does your child speak more than one language?

Remember, every new language provides us with yet

another way of understanding and approaching the

universe.

Global competitiveness as a result of knowing how to

speak a second language can yield great benefits later on

for many children. This is one of the many reasons why

parents are increasingly seeking out second-language or

Spanish-English playgroups for their children. The

primary motivating factor for many parents with whom

I work is having the child be able to communicate

effectively with a family member he might not

otherwise be able to communicate with if he did not

speak or understand the language.

This booklet was created to provide parents accurate

and reliable information that will accommodate their

yearning to supply their children with optimal

opportunities in the area of second-language learning.

It is very important to implement and utilize behavioral

approaches with young children, especially when a

primary and pivotal goal is for them to learn a second

language. This is because just as language-delayed

youngsters need to be provided an external incentive to

communicate, children who are learning two languages

need to be “coaxed” to stay on track with using the

language when asked. An example of this would be that

the parent asks, “Joey, please use Spanish with Grandma

when she comes for lunch tomorrow.”

This assumes that the child, Joey, has sufficient

second-language experience to understand and use

terminology relevant to his grandmother’s visit. To

insure sufficient experience, I recommend what I call a

dynamic assessment procedure, wherein you are

constantly measuring what the child hears, understands,

and can use in the new language.

Dynamic assessment is useful not only as a nonbiased

assessment procedure when evaluating children, but

also for both parents and teachers who are working to

foster childhood bilingualism.

For years and years, access to accurate information

about bilingualism has not been easy to locate, and

myths about childhood bilingualism and

second-language learning have continued to

predominate. These issues most definitely impact

parents’ educational and language choices for both

mainstream culture children and culturally linguistically

diverse (CLD) children who are learning English as a

second language.

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Accurate information may be difficult to find because of

various sociopolitical factors that influence what we see,

hear, and know about bilingual education. For example,

did you know that bilingual education models across

this country do not enjoy a good reputation because they

are typically not supported or administered with

enough uniformity for results to be accurately measured

and evaluated?

For both parents of CLD and mainstream culture

children, access to accurate information is essential.

Accurate information appears to influence parental

choice, as well as views regarding bilingualism and the

most appropriate road to achieving it.

What is the state of bilingualism?

What are the current myths and accurate beliefs about

it?

How do we best achieve it? What are the best routes to

go for children and families interested in making

bilingualism a part of their lives?

What barriers need to be knocked down in order to

reach a better understanding of multilingualism and its

advantages?

What myths stand in the way of proliferation and

retention of accurate information for the parent

community?

How can we address these issues effectively and in a

long term manner?

Our personal values and belief systems influence very

much what we pass on to our children and how we pass

it on. In fact, our personal values and beliefs are

important to consider when we think about our views of

bilingualism. The topic is a politically

controversial one, where there is much divide. Parents

who, at least in part, feel that bilingual education has

failed them may be reticent to learn how to facilitate

second-language skill sets in their own children.

We offer here clear, accurate information about

bilingualism and the best path to becoming bilingual. It

is an absolute necessity to have accurate information in

order to proceed and kick