"Learn a new language, get a new soul"

(Czech proverb)

Bilingualism or bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages. People become bilingual for various reasons: by chance (diplomatic parents moved to another country), for utilitarian reasons (study abroad, prestigious work, career prospects), emotional (communicate with relatives) and for love of art (a parent is in love with French ). It is not so important why you decided to raise a bilingual offspring, the child will only benefit from this.

And two is better

The benefits of bilingualism today are confirmed by numerous studies. Bilingualism is much more than just knowing two languages. First, bilingual children are more receptive to other people, other cultures and have a broader outlook than their monolingual peers.

Secondly, bilingual children have a more developed metalinguistic perception. They are able to recognize incorrect grammatical constructions more often, understand grammatical rules. They have at least two words for each item. A bilingual child constantly switches between languages. Thanks to this, bilinguals are more aware of the relationship between letters and sounds, talented writers and journalists come out of them.

Thirdly, by switching from one language to another, bilinguals are able to focus better, perform several tasks at the same time.

Fourth, divergent thinking (the ability to come up with many ways to use an object, such as a paper clip) is better developed in bilinguals than in monolinguals. Adult bilinguals have mental flexibility, their brains are more resistant to age-related diseases. And finally, history confirms the benefits of bilingualism: a large percentage of recognized creators were bilingual.

Coca-cola, please!

I wanted to raise my son bilingual since his birth: we watched Muzzy in Gondoland, played educational computer games, read books in English. I constantly sang in English, Italian and French in front of the child, naming the languages ​​and teaching him to determine what language the song sounds in. However, a four-year-old child perceived my attempts to speak English ... in an original way.

I remember that the kid desperately stamped his feet and asked me to shut up as soon as I switched to English. As soon as we boarded the Quantas plane, a five-year-old child realized that the flight attendants did not speak Russian, and they really wanted juice and Coca-Cola. He tried to tug on the flight attendant's "I want a Coke" dress, but she smiled sweetly and shrugged her shoulders. Having flown across the whole world, Misha learned how to quickly demand “Coca-Cola, please!”. The second survival phrase in the English environment was "Where is the toilet?", which the kid learned at school. The ten-year-old bilingual speaks English as fluently as I, after 20 years of active study, could ever have dreamed of.

The path my child has taken is typical of bilingual children. According to Paton Tabors, children go through four stages of learning a second language. At the first stage, they try to speak their native language, but they see that it does not work. The second stage is the non-verbal period of intense listening. Children absorb another language, but do not yet speak. My son had it for several weeks. At the third stage, phrases appear - the formulas "Me, too", "What's your name", "I want ...". At the final, productive stage, children become fluent in a second language.

When to start

Since neural connections are formed faster in childhood, second language learning is more effective at an early age. Infant bilingualism is distinguished when two languages ​​are spoken simultaneously with a child (usually when parents are native speakers of different languages ​​or the family speaks the same language but lives in a country where they speak another language), as well as children's (from 5 to 12) and adolescent bilingualism (from 12 to 17).

Learning a second language at the same time as the first is, on the one hand, easier, on the other hand, more difficult. Although everyone knows that children are like sponges, absorbing everything around them, learning a second language requires effort on their part.

It is best to learn a second language before the age of 5-7, when the child is already familiar with the basics of the language. The child has already developed language (physiologically), and fine motor skills, memory, attention. At this age of 5-7, bilinguals are more likely to speak both languages ​​without an accent. You are more likely to learn both languages ​​equally well and speak them fluently.

How much to do?

The circumstances of learning a second language differ from family to family, so it's hard to say how much time you need to invest for a second language to blossom and become a second mother tongue. In studies, there is a figure of 25 hours a week for learning a second language. Language is understanding, speaking, writing and reading. When learning a second language, one should not forget any of these dimensions, and then it will be able to develop on a par with the native language.

Language is an open system. It cannot be said that by May 2012 I will finish learning Italian. The language is more like rock climbing or cleaning. Therefore, we as parents are required to choose a learning strategy, be consistent and provide an environment and live communication.

Strategies

Barbara Zurer Pearson, author of "Raising a bilingual child", describes three main strategies for learning a second language:

• One parent, one language
• time and place
• home language

"One parent - one language" the most common model of second language teaching in mixed marriages. So, if dad speaks English, and mom speaks Russian, then Russian will be "mother's" language, and "English" - father's. In this case, the native speaker is required to speak their native language as often as possible.

The second model: "time and place". A high percentage of brilliantly bilingual people owe their bilingualism to chance: language camps, parents are diplomats. Learning a second language did not require any effort on the part of children and parents. The child simply turned out to be immersed in the environment.

The third model "home language". The family moves to another country, a child is born and grows up in a different language environment. At home they speak, say, French, but on the street and at school - in English. In this case, it is important to preserve the native language, as the environment will take its toll, and the baby will start talking in kindergarten, and then at school with friends. Language is, first of all, a means of communication. The French, who are famous for their linguistic patriotism, working in Melbourne, Australia, adhere to the rule: we speak only French with mom and dad.

10 steps to bilingualism

Be consistent. Having chosen the strategy of “one parent - one language”, “place and time”, “home language”, consistently implement it.

Be persistent. Remind your child more often about how useful it is and how good it is to know two languages.

Make learning enjoyable, buy books in a second language, interesting films. Praise your child for achievements, new learned words.

Use various sources: songs, books, video games.

Look for live communication with other native speakers - children and adults. Invite foreigners over, travel, go to bilingual groups, make Skype friends and communicate with them in another language.

Ignore the child's mistakes, focus on fluency and vocabulary expansion.

