid is een zeldzaam fenomeen
  • Le bilinguisme est un phénomène rare
  • Il bilinguismo è un fenomeno raro
  • Tweetaligen uiten hun emoties in hun moedertaal/ eerste taal
  • Les bilingues expriment leurs émotions dans leur langue maternelle / première langue
  • Bilingui esprimono le loro emozioni nella loro lingua materna / prima lingua
  • Alle tweetaligen zijn bicultureel
  • Tous les bilingues sont biculturels
  • Tutti i bilingui sono anche biculturali
  • Tweetalige kinderen spreken later dan eentaligen
  • Les enfants bilingues parlent plus tard que les enfants monolingues
  • Bambini bilingui parlano più tardi dei bambini monolingui
  • Tweetaligen hebben een dubbele of gespleten persoonlijkheid
  • Les bilingues ont une double personnalité
  • Bilingui hanno una doppia personalità
  • De thuistaal heeft een negatief effect op de verwerving van de schooltaal
  • La langue parlée à la maison a un effet négatif sur l’acquisition de la langue scolaire
  • La lingua madre / di famiglia ha un effetto negativo sull’acquisizione della lingua scolastica
  • Een kind met leermoeilijkheden kan niet tweetalig zijn/worden
  • Un enfant ayant des difficultés d’apprentissage ne peut pas être bilingue
  • Un bambino con difficoltà di apprendimento non può diventare/essere bilingue
  • Kinderen die tweetalig zijn opgevoed, zullen altijd hun talen mengen
  • Les enfants élevés bilingues mélangeront toujours leurs langues
  • Bambini bilingui mescoleranno sempre le loro lingue
  • Tweetaligen zijn tween eentaligen in één
  • Les bilingues sont deux monolingues en un
  • Bilingui sono due monolingui in uno
  • Als je kind niet spreekt, moet je een taal laten vallen
  • Si votre enfant ne parle pas, vous devez abandonner une langue
  • Se bambini che crescono con più lingue non parlano, bisogna abbandonare una lingua!
  • Jonge kinderen nemen talen op als sponzen
  • Les jeunes enfants s’imprègnent des langues comme des éponges
  • Bambini assorbono le lingue come spugne
  • Volwassenen kunnen niet tweetalig worden
  • Les adultes ne peuvent pas devenir bilingues
  • Adulti non possono diventare bilingui
  • Tweetaligen scoren lager op gestandardiseerde toetsen
  • Les bilingues obtiennent des notes inférieures aux tests strandardisés
  • Bilingui ottengono punteggi inferiori nei test standardizzati
  • U moet begaafd zijn in talen om twee talen tegelijk te leren
  • Il faut être doué en langues pour apprendre deux langues à la fois
  • Devi essere dotato per le lingue per imparare due lingue contemporaneamente
  • Tweetaligen dromen altijd in hun moedertaal/eerste taal
  • Les bilingues rêvent toujours dans leur langue maternelle
  • Bilingui sognano sempre nella loro prima lingua / lingua madre
  • Tweetaligen zullen nooit dezelfde taalvaardigheid bereiken als eentaligen
  • Les bilingues n’atteindront jamais les mêmes compétences que les monolingues
  • Bilingui non raggiungeranno mai la stessa competenza linguistica dei monolingui
  • Ouders die geen moedertaalspreker zijn, zullen hun accenten aan het kind doorgeven
  • Les parents qui ne sont pas natifs d’une langue, transmettront leurs accents à l’enfant
  • Genitori che non sono madrelingua trasmetteranno i loro accenti ai bambini
  • Een alleenstaande ouder kan geen tweetalig kind opvoeden
  • Un seul parent ne peut pas élever un enfant bilingue
  • Un genitore single non può crescere bambini bilingui
  • Nieuw-samengesteld gezinnen mogen maar één taal spreken
  • Les familles recomposées/mixtes ne doivent parler qu’une seule langue
  • Le famiglie miste dovrebbero parlare solo una lingua
  • De taal waarin je meetelt, is je eerste taal
  • La langue dans laquelle vous comptez est votre langue maternelle
  • La lingua in cui conti è la tua prima lingua /lingua principale (più importante/dominante)

 

Using different languages at home…and at school…

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Families who juggle several languages on a daily basis, tend to switch from one language to the other when a word in the other language comes to mind faster and fits the context so that we can make our point in a conversation.

