Writing Development in Simultaneous and Successive Bilingual Learners Writing is one of the most demanding skills children acquire because it requires thinking, language knowledge, motor skills, and cultural awareness to work together. For multilingual learners, this complexity increases further, as writing develops across languages with different structures, scripts, and conventions. Joan Sedita’s Writing Rope offers
When we speak about literacy development in multilingual families, we often picture clear, parallel progress across all languages: a child learns to read in one language, then transfers those skills into the next. However, real multilingual development unfolds in waves, sometimes accelerating in one language while temporarily pausing in another. The pattern of literacy development
When families live abroad and raise their children with multiple languages, their experience rarely follow a linear path. Parents often tell me “My child spoke only German at home, but after starting school in France, suddelny French took over”, or “After a summer with grandparents, my children’s Italian became much stronger again, but then it faded once school resumed”.
For multilingual families it is natural for adults to blend words or phrases from multiple languages. This “mixing the languages”, or code-mixing, is very normal in multilingual communication. However, it is not advisable to use it consistently when speaking to and with young children, i.e. babies and toddlers in one-on-one situations.
Multilingualism is often celebrated or emphasized as a gift or a superpower. Such descriptions emphasize the advantages of using multiple languages, they can also mislead people to falsely assume and expect it to be easy.
Bilingualism has long been a subject of linguistic and cognitive inquiry, evolving from strict early definitions to more fluid and inclusive conceptualizations. It has been reflecting different research paradigms, cultural contexts and social attitudes toward language use.
In multilingual families, multiple languages tend to be used on a more or less regular basis. When one (or more) languages are not used or used less for a longer period of time, it can lead to language shift, ans sometimes even language attrition and language loss.
Many multilingual children experience a paradox: some may chat fluently in a new language but struggle academically, whilst others may grasp complex academic concepts yet find casual conversations about everyday topics difficult.
This is where four essential concepts – BICS (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills), CALP (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency), CUP (Common Underlying Proficiency), and CALS (Core Academic Language Skills) – help us understand multilingual development and learning success.
Raising multilingual children is a rewarding yet complex journey. Parents play a pivotal role in shaping their children’s linguistic development, and one of the most effective ways to support this process is through parental discourse strategies (read also our post about 4 parental discourse strategies). Techniques such as repetition, expansion, and recasting create a rich
Multilingual societies are a testament to the vibrancy and complexity of human culture, where multiple languages coexist and evolve within a shared social framework. These societies are not simply collections of diverse linguistic groups but intricate networks of communication that weave together histories, cultural identities, and social dynamics.