Consider bilingual education: summer language camps, playgroups, Sunday schools.

Don't limit yourself to language, place language in a wider cultural context.

In teaching a second language, how you speak and what you say matters. You need to talk a lot with the baby, giving him the opportunity to respond (just like when teaching his native language).

There are more than seven thousand languages ​​in the world. People who speak two or more more than those who speak only one. There are countries where bilingualism is the norm. For example, in India, children learn two or three of the 23 national languages ​​at once.

In Russia, many parents are now asking the question: “how can you make several languages ​​native for a child”? The Russian market has become one of the priorities for companies recruiting English nannies. For example, the international agency English Nanny has opened offices not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in other cities. there is a stable demand for the service among families with a high level of income.

Knowledge of two languages ​​as native is called bilingualism. And bilinguals are called those who own them as relatives, can easily switch in communication from one to another. Natural bilinguals are formed during a constant life in different linguistic environments, and artificial ones, when they start learning a foreign language from an early age. Bilingualism has a positive effect on memory, the ability to understand and analyze speech, quick wits, quick reactions, mathematical skills and logic.

It used to be thought that bilingual children develop more slowly, but new research has shown that the extra work the brain constantly does to switch between languages ​​stimulates other mental activities as well. For example, it improves concentration, the ability to remember, to perform several tasks at the same time. Bilingual children develop empathy and creative thinking from an early age. Learning foreign languages ​​from childhood gives the brain many benefits and in old age, brain functions remain normal longer.

Become a citizen of the world, fluent in English, French, and maybe Chinese and Turkish. In our global world, most parents understand that their children will benefit from this.

Foreign language for children

But how can all this fit in the head of a child, and is it possible for equal development of languages? Is it worth teaching children several languages ​​at once and how to work with bilingual children? All people have the opportunity to learn a foreign language. But you need to understand that in order to learn it well, you need to start as early as possible. Statistics say that only 4% of people have linguistic abilities. Such a person, even if he starts practicing at the age of 80, will be successful. But unfortunately, the remaining 96% do not have such abilities.

However, absolutely all people from birth have a so-called speech matrix. Its main task is to learn the language as a form of communication, and what and how much does not matter. The task of the matrix from birth to five years is to help a person master speech. It is easy for a small child to learn not only one, but also two, and three, and even four languages ​​at the same time. The speech matrix tells the baby when to listen carefully, how to repeat the intonation, copy the pronunciation.

Children under the age of five develop language skills rapidly. They absorb everything they hear and can learn to understand any new words at an incredibly fast pace. Young children learn by ear and in the context of everything that happens around them. For them, it is as natural as breathing, and therefore easy. At the age of five, the speech matrix becomes almost insensitive. Everything, baby, you learned to speak! Most teenagers and adults can only learn a foreign language by memorizing words and formals. Their linguistic capabilities are limited, in many cases poor pronunciation becomes almost inevitable, an accent that is difficult to get rid of.

This form of education is offered by the school. Until the age of 10-12 years, grammar (syntax and rules) for children is a book with seven seals. Only with the advent of abstract thinking does a conscious understanding of the laws of grammar comparatively increase the student's possibilities.

Parents are often proud that a child knows English words, not paying attention to whether he can use them. Different parts of the brain are responsible for the knowledge of vocabulary, the ability to hear and understand speech addressed to you, to reproduce phrases and sentences. Learning a foreign language should take place without translation, in context, and always with a person who is fluent in it. Only in this way, while the speech matrix is ​​working, the baby will learn a foreign speech as a native one.

And here parents should try to find a cool teacher, cheerful, interesting and responsible, someone who knows the language from birth, who will teach speech ease, turn on the desire to speak.

It would seem that young children have not yet mastered Russian, but their parents firmly decided it was time to take up English, and very thoroughly. They are sure that two hours of classes a week is an ineffective method, so an agency for recruiting nannies from England, for whom English is their native language, is what you need.

According to Valentin Grogol, manager of the Russian and Ukrainian representative offices of an international company that has been recruiting highly qualified nannies and governesses from Great Britain and France for thirty years to work in families around the world, it is necessary to start language classes “the sooner the better. The specialist must start working with the child no later than the baby is one year old. In this case, at the age of three, your child will speak correctly and without an accent. Recently, more English Nanny clients have been considering multilingualism. Until the age of three, a nanny from England works with the child, then a French governess comes to work in the family, and by the age of four or five, a native speaker of another language is added. It is worth noting that Chinese is especially popular today. By school age, many children easily master four languages.

(Selection of nannies from England and France)

Recently, more and more customers are considering the possibility of mastering several languages. Until the age of three, a nanny from England works with the child, then a French governess comes to work in the family, and by the age of four or five, a native speaker of another language is added. It is worth noting that Chinese is especially popular today. By school age, many children easily master four languages.

You can grow a bilingual only without cramming and boring lessons. Only in this case, the foreign will become native. Children do not teach, they live, play, walk, learn the world. But it is difficult for Russian-speaking parents to create the right speech environment at home. That is why it makes sense to seek help from professionals, certified nannies and governesses from England and France.

Some parents are often afraid of the negative impact of bilingualism on a child's development. These fears in fact have no serious grounds, and possible difficulties are leveled by a professional approach.