We use to code-switch only with people who share the languages we switch words from and children do this intuitively from a very early stage on.

I used to compare code-switching like fishing for pieces out of a big box of a united repertoire of the languages that are required or possible in the conversation. We don't do this randomly and in every situation. We usually use code-switching only in a multilingual context, ie. with people who share the languages we're switching in.

For example, I wouldn't switch between French and Italian with someone who doesn't understand one of the two languages. 

When my daughter tells me about a discussion on a topic she had at school in English, she will switch from English to German (our home language) in order to adapt to the family policy (German at home). She knows that I understand English so she can use both languages. She might even add some Dutch words or concepts if she needs them to make things clearer (and she knows I speak Dutch too), but the switching only takes place in a setting where both – or all – those involved in the conversation share the languages we switch words and sentences in.

On a side note, as a code-switcher between several languages, I don't use the term of code-switching assuming that the codes are like two or more monolingual codes that can be used without reference to each other because:

Bilinguals are not two monolinguals in one! (cfr. François Grosjean 1985).

Translanguaging and code-switching

In the last ten years (and more) the term of translanguaging came up, especially in the area of bilingual education. Professor Ofelia García of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York defines it as "the deployment of a speaker's full linguistic repertoire without regard of watchful adherence to the socially and politically defined boundaries of named (and usually national and state) languages".

Some thought that translanguaging in class is like code-switching at home, and I must admit that some early descriptions of the concept were misleading because in both cases, the speaker uses the linguistic repertoire from all the languages he/she knows, to communicate effectively.

Despite the very diverse panorama in most of the schools – at least here in Europe – many schools still follow the school-language-only policy, which perfectly works for monolinguals.

But every person knows multiple languages would be far better off if they could use their all the languages they speak also in the school setting, in order to communicate effectively, to better support their arguments when asked to find the main idea of a text, or to better understand a concept or theory in science, maths, physics etc..

From the point of view of a parent who raises her children with multiple languages that are not all supported by the school, I can tell that it is a great effort to keep up with the vocabulary of all (!) school topics!  And I'm not only talking about literature and linguistics: every multilingual family knows the struggles and challenges when it comes to discuss about ways to do maths, explain science concepts, etc... 

I had the chance to attend a European School in Italy, where I was in the German section, i.e. I had most of the subjects in German. Geography and History lessons were taught in French (it was the first foreign language I took at school starting from age 6) and other topics were taught in Italian.

Fact is that if one learns a subject in a given language and doesn't translate it – and we usually don't do this as we tend to memorize concepts in the language they're taught to us! – we can end up in not talking about a subject in another language that easily because we don't make the connection between the terminology in the two languages on a cognitive level!

Just an example to explain what can happen: I learned about Charlemagne, but only when I talked about his achievements with my German cousins, it occurred to me that Charlemagne and Karl der Große are the same historical person: Charles the Great ...

Many parents of multilingual children who are schooled in a language which is not one of the home languages, in fact, constantly check on the subjects taught at school in order to foster and consolidate their children's vocabulary in their home languages too.

The reason for this is to guarantee a certain degree of biliteracy*. 

In fact, isn't it one of the main goals of parents who embark the multilingual journey with their children, that their children become biliterates?

What schools can do to help bilingual children become biliterate

The recent research and policies about translanguaging are actually meeting multilingual parent's needs!

By legitimizing the use their home languages at school in order to support their learnings, the translanguaging pedagogy puts the teacher in a similar position as the parents at home.

The same way the parent experiences (or learns) the topics in the school language through the child, the teacher co-learns with the student at school.

