does your child speak more than one language?

PARENT BOOK

Does Your Child Speak

More Than One Language

(what you need to know)

Deborah Chitester

M.S., C.C.C/SLP

Published by Second Language, Literacy & Learning

Connection, LLC

Pennington, NJ

Copyright ? 2009 Deborah Chitester

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical,

including photocopy, recording, or and information storage and retrieval

system, without permission in writing from both the copyright owner and

the publisher.

Requests for permission to make copies of any part of this work

should be mailed to Second Language Literacy & Learning

Connection LLC, 107 !ewman Ct., Pennington, !J 08534

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Does your child speak

more than one language

(what you need to know)

One Important Opening Note:

In my work as a bilingual bicultural speech language

pathologist, I have yet to meet a parent whom regretted

raising their child to be bilingual. However, I have heard

many, many stories of regret and disappointment from

parents who did not make this choice. My hope and

prayer in preparing this concise, pragmatic, and

practical booklet is that you will use it as a guide for

offering your children the gift of speaking more than

one language and doing so with ease.

A growing number of U.S. parents view bilingualism as

a laudable family goal. The reasons for this trend

include a desire to maintain ties to the parents’ heritage

language and culture, provide children with academic

and cognitive advantages, and promote cross-cultural

understanding and communication. Nevertheless

research indicates that success in raising children to be

bilingual remains the exception in the United States,

because most children eventually become English

dominant or even monolingual in English (Wong

Fillmore, 2000). This is due at least in part to the high

status of English and the limited number of

opportunities available for children to learn languages

other than English. Research also indicates that parents’

beliefs, attitudes, and interactions with their children

are important in helping children become bilingual

(De Houwer, 1998; Lanza, 1997).

There is a real need to disseminate clear, accurate

information about what parents should expect as they

begin the journey of raising children bilingually.

Language Problems And Confusion Do Not Result From

Exposure To And Speaking Of More Than One Language.

This is simply a myth, and we are hoping that by the

conclusion of this booklet you will understand why and

have a clearer, more practical hands-on understanding of

the facts about second-language learning.

It Is Helpful To Know One Or Two Things About Brain

And Language Acquisition.

The “window of opportunity” idea is widely accepted

by second-language learning scholars.

Here is a very simplified explanation: From birth until

puberty, the brain literally formats itself to perform

various specialized functions, such as language

acquisition, based upon the input it gets from theworld.

Neural networks gradually form, and they function

more and more efficiently as they are used. If a second

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language is part of that input, neural networks for

understanding and using that language grow richer.

Therefore, early exposure to a second language actually

causes more connections to grow in a child’s brain, and

those connections, in turn, allow for easier additional

learning in both second and first languages.

Why Should Your Child Learn a Foreign Language?

Isn’t your home language enough? After all, much of the

world’s population speaks, for example, English as a

second language, so your child can probably get by with

speaking English alone. Why add more academic study

to their life? These are legitimate questions, but the

answers all favor introducing your child to a second

language as early as possible, preferably in an

immersion program..

Let’s take a look at and answer a few of these questions.

Acquiring a language is effortless for a young child.

Getting him into a class early allows easy, natural

absorption of a second language through play and

exploration. I, for one, can vouch that starting Spanish in

tenth grade is not effortless. Save your kid the struggle.

Early immersion and exposure to meaningful and

language based tasks in a new language are associated