• Fear of overloading the child.
  Against the backdrop of the huge amount of information that an infant absorbs in the first years of his life, languages ​​\u200b\u200bdo not add much burden. As long as he regularly interacts with the second (or third) language in everyday life, there will be no problems. Even if your child has not yet begun to actively speak, do not underestimate the importance of passive speech reserve, that is, what the baby already understands, but does not yet pronounce. Don't worry about your child's brain. It has a sufficient number of neurons that can cope with the study of several languages ​​at once. Numerous studies confirm that bilingual children concentrate better on complex tasks, they have more developed abstract thinking compared to monolingual children, they are better oriented in rapidly changing circumstances, and make decisions faster. Until children start doing serious intellectual work, learning a foreign language is the best and, most importantly, natural way to train their brain activity.
  And, of course, we should not forget about all those countries where multilingualism or bilingualism is the norm rather than the exception. Do the inhabitants of Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden suffer from mental or emotional disorders caused by multilingualism?
• Fear of mixing languages.
  Many parents are afraid that their children will confuse or mix languages. If you yourself are not inclined to use any foreign elements in your speech, your children will follow suit and speak correctly. Children mix different vocabulary only if adults do it. They easily get used to the fact that there are different options for describing the environment, and use words within these linguistic systems.
  Remember, children want to be understood. Therefore, if a monolingual child does not know a word, most likely he will use some long descriptive phrases or invent a new word from existing ones. Bilingual children have the most wonderful tool in their arsenal - foreign vocabulary, and they will use it.
• Fear of missed time or missed opportunities.
  Isn't it too early to learn a foreign language for such a crumb, or are we already too late? Until the age of five, a child learns any speech as his own, provided that he hears it for at least 30% of his time and his speech activity is constantly stimulated. After five years, any new language becomes a foreign language for him. If you want your child to have English or French as their second mother tongue, start learning from birth. If your child is already five years old, remember that it is never too late to start.
• I am not fluent in the language.
  You will learn and progress with your children. Some parents have significantly improved the level of foreign language proficiency by regularly communicating with the child.
  The main approach is immersion, when someone in the family speaks a foreign language. An English nanny is easy to start talking to. The child does not memorize new words, but communicates. As he begins to communicate in his native language, he will also speak in the second and subsequent languages.

So, a second language can and even needs to be taught from birth. Perhaps it is on it that your baby will say the first words, and in the future will express his thoughts and emotions. With an English or French nanny, foreign speech will really blend harmoniously into the life of your family.

Watch a video of how a Russian girl at the age of five speaks fluent English with her nanny from London

Discussion

This topic has always been of interest to me, as a teacher and mother. I think that children should learn foreign languages, but the degree of their impact on the child should be the same. Bilingualism, as a rule, develops well in international families, where dad speaks one language, and mom speaks the second. If, from the very birth of a child, there is a desire to raise a bilingual, then you need to clearly distribute the time of communication in different languages ​​so that there is no feeling of "failure" (for example, 30 minutes of English and 15 minutes of Italian).

Comment on the article "Bilingual children. How to raise a bilingual child?"

A child from 3 to 7. Upbringing, nutrition, daily routine, attending a kindergarten and relationships with caregivers, diseases If anything, all my children are natural bilinguals. And just with advanced language development and, in principle, without speech therapy problems.

Discussion

depends on the nanny. My dad has been working as our nanny for almost 4 years, and the child still doesn't speak Russian.
My husband and child speak English, grandparents speak Russian. The child understands individual everyday words and phrases in Russian, but does not speak at all.

If my mom was a nanny, I think things would be different.

Yes, the language will leave when the native speaker leaves And constant communication in the language.

A bilingual has an environment. A nanny is not the same as having an environment. Is there a medium?

Bilingual children. Education. Foreign 7th. Section: Education (bilingualism and ADHD). Bilingual children. For example, my daughter's noticeable development of speech started somewhere around 1.6-1.7, by 1.9 she spoke in sentences, and she started entering kindergarten and playgrounds around 2. Judging by the fact that your ...

Discussion

I don’t see any cons from a nanny who is a native speaker of another language. True, I am not a professional, but I live surrounded by a large number of bi- and tri- and more lingual children.

I see the main plus not in the fact that the child "will know" two languages, but his brain will develop more diversified. Language is not only a set of foreign phrases / words, but it has a different melody and logic ... The brain initially develops to perceive two different language structures. It is at that period when he perceives everything new as the norm.

Again, I'm not a professional, just a mom.

My friend did the same, only harder. Mom in one language, dad in another, nanny in a third. In d / s then he spoke on 4m. The flight is normal. Communicates in 4 languages. There was a moment when he spoke about himself in Russian in the feminine gender, because he heard it mainly from his mother. But it doesn't threaten you. Yes, and the boy I am writing about, it also passed.

And how did the seizures affect or affect the development of your son? Do you have seizures at any time of the day? Hey! What is a status state? And so you wrote that strong attitudes and statuses have a bad effect on the brain, what does STATUS mean?

Discussion

My son was diagnosed with epi-activity at the age of 2.5, or rather symptomatic epilepsy, as a result of congenital malformations - there was a craniocerebral hernia, internal hydrocephalus. The hernia was removed, a shunt was placed, but the seizures remained.
Previously, they drank depakine syrup, attacks were observed once a month, and generalized.
He is now 5.5 years old. For the last 1.5 years he has been taking depcain-chrono tablets, and we have now increased the dose to 1000 mg per day. Attacks maximum once every 3-5 months.
In general, based on the advice of all the doctors I've been to, the most important thing is to prevent seizures, watch the child carefully, and immediately take action when absences appear. With each attack, billions of brain cells are affected and the epicenter increases.
The most important thing is timely treatment, and all doctor's prescriptions must be strictly observed.
I keep a diary of seizures - when, at what time it started, how it went, how much time .. and gradually deduced a pattern that provokes them. Now I try to build the regime in such a way as to avoid these factors.
There is a lot of literature on the Internet on these topics, you will try to search.