Of course, teachers can't know all the languages of their students! But they "can build a classroom ecology where there are books and signage in multiple languages; where collaborative groupings are constructed according to home language so that students can deeply discuss a text in the dominant school language with all their language resources; where students are allowed to write and speak with whatever resources they have and not wait until they have the "legitimate" ones to develop a voice; where all students language practices are included so as to work against the linguistic hierarchies that exist in schools" (cfr. García)

Families and schools need to work together

Like García says: "any teacher, including a monolingual one, can take up translanguaging to enable their bilingual students to make deeper meaning and legitimize their home language practices" (cfr. What is translanguaging from Psychology Today, an interview of Prof. François Grosjean with Professor Ofelia García).

I completely understand that teachers wonder how they can make sure that the school language stays the main language of their lessons. Allowing students to use all their languages in a lesson can easily lead to a chaos if not done in a structured way – the same way language policies within a family can run out of hand if we don't make sure every family member sticks to the rules!

In fact, schools need to "develop students' critical metalinguistic awareness" – and repeatedly remind  students about the rules. Multilingual students also need to learn to suppress some of their "language features from their repertoire at appropriate times" (cfr. García). What this means is that the multilingual speakers who engage in translanguaging won't vacillate between the different languages systems in an arbitrary manner but that they do it with a clear intention and a metacognitive understanding of the way their language practices work.

School = home

If we compare this with the situation in a multilingual home setting: this is exactly what we do at home too! Whenever we discuss about topics where we allow definitions, explanations and more information from the other languages, we do so with the intention to gain a deeper understanding of the topics and when a family has a clear family language policy, these discussions are always "rounded up" by focusing on the home language!

Translanguaging pedagogy should be introduced in every school and lesson because it is actually one of the most natural ways to learn for multilinguals!

In fact, translanguaging pretty much seems like what we did among students using different languages: when working on a topic in teems at school, we would use all the resources we got in the different languages, discuss in several languages (that we had in common) and finally present the outcome in the school or class language.

What needs to be clear though is, that the performance of bilingual students should not be compared to those of the monolingual students in the same language. When bilingual students are assessed like monolinguals it is like one would assess a student only in maths, disregarding all the other school subjects! This would clearly put a student who is brilliant in all the other subjects but struggles with maths in a very disadvantaged position... – but this is the topic for another post that I'll write soon!...

What is your opinion and experience about this?

If you liked this post and/or would like to share your thoughts, please do so in the comments here below!

Thank you for taking the time to read! ~ Ute

 

* Biliteracy is the ability to use language, numbers, images, computers, and other basic means to understand, communicate, gain useful knowledge and use the dominant symbol systems of more than one culture.

– Cfr. The concept of literacy is expanding in OECD countries to include skills to access knowledge through technology and ability to assess complex contexts.

If you want to know more about family language policies for multilingual families, you can contact me at info@UtesInternationalLounge.com, or have a look at my Family Language Consultancy. 

International and Bilingual Schools and Daycares in The Hague area

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The Hague’s International Schools

Many international schools are partly funded by the Dutch Ministry of Education, which means that they have to abide by the standards and rules of this ministry.

International education is available for children from the age of 4 and mostly prepares children for the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) or International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma.

There are a number of international schools and third-country schools in and around The Hague:

*De Haagsche Schoolvereeniging is an international primary school with four different locations throughout The Hague.

** There are several school campuses under part of the Foundation Stichting Het Rijnlands Lyceum in the The Hague area: Wassenaar, Oegstgeest, Sassenheim, International School The Hague, European School The Hague, First Dutch Montessori School.

 

Bilingual Education

There are several Bilingual Schools in the Netherlands. In these schools, children are instructed both in English and Dutch, but with the main focus on Dutch, i.e. it is expected that children have a high fluency in the Dutch language to participate in the lessons.

Subjects like math, biology, economics, or IT are taught in English all throughout the six years of VWO (pre-university) level.

Although the preparations for examinations and the exams themselves are usually taken in Dutch, these schools tend to offer an alternative to students with a lower proficiency in Dutch.

