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.
Parents who want to raise their children with more than one (or two) languages, often look for ways to make this work. A first step to find answers is to ask the right questions: What language should your child speak? With whom? When? For what reason? Furthermore: Who else in your community speaks your language that
Hi everyone, I’m Elisavet Arkolaki, and it’s great connecting with you through Multilingual Families! I’m a multilingual mom raising two beautiful multilingual and ethnically mixed children. I’m also a children’s book author, mainly writing and publishing bilingual books. I have lived in six countries, and my home now, most of the time, is in Norway.
Il ricorso a risorse online è spesso l’unico modo per provvedere l’input linguistico necessario per i nostri figli che crescono all’estero.
Are you visiting your heritage country with your teenagers? When our teenagers grow up abroad and we are the only ones or one of the few they get to speak our language with, meeting family, friends and peers who are immersed into that language is not easy. When my children were preteens, I observed
When raising children with multiple languages our vision is for them to become proficient in more than one language.
Beyond simply knowing two or more languages and dialects (or sign languages), being bilingual* offers a wide range of cognitive, cultural, and future benefits that make it a skill worth cultivating
There are many roles we can play when we communicate with our children.
What is better a native speaker or a non-native speaker as language teacher for my child, or for me? Find out what to watch out for in this post.