Up to a year, my son did not find epiactivity at all, and the seizures were evident. Development up to a year was lagging behind. A year later, he ended up in intensive care in a status condition, after which he lost even those skills that he had. Then gradually everything returned, but the development is hampered very significantly. Now my son is 9 years old. He walks, though hesitantly, but on his own, does not speak, does not show, does not eat himself, does not ask for a potty. Now epiactivity "thrives" - the formation of multiple mirror epifoci in the brain is underway.
We take 3 drugs.
I'm not telling you all this to scare you, but only to warn you - strong attacks and statuses VERY BADly affect the baby's brain. Try not to let this happen.

Section: Teaching children Russian Bilingualism - A question for mothers who raise bilingual children.

Discussion

My eldest is 4, uses 4 languages ​​​​in conversations (2 active, 2 passive) In the asset, the languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat he speaks in the garden, with dad, relatives - in our case, this is Italian, his dialect (Patois - the dialect of French), to passive include French (the region in which we live is officially bilingual and children begin to learn French without fail in the garden from the age of 3, so dad also sometimes speaks French with the child) and Russian - only I and our Russian speakers communicate with him in Russian friends, and I try to speak with the child exclusively in Russian, while he can answer me both in Italian and in Russian, sometimes I correct, sometimes not, more often it is easier for him to answer me in Italian, but if I ask, then will answer in Russian. Those. each one conducts a dialogue with the child in his own language, the same applies to reading books.

At 3.4 I didn’t mix anymore. Until 3.2 she mixed (she used English words in Russian speech at home and it seems that vice versa in the garden too), then we spent 2 summer months at home, and she spoke Russian well. In the garden, she speaks tolerably English (I can’t accurately assess - I don’t sit in the garden, but I know for sure that they understand her normally). There was a time, at 2 years old, when she was poorly understood in the garden, but there were no complexes. At your age, she knew a few words in every language, and my youngest does the same now.

Speechless child and speech pathologist. Development, training. Other children. I have a feeling that the classes are reminiscent of ordinary classes with an ordinary child in a developmental group. Everything is as always: lacing, inserts, molding, paints.

Discussion

after reading the branch, I immediately recall the well-known tale about repairing a steam boiler ... a dollar for knocking, and a thousand for knowing where ... :)
in fact, the arsenal of techniques / methods of speech therapists / speech pathologists is not so great, the main thing is how it all applies to a particular child :) we have the same game elements, the same cards, however, I never cease to admire what tricks our def-y, to get the result - the client does not give up so easily :) but she usually achieves what she wants - this is already a skill. But everything is "as always" ...

PS we also said yesterday that it is very important that speech therapists / speech pathologists, like any teachers, have their own niche, some do not admit it, but you can’t embrace the immensity, there is something that turns out better, what the soul lies in, but there is ... it's the same with teacher-student contact... :) this also applies to the most venerable expensive teachers: R if there are no shifts (I'm not saying that I should speak in a couple of classes! this is a long way) do not be afraid of changes - this is far not the last speech therapist in your life :)

I think that over time you will still come to the realization that this is a "black box", where there are no 100% correct diagnoses and definitions - this is not the main thing, the main thing is the result (it took me only four years to do this: D

We work with children who do not speak at all (at least our speech therapist) according to a methodology that is similar to RMO (RDI) and the Canadian MOre than words. The forum and Elina have some translated material. In short, she actively communicates with the child, pulling out words from him. For example, spins the child and repeats "circle, more." Over time, the child also begins to speak. But this is a very simplified example. They have a whole methodology, seminars, lectures here. I was only at the first lecture, I didn’t see the point in this technique for us. Who would have taught us to be silent sometimes.

Another example is a Russian-speaking family. The child was born and permanently lives in England. We also have three languages ​​at home, and in kindergarten there are children and Section: Teaching children the Russian language (how to talk with a child in a trilingual family). How much does a working mother communicate with...

Discussion

From my own experience. The child speaks 2 languages. With mom and in society on one, with dad on the other. He began to speak early and very clearly. At 1.5 years old, he spoke in sentences (short "The car is driving." Mom let's go for a walk, etc.)
The main thing is that the child would share the native speakers, then there will be no problems. Those. mother is a native speaker of one language, father of another, nanny of a third. Ideally, adults should communicate in the same way. With mom, for example in Russian, with dad in English, etc.

Everything largely depends on the child. My children are tri-lingual (Japanese, Russian, English). The eldest (he will be 7 years old this month) spoke simple Japanese until the age of 3. I only understood Russian, I often answered in Japanese. I addressed him only in Russian. By the age of 5, Russian came out (but somehow modestly). For some time (for a year) they postponed classes in Russian and Japanese, and focused only on English (went to an international school). Russian and Japanese were left only at the household level. Worked with a tutor in English. I sometimes (2 times a week) read him books in Russian. At the moment he reads in English, uses a dictionary. The services of a tutor were refused. Reads in Japanese (not hieroglyphs, but texts of his peers). Understanding Japanese is much more modest than that of his peers. But he has not communicated with Japanese children for 4 years.

The daughter spoke Japanese well by the age of 2. At this time, they left for Russia for 2 months, and there she spoke Russian well. After returning to Japan, six months later she began to speak Russian only in simple sentences. Now she was leaving for a year in an English kindergarten. English has normalized, Japanese is gradually becoming passive. But I do not lose hope that everything will be back to normal by the age of 7 :)

Child developmental psychology: child behavior, fears, whims, tantrums. Please advise what is useful to read about the features of speech development in a multilingual environment. Bilingualism (bilingualism) is a fairly regular and natural use of one ...