In some cases, for instance, your children will be able to take the exam for the International Baccalaureate English A2 Certificate, which qualifies them to study at English-speaking universities.

There are quite a few secondary schools in The Hague which offer bilingual education:

These schools also offer a variety of international activities and exchange programs. For more information on the schools’ bilingual program, please contact each school individually.

(cfr. from InterNations)

 

Are you looking for a Bilingual Daycare in The Hague area?

True Colors Childcare Delft

True Colors Childcare Rijswijk

Kindergarden 

Casa Montessori 

Big Ben Kids (daycare and after school care)

Zein Childcare (mainly English)

Villa Bloom (daycare and after school care)

 

 

Language Assessments for Bilingual and Multilingual Children

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Parents of multilingual children worry the most if their children will be able to keep up with all the languages and have a sufficient knowledge, proficiency, academically speaking, once they go to school.

Schools do regular language and literacy assessments and even international schools tend to assess the school language only or at least also the dominant language – for example, for a German child living in the Netherlands and attending an English speaking school, the assessment would be focusing on Dutch and English.

As there isn't one test that can be applied to all languages and teachers who evaluate these tests should at least have a basic knowledge of the other languages involved, I always advise parents of multilingual children to make sure their children are not only tested on one or two – usually the most dominant languages – but also on their family languages. In fact, as stated in the article mentioned here below, "SLPs have acknowledged competence in the assessment of monolingual children's speech but must consider additional aspects when assessing the speech of children who speak non-dominant languages and dialects."

If you are a parent of multilingual children and you have the impression that your school is not updated on the latest findings about language and literacy assessments, you may find an assessment in this list to submit to your school.

You want to make sure that during the speech assessment they will identify the presence or absence of SSD* and include referral, case history, assessment of speech production, additional areas of assessment (intelligibility, acceptability, stimulability, speech perception, phonological processing, language, hearing, oral structure and function, nonverbal intelligence, and participation), analysis, diagnosis, and goal setting.

Here is a scientific article about Speech Assessment for Multilingual Children who don't speak the same language(s) as the Speech-Language Pathologist

If you need support on this matter, I offer mediation with schools to make sure your child gets the right assessment and support he / she deserves! – Contact me at info@UtesInternationalLounge.com

*SSD= Speech Sound Disorders (cfr. from the article mentioned above “Children with speech sound disorders can have any combination of difficulties with perception, articulation/motor production, and/or phonological representation of speech segments (consonants and vowels), phonotactics (syllable and word shapes), and prosody (lexical and grammatical tones, rhythm, stress, and intonation) that may impact speech intelligibility and acceptability” (International Expert Panel on Multilingual Children's Speech, 2012, p. 1).)

 

 

Bilingual children can be easily misdiagnosed as having a language disorder. Language tests for bilingual children that are based on English [or another language] assessments are flawed not only because bilingual children may acquire certain language structures differently from monolinguals but because the sequence and rate of acquisition of specific language components varies between different languages. (Helen Grech, Barbara Dodd, Assessment of Speech and Language Skills in Bilingual Children: A holistic approach, Stem-, Spraak- en Taalpathologie, vol15, 2007, No.2, p.87)

 

 

 

What I recommend to do:

Fact is that there are many different tests for assessments that are done with the children.
I would recommend to ask about the testing:

  • What kind of test is used?
  • What exactly is tested – the comprehension of single words, in word chains or without context etc. 
  • It is a very complex set of data that they evaluate and we parents often only are informed about the results.
  • We don't see them... unless we ask. And it is actually our right to see the tests in total. For example, if the teacher says that my child can't pronounce a sound "correctly" this can have many reasons. Either because my child is still acquiring the language and needs more time, or because my child can't hear the difference between a sound and another one he/she knows from another language. 

 

It can also be that my child mixes similar words in the languages.

For example, "Wie gaat naar school?" (wie= who) in Dutch vs. *Wie geht zur Schule?  in German, but correct German would be Wer geht zur Schule?

