By AV Coordinator on 3/16/2009 2:55 PM

One evening, my husband and I were taking turns reading a book to our 2-year old son. I should say, he was reading a page, and then I was translating the English-only text. Halfway through the book however, our son began pointing at the bugs and animals on the page, and began asking, “What’s that daddy?” Then he turned to me with the same question. Clearly, even at such a young age, he understood that my husband and I had different words for the same things—words that didn’t sound the same at all.

Many parents worry that introducing a second language (or a third or fourth language for that matter) too soon will cause their children to mix languages, and interpret this to mean confusion or some type of deficiency in the child’s language acquisition. Linguistic experts, however, are very positive about their view on “code-switching”, which is how this language mixing is referred to. Rather than demonstrating confusion, research confirms that this is a natural behavior among bilinguals and often shows a high level of linguistic understanding. In addition, it’s important to consider that if you are raising your child in a code-switching environment, then it is likely that the child is learning that this is the language norm.  Some cultures and groups do engage in code-switching as part of their natural discourse, employing it to add linguistic emphasis or to convey a meaning that is not quite translatable in the other language.

I, along with other parents, have noticed that ... Read More »

By AV Coordinator on 3/2/2009 3:02 PM

American businesses today cite bilingualism as an important competitive advantage for their businesses and a job skill that is important for reaching a diverse customer base. Travel to most other parts of the world and you will find that many people are bilingual—Quechua with Spanish; Swahili with Shona; German with French, and so on. By some estimates, more than 50% of the world’s population is bilingual!

Of course most of the bilingualism develops because people are living in such mixed cultures, that learning a second language is just something you do. In our country, where you can live with little or no exposure to a second language, supporting your child’s bilingualism through the formal education system is important. Though most foreign language programs begin in middle school, parents looking for earlier starting language programs should investigate whether any of their local elementary schools have implemented language immersion programs. Fairfax County, VA for instance offers partial immersion programs in several languages, where elementary school students can study math and science in the target language, learning both content and language, and also study language arts and social studies in English. In the Spanish language program, all the students serve as language role models for each other; native speakers of the target language are models for English speakers, and vice versa.

Additionally, bilingual childcare or preschools are other options for families who want their child ... Read More »