Discussion

We have such a personal experience: I brought the baby to America at 3.5 years old, now she is 5.5. Fluent English, but Russian is better, because with me - only in Russian + we spend all holidays in Russia.

I myself do not really deal with it - there is no time, and I don’t see a special need yet. In the garden-school they teach her, essno, in English. She also knows English better. At home, we read books mostly in Russian, but sometimes in English. I'm not learning it purposefully yet - I'm only answering questions like: What letter is it? What about the word? How to write it in Russian?
Ya see that even at her age she has confusion in her head between reading Russian and English. And she is one of the smart ones.

And yours is 2.5 years old - IMHO, with knowledge, I would wait. Let them show him English letters in the garden. At home, when he shows interest, explain that three different languages ​​have three different sets of letters. But his interest will not last longer than 3-5 minutes, and for this time you will not explain much. And why?

11/23/2004 08:51:25 am

I don’t know if I did the right thing, but I told the child - this is a Russian letter, or “this is written in Russian letters”, and this is written in Latin letters in German. He does not confuse, reads normally in two languages. Some words from the computer, for example, I say that this is already English, you need to read it this way. When I started to read, sometimes on purpose, as if playing with letters, for example, I read the word "firefighters" as "pozhapnye".

Discussion

What does it mean
(Walking in English in his sleep)?

10/27/2003 12:23:40 PM, Scorpio

Zamechatel "no, chto Vam eto udalos":) No est "dva voprosa: 1) stoit li igra svech, ne uteryano li chto-to iz-za togo, chto Vy obshalis" s rebyonkom na nerodnom yazyke (u menya ochen "svobodnyi angliiskii, imenno na angliiskom proishodit vsya moya vneshnyaya zhizn "i dazhe sny ya chasten" ko vizhu na angliiskom, no mne ochen "vazhno obshat" sya s RODNYMI det "mi na RODNOM yazyke, eto estcho odin ochen" vazhnyi element blizosti; 2) kak byt "dal" she - podderzhivat "bilingvizm OCHEN" neprosto, kak tol "ko Vy perestanete obshat" sya s rebyonkom po angliiski, russkii nachnet dominirovat "dazhe esli angliiskii budet v shkole ili v kruzhkah. Vy budete i dal "she obshat" sya s rebyonkom po-angliiski or gotovy k tomu, chto angliiskii stanet inostrannym?

10/26/2003 08:19:36, irina.

Early development. Early development methods: Montessori, Doman, Zaitsev's cubes, teaching reading, groups, activities with children. Conference "Early development" "Early development". Section: Foreign Languages ​​(Bilingualism is not characteristic of the Russian linguistic mentality).

Discussion

In my city, I see that the statement is slightly incorrect. This is typical for the Sharkov-Shvonder or "Soviet" environment, and even now reality is actively corroding this environment. There is already much more bilingualism among school leavers than there was fifteen years ago. And besides (I see from my nieces) - there is no concept of language as a profession. I explain: grandparents believed that a special English school was a direct path to a linguistic university, and children believe that language is not a profession, and if they have a language, they go to architects and programmers.
Yes, they think differently. An "irreversible shift in mentality" can be felt, but it would be difficult for me to determine whether bilingualism is its cause or concomitant factor.
It will be easier for the kids.

imho, bilingualism is uncharacteristic for certain segments of the population, as a kind of sign (of trouble? I mean - unwillingness, loss of interest, etc.)
Certainly, to the extent that there is no STUDY of bilingualism in Canada. But, for example, many Russians experience a subconscious (a thousand times - this is my personal opinion) hostility towards those who are "better" (for example, many "Caucasian nationalities" speak two languages ​​- their native language and Russian, this is a necessity for them.)
Maybe that's what the author of the original quote had in mind?

Hello, dear readers, guests, friends. According to the statistics of attendance at the Learning by Playing school, parents and teachers from all over the world visit the school website every day. Only from Antarctica we don’t have visitors 😉 Mostly they are Russian-speaking mothers, fathers, grandmothers, etc. And of course, living in distant countries, they dream of preserving their native language for their children. Children who speak several languages ​​at once have their own developmental characteristics, which Maria Shkurina, the author of our school, the mother of two trilingual children, will try to tell us about today. The topic is insanely interesting, so I will not take your time and give the floor to Mary.

What is bilingualism

In our rapidly changing world, bilingualism has become commonplace. Parents more and more often have to deal with questions about how to raise bilingual and multilingual children, how to solve problems that arise in upbringing, how to develop and teach bilingual children to read.

I am happy to share with the readers of the Learning by Playing school my knowledge and experience in raising multilingual children. To begin with, I want to say a few words about myself and draw your attention to the fact that I am not an expert in the education of bilinguals. I am a mother who has been solving for herself the issues of upbringing, development and education of multilingual children for almost 9 years now. My daughter Sofia is 8.5 years old. She speaks three languages: Russian, Greek, English. Son Alexandros is 3.5 years old. He speaks Russian and Greek, and has been going to an English-speaking kindergarten for six months now and has already begun to speak a little English. In addition, for the past three years I have been working in a library at an international school where all children are either bilingual or trilingual. Everything that I write below is based on my personal experience, communication with other mothers raising bilingual and multilingual children, observations of bilingual families, information from books and articles I have read. By no means do I insist that my opinion is the final authority.