The child/person uses "wie" in the "wrong way", because wie also exists in German and means "how", i.e. producing an incorrect question : *How goes to school? (i.e. *Wie geht zur Schule?)

It always depends on what teachers/schools or health practitioners are testing and why.

 
Always ask questions about:

  • the type of test
  • the reason for the testing
  • the way the test was performed (i.e. did the child really understand what they asked him/her?, was the child given enough time to perform the task?)
  • did they take into account that the child also speaks or understands other languages and what these other languages are?,
  • what is the outcome of the test and the consequences of it,
  • will the test be repeated, and if so, when etc.
  • what will be the next steps the school or health practitioner will take if help is needed?
  • what can we, parents, do to help?
  • what are the consequences for my child?...

One important advice: please make sure that language or literacy tests are not done during transition time! They give false results as the children are still adapting. It is like if someone would test us adults during our first week taking classes in a new language and tell us "you can't work for the company because you're not at the right level"...

 

Thank you Alison T. for suggesting to add this practical advice!


Please read also my other post about Speech and Language Therapists and Multilinguals

Can SEN children become bilingual?

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One of the biggest myths when it comes to bilingualism is that it causes language delay in children. I understand that if a child is a “late speaker” or has some speech issues, teachers and parents often think that the reason for this is because the child is overwhelmed by all the languages. The first thought is, of course to drop a language… Acquiring and learning a language is not an easy task, but no matter how old the child is, the languages are usually not the reason for the problems a child has to be in the norm.


Nowadays we know that this norm encompasses a broad range of possibilities: a bilingual can start talking (articulating meaningful and recognizable sound chains) at 10 months (or earlier) or 36 months… If there are no other factors influencing a childs’ language delay, this is perfectly normal. Every child is different and processes things around him/her in his or her very personal way: even language.

What about children who are on the SEN spectrum?

Prof. Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird of Dalhousie University in Canada is an expert in this field and she conducted a research on this matter, focussing on “children with Specific (or Primary) Language Impairment (SLI), Down syndrome (DS), or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)”:


Exposing a child with developmental disabilities to two languages, the argument goes, might result in no language being learned well. This is a myth and it has been debunked through studies of typically developing children and children from our three groups. Children with developmental disabilities, regardless of diagnosis, can and do become bilingual but, unfortunately, many professionals and families are not aware of these research findings. (Interview of Elizabeth Kay-Raining Bird by Prof. François Grosjean, Supporting Bilingual Children With Special Educational Needs)

Please read the full interview here and an article about children with hearing loss and bilingualism here.

The key take aways from this research are:

  • those involved with children with developmental disabilities need to know that these children can and do become bilingual
  • their families should be encouraged to enroll them in bilingual programs and services available to other children
  • special education and bilingual education programs and services should be integrated
  • staff who work with them should be provided with training and supports etc.

Read also: François Grosjean’s blog Life as a Bilingual. 

For children who have a developmental language disorder (DLD), we should always “carefully consider, during the assessment procedure, the role of environmental (e.g., age of first exposure to the languages, degree of exposure, etc.) and cognitive (e.g., phonological short-term memory) factors and their potential repercussions on language development and processing. Finally, they support the usefulness of multilevel procedures of narrative analysis that significantly contribute to draw a comprehensive linguistic profile that will be pivotal to rehabilitation (; )”

(please read the full study “Linguistic Skills in Bilingual Children With Developmental Language Disorders: A Pilot Study” (2019) by Andrea Marini, Paola Sperindè, Isabella Ruta, Christian Savegnago, and Francesco Avanzini, here)

An international team led by UNIGE (Geneva) demonstrates “that the characteristics of bilingualism allow autistic children to compensate for certain fundamental deficits”. Like Stéphanie Durrleman concludes, “as this neurodevelopmental disorder often affects language acquisition, bilingual families tend to give up the use of one of the two languages, so as not to exacerbate the learning process. However, it is now clear that far from putting autistic children in difficulty bilingualism can, on the contrary, help these children to overcome several aspects of their disorder, serving as a kind of natural therapy”. (Please read the full article here)

  • As for the transfer of language skills from L1 to L2, this study showed that “children’s formal linguistic skills in L1 and L2 tend to be related and that their level of L1 proficiency may help to develop linguistic skills in L2.” (Linguistic transfer in bilingual children with specific language impairment, by Verhoeven L, Steenge J, van Balkom H, 2012 Mar-Apr, 47(2):176-83) 
  • As for the significance of multilingualism for children with diverse needs and benefits in inclusive education have a look at this qualitative study by Dr. Neena Dush.