Let's first of all start by defining bilingualism and multilingualism. Bilingualism means "double language" in Latin. Thus, bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages. Hence, a bilingual is a person who can speak two languages. At the same time, it is not necessary that a person speaks languages ​​at the same level, this, by the way, is a rather rare occurrence, almost always one of the languages ​​is dominant. A bilingual person is someone who can speak two languages ​​fluently without translating from one to the other. At the same time, it is not necessary that the second language be native for the bilingual, it can be acquired. Hence, there are two different types of bilingualism: natural and artificial (acquired, that is, the one that a person learned at a conscious age). Multilingualism (multilingualism), in turn, is the possession and alternate use of one and the same person or group of persons (sometimes the whole country) in several different languages.

For decades, experts have debated whether bilingualism is good or bad for children. For a long time, there was an opinion that bilingual children develop more slowly than their peers, they are characterized by various types of dyslexia and other problems in learning and development. It has now been proven that a bilingual child, on the contrary, develops a little faster than his peers.

Under the influence of erroneous opinions, some Russian-speaking families moving abroad for permanent residence made decisions not to speak Russian with their child. Now the situation has changed and more and more parents want to raise their children bilingual, wanting to expand their horizons in the future (travel, study abroad, the advantage of hiring), save a few years on learning a second language, and also preserve the culture of their people, which First of all, of course, it is connected with language proficiency. For example, as a mother, it is very important for me that my children speak my language, because it is the basis of my close relationship with them.

For many mothers and fathers, the decision to raise a bilingual child is not easy, but when you step on the path of bilingual parents, you will soon realize that everything is not so difficult - bilingualism will naturally enter the life of your family, significantly increasing, by the way, the quality of life. It's simple, believe me, I live it day by day, the main thing is to follow a few rules in the upbringing and development of my little bilingual. You can, of course, consider the bilingualism of your children as a daily struggle for a second language, or a long-term project, here everyone chooses. For our family, bilingualism is just a way of life. One thing is for sure - the bilingualism of your children requires your efforts and investments (I do not mean financial, although this may also be required) throughout your life. But these efforts are up to you.

How to raise a bilingual child

Before we talk about exactly how to raise our multilingual children, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that there are several models of multilingual families, and naturally, there are several models for raising children of bilinguals and multilinguals (the author of the classification is Professor of Linguistics Susanna Romaine):

• One family - two languages ​​(for example, like ours: mother is Russian, father is Greek, they live in Greece).
• One family - one language, but the environment speaks a different language (for example, a Russian family moved to the USA).
• Elite bilingualism - when a second language is learned from an early age in a kindergarten or school (for example, Russian parents living in Russia send their child to an English school).
• Two languages ​​​​at home, and the third language of the environment (for example, mother is Russian, father is French, they live in England).
• Foreign language - when one of the parents, who is fluent in the language, speaks it with the child. More and more often I meet Russian families living in Russia or another CIS country, where one of the parents (more often the mother) speaks English to the child.
• Mix - parents are native speakers of different languages, live in a country of a third language, the child goes to a school where education takes place in a fourth language, etc.

Of course, the upbringing of a bilingual child depends on which model each individual family belongs to, but I would like, first of all, to talk about the situation that is closest to me (I think that most of the readers of our school) - when in a family parents say in two languages, or the Russian family lives abroad.

Experts distinguish two ways of mastering the languages ​​of bilingual children: 1) teaching two languages ​​simultaneously from birth; 2) learning a second (third) language when the child reaches the age of 3-4 years. Each family has the right to decide how they will teach their bilingual, but I will express my opinion.

I firmly believe and practice proves that both languages ​​of parents should be introduced into the life of a child from birth, adhering to the rule: one language - one parent. In our case: I speak Russian with the children, and my husband speaks Greek. We don't confuse languages ​​even though my Greek is quite good. The exception is situations when we discuss something together. Then I switch to Greek. Some mothers are not just given this decision, or to put it more clearly: putting it into practice, as they are embarrassed to speak with the child in their own language (Russian) outside the home: on the playground, in the store, at the doctor's. Fathers-in-law often intervene here, who hold outdated views that a second language will confuse a child, he will lag behind his peers, that he should speak the language of his father and the country where he lives, and mother’s business was to give birth and so on and so forth. Here, dear mothers, you have to deal with yourself and understand why you are doing this, put advisers in their place, you can even take a few consultations with a psychologist if this will help get rid of psychological pressure.

For families who have moved to a new country, I would advise you to send your child to kindergarten or Wednesday school, without delay, you can hire a nanny for a few hours a week or go to a development group if you are against kindergarten. Do not forget about playgrounds, visits to theaters, festivals and other events. At home, you must always speak Russian. Do not worry, the child will speak the language of the country faster and better than you, your task is to preserve the Russian language and culture.

As for the introduction of a third language, I absolutely agree with the experts here, it is best to introduce it after three years. For myself, I came up with the following formula: you can enter a third language when the child speaks well at least one of the two languages ​​​​of the parents. For example, both of my children did not experience any difficulties, including psychological ones, when they went to an English-speaking kindergarten.

Very often, parents of little bilinguals have a question when their child will start talking. Even pediatricians and speech therapists cannot give an exact answer, but usually bilingual children begin to speak with a delay of several months when compared with their monolingual peers. Speech problems most often arise if the parents themselves constantly confuse languages, or communicate little with the child. All children are different, I know bilinguals who spoke well at the age of two, I also know those who were almost silent until three. The most important thing is that the child develops harmoniously in other directions (psychologically, physically, etc.).

N. B. There are situations when a child has some delay in language development. Parents can understand this first of all by watching their children. If something bothers you, then you should definitely see a specialist. I think it's better to be overdressed than underdressed. Perhaps he will advise you to temporarily leave only one language of communication for the child. Fortunately, such situations are rare.