    Find some more resources on the Growing Up Bilingual site.

Dutch and German: what do they have in common?

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Learning a new language is always very exciting. Especially when the new language we’re learning is similar to one we already know. These similarities can be at different levels (phonetical, lexical, syntactical etc.).

The Dutch language belongs to the West-German branch of the Indoeuropean languages and is actually close to German (and Swissgerman).


[The simplified relation between the languages Dutch, English and German. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)]

For many foreigners the pronunciations of “Scheveningen” or “Gouda” are a challenge. It’s especially the way the and the intervocalic is pronounced that creates some articulatory problems. For Swissgermans the voiceless velar fricative [x] or [?] for the or the uvular fricative [?] are very well known. They sound similar to the German in “ach”, “Bach”, “Fach” etc.. Therefore this is not something Germans or Swissgermans would find difficult to pronounce. In the southern Dutch dialects these sounds are softer and and represent the palatal fricatives ([?] and [ç]).

Something I personally found important to learn are the false cognates – words that look like they are etymologically related but are not (like Feuer  and feu, the German Feuer comes from Proto-Indo-European *péh?wr? whereas the French feu comes from Latin focus) –  and false friends (that look like they have similar meaning but don’t, like aktuell in German that means “currently” and actual in English that in German means “wirklich, tatsächlich”).

People already fluent in German when learning Dutch, need to be aware of words that are phonetically similar and sometimes even have similar roots but can be different in meanings:

The Dutch aandacht means “Aufmerksamkeit” (attention) in German, and the German “Andacht” means “devotion”.

The zetel is a seat and not a saddle (German “Sattel”), the winkel is a shop (“Laden”) and not an angle, like in German.

With vaart you don’t design the journey or trip (“Fahrt”), but only boat trip and varen refers to the movement of ships only.

Tot is not “tot” (dead) but only means “until” and is pronounced with a short /o/ (whereas the german “tot” has a long one /o:/.

A postbus is not a public means of transportation but a P.O. box (“Postfach”).

The kwartier is not a quarter or accomodation (germ.”Quartier”) but defines a quarter of an hour; and it’s often used in its diminutive form kwartiertje.

Glazuur has nothing to do with baking (germ.”Glasur”; icing) but is dental enamel (“Zahnschmelz”).

Blaffen does not mean to snap at someone, like the German “anblaffen” but the barking of the dog. In German this way to snap is comparable to the barking of a dog though and both words have the same etymon. When a Dutch says that he’s going to call you on the phone, i.e. bellen (ik ga je bellen), which is the abbreviated form for opbellen, or ring at your door, a German would think that this person would bark at him (germ. bellen). For an English speaking person it doesn’t seem too weird, as the English bell (noun) is producing a similar sound although the English verb to bell has a different meaning i.e. the semantic fields for the Dutch bell and the English one are slightly different.

The sale signs for houses and flats puzzle every German speaking person who visits the Netherlands for the first time: te huur (which means “to rent”) seems very similar “to whore” (“huren” in German), but once you learn that is pronounced like [y?] you’ll get over it. A similar misunderstanding could occur with the verkocht sign, when a property is sold, since it really sounds like the word for “overcooked” in German (“verkocht”).

Te huur in Huizen

Te huur in Huizen (Photo credit: CorporatieNL)

Verkocht onder voorbehoud

Verkocht onder voorbehoud (Photo credit: the_riel_thing)

What were the analogies or similarities you found between German and Dutch? Or another language you know and Dutch?