What can help a Russian-speaking mother raise her bilingual child in another country:

• Visiting a Russian center or school 1-2 times a week,
• Communication with grandparents via Skype 1-2 times a week.
• Friendship and meetings with Russian-speaking mothers and children.
• Daily reading in Russian, the more the better. Keep in mind that you should not stop reading to your children in Russian, even if they have already learned to read on their own.
• Visiting your homeland with your children, inviting grandparents to visit you. It is good if there is an opportunity to immerse the child in a Russian-speaking environment at least once a year.
• Fairy tales: your own, folk or author's, which you can tell to children before going to bed, on the way, in line, etc. The more often, the better!
• Games with children. Any, let it be dolls, cars, easy, playing football or badminton, fooling around with mom.
• Celebration of Russian holidays. Ideal if together with other Russian mothers and children.
• Songs and cartoons in Russian, audiobooks. We often listen to Russian songs, stories or fairy tales in the car with our children.
• Learn by heart poems, proverbs and sayings. Just don't pressure the kids!

Teaching reading and developing multilingual children

Separately, I would like to talk about the development of our bilingual children, because now many mothers want to give their children as much as possible from birth. My firm opinion is that bilingualism is not an obstacle to the development of children, no matter which method you choose, early or timely natural development, Montessori, Waldorf or Doman (except for reading, but this is my personal opinion). Play, study, spend time speaking your native language every day for at least 15-20 minutes (I know it's hard for a working mom to find time, but it's real).

As for learning to read, in my opinion, it is better not to start with a child before he is four years old. Most of the bilingual children I know read at the age of six. Until the age of four, it is worth emphasizing the development of your child’s vocabulary (it doesn’t matter if he already speaks or not), in addition to reading books and telling fairy tales, language games help very well (you can play them with children in a car, plane, etc.) . Here are a few of them:

• Edible-inedible;
• Cities, names, nouns (according to the principle of "city");
• Name the word according to the sign. For example: Tell me something sweet, tell me something round, tell me something wooden, etc. Or: take turns naming yellow objects, something with a stripe, something that flies, etc.
• association chain. Example (we name in turn the word that is associated with the previous one): summer-heat-battery-winter-play snowballs-fun-circus, etc.
• We guess the conceived word, answering the questions “yes” or “no”;
• A game based on the principle “Do not wear black and white, do not say “yes” and “no”;
• Board games for guessing or inventing words;
• And other games for the development of speech. We will be glad if you share yours in the comments.

As I said above, I believe that it is not worth teaching a bilingual child under 4 years old to read, unless he himself expresses an increased interest in this. However, try not to get too carried away with this. It is better if your child reads in Russian before he goes to school and starts learning to read in a second language. The first class is stressful for a child, in any case, and if you also try to teach him to read in two (three) languages ​​at the same time .... By the way, the ability to read Russian really helped my daughter to start reading Greek, she also had no problems with English.

If your bilingual child does not go to a Russian school or does not study with a private teacher, then learning to read will fall on your shoulders, although there are children who learn to read in passing (especially the second ones). Nowadays, there are several ways to teach a child to read. I advise you to carefully study the information and stop at one. Try to be consistent, don't jump from one method to another. In principle, if your child is ready, then you can teach him to read Russian in a few weeks. A good time is summer, before he goes to first grade, if he is not already reading, of course.

I really hope that everything will work out for you, the main thing is to believe in yourself and listen to your child. You are already great fellows that you decided to make bilingualism a part of your life!

Of course, I know that the path of raising a bilingual child is not only covered with roses - parents, invariably, have certain difficulties. Believe me, few people do without them. In my next article, due April 6th, we'll talk to you about them and how to deal with the issues that arise. See you soon and good luck with your little bilinguals! If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments, I will answer you as soon as possible.

Shkurina Maria,

We look forward to hearing your stories in the comments about how your children are growing up in a multilingual environment!

P.S. This article is the author's and is entirely intended solely for private use, publication and use of it on other sites or forums is possible only with the written consent of the author. Commercial use is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

3-7 years

7-12 years old

teenager

Raising children who are able to speak two languages ​​equally well, in addition to obvious advantages, is fraught with certain complications. At the same time, more and more opinions are expressed regarding the bilingual, or bilingual development of the child. Let's weigh all the pros and cons.

The benefits of bilingualism are now supported by numerous studies. Bilingual children have a broad outlook and sensitivity to other cultures, which increases the effectiveness of their learning. They have more developed divergent thinking, which is necessary for solving various problems and tasks. They are able to generate a large number of answers to any question. Bilingualism improves a person's ability to remember information in large volumes. No wonder the vast majority of geniuses were bilingual.

Some scientists believe that learning two or more languages ​​at the same time increases the load on the emotional and mental spheres of the child. And such a point of view has a right to exist, since bilingual children learn not only two languages, but also two national cultures. For this reason, bilingualism can slow down the intellectual, especially at an early age. Not surprisingly, bilingual children usually start talking later than their peers.

If you want to raise a bilingual child, teach your child languages ​​from an early age. Many teachers advise starting to study a foreign language before the age of five. At the same time, there is an opinion that one language should be chosen as the main one, and only after it becomes clear that the child does not have speech problems, move on to learning a second language. From another point of view, it is worth starting to communicate with a baby in two languages ​​from the first days of his life: in this case, there will be no dominance of one language over another.

You can learn about the age-related features of the memory of younger schoolchildren by watching a video lesson for parents with the participation of a child psychologist of the “I am a parent” portal.

1. Communicate with children in a foreign language, pronounce words and phrases in it more often, so that learning is easier for the child. Try to ensure that both languages ​​are given the same amount of time.
2. Give your child the broadest possible understanding of the culture and history of the countries of the languages ​​being studied.
3. Watch with your child his favorite cartoons in the language you want to pay more attention to. Let him tell what he understood from the cartoon. If some words and phrases remain incomprehensible to your child, translate them. Watch the cartoon several times until the child learns individual phrases and characters' lines.
4. Do your best to expand your child's vocabulary. To do this, talk to him more often and read books in foreign languages ​​to him, and also turn on recordings of foreign children's songs to your baby or sing them yourself. Use educational computer programs if necessary.
5. If the child is small, use this approach: you name the word in the language being studied and ask the child to find a card with the desired picture, and then repeat this word and translate it into their native language. Toys can be used as an alternative to cards. Also, the child can be invited to draw pictures for each word you named.
6. Let native speakers take part. It can be a grandmother, grandfather, friends or a nanny. They will help your offspring to master a foreign language in the process of live communication.
7. Create an environment for your child in which he would have the opportunity to talk with his peers in the language being studied. To do this, it is worth considering options for bilingual education of a child in specialized kindergartens, game groups and summer language camps.
8. Spend holidays abroad with your child so that he has the opportunity to communicate with native speakers.
9. Encourage your child to speak a foreign language. For example, put him in a situation where he will be forced to ask the seller in the store to sell him a toy in his native language.

You will learn how to break down language barriers when learning a foreign language in preschool children from a video lesson with the participation of an expert from the I am a Parent portal.

Tatyana Margulyan

Every child has many talents. Take this test and find out what talent your child has and how it can be developed.

Bilingual children read and analyze quickly, are less prone to stress and better deal with conflicts. Their brains are more flexible and will even be able to resist dementia as they age. The Village asked experts what language a child would speak in a bi- or even trilingual family and what parents of a bilingual child should pay attention to.

Oksana Buvaltseva

senior teacher of the trilingual children's center P'titCREF

The reasons for the development of bilingualism in a child can be very different: from the interethnic composition of the family and moving to another country to the natural desire of parents in our time to expand the horizons of the child and give him a quality education. Physiologically, the bilingual brain produces more gray matter in the lower parietal region of the cerebral cortex, which allows it to better analyze information. Children who start learning languages ​​before the age of five develop better in the part of the brain responsible for fluency. This does not mean that bilingualism makes someone smarter or more talented, but it does mean that it improves the quality of the brain on some tasks.

In bilingual families, the child hears two languages ​​from birth and immediately begins to learn both because it is spoken by his parents. He usually speaks his first words in his mother's language, simply because mothers usually spend more time with the child. Further, the child can begin to mix words: for example, objects that mother often uses, he can name in his mother's language, and his father's in his father's. The main thing is that a child can learn both languages ​​quickly and speak them fluently, although, according to statistics, his vocabulary will still be slightly less than that of monolinguals.

The choice of the dominant language in a monolingual family will be influenced by many factors. So, it is important for parents to remember that a small child associates a language with the personality of the person who speaks it. And he may more often use the language of the person with whom he has the strongest emotional connection or with whom he wants to be like. If a child goes to a kindergarten, then the language in which he speaks with peers and teachers may come first. An important factor is the frequency of language use: for example, if parents want to introduce a child to a new environment and even at home try to speak a non-native language, then the non-native language will become dominant for the child.

Elena Mingova

founder of the network of children's bilingual kindergartens "Cosmo Kids"

Both research and our experience show that bilingual children speak and understand two languages ​​at once. Especially if these are children who grow up in bilingual families, and not just in a foreign language (compared to his family. - Approx. ed.) environment. At the same time, it is better that one parent speaks one language all the time, and the second - in another. So the child will not have confusion, and he can more easily switch from language to language, depending on the interlocutor. Or, if the family is not bilingual (father and mother speak the same language, but foreign), there should be a “country-family” separation, that is, in your family you need to communicate in the language of the family, in the environment - in the language of the environment. In addition, it is very important to stop the mixing of language in one sentence in time.

According to our observations, the child will speak two languages ​​at once, and by the age of one and a half years he will have formed a vocabulary from each of the languages ​​of his parents - provided that he communicates equally with his father and mother in the family and that each of the parents speaks with the child in his native language . At first, there may be confusion in languages ​​in some everyday words or phrases, and the language that is more in the family will prevail. At the same time, at a slightly older age, at about two or three years, the child will switch from one language to another without any problems - depending on who he is talking to. True, I must note that all this is true until the child enters the language environment - society.

Julia Zhikhareva

speech therapist at the Medsi children's clinic on Pirogovskaya

In a family where parents speak different languages, a single language should be chosen for communication. Often this is the language of the country where the family lives. Sometimes it is the language of one of the parents, which is also used by the other. Or even a third language that both parents speak, even though it is not their mother tongue. It is in this language that a child in such a family is most likely to speak - that is, he first of all masters the language in which he is most communicated with.

From the point of view of speech development in children with several languages, there may be some delay, but not pathological, but tempo (if there are no real developmental problems that a speech therapist identifies). Babies without developmental pathology usually do not need professional help. They master several languages ​​at their own pace, depending on innate abilities and society.

The difficulty lies in the fact that when mastering two language systems, it takes more time to study grammatical structures and replenish vocabulary. That is why bilinguals are often more likely to fall into the group of children who have a lag in speech development. At the same time, a number of experts argue that due to the need to memorize many details, bilinguals from early childhood have a more trained memory and attention.

In the future, the following situation is often observed: when a child goes to school, he speaks the language of the country, and the parent's native language, reading and writing masters individually (at home, with tutors or in special groups). Also, immersion in the communication environment when visiting relatives living in another country helps in mastering the language. If this happens often, then such children speak clearly, without an accent.