7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child

by Naomi Steiner, Susan L. Hayes

The best time to learn a second language is as a child. During childhood, the brain is more receptive to language learning than at any other time in life. Aware that a second language can enrich their child's understanding of other cultures and bring future job opportunities in a world drawn ever closer by globalization, many parents today are motivated to raise their children bilingual.



This book helps parents in both monolingual and multilingual families determine and achieve their bilingual goals for their child, whether those goals are understanding others, the ability to speak a second language, reading and/or writing in two languages, or some combination of all of these. The authors explain how the brain learns more than one language, explode common myths, address frequently asked questions, and reveal an array of resources available to families. Packed with insightful anecdotes and powerful strategies, this is a one-of-a-kind guidebook for those seeking to provide their children with a uniquely valuable experience.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Education, Language, Linguistics, Psychology, Childrens

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Kami · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here's my review of two books I recently read on bilingualism. The other was Bilingual By Choice: Raising Kids in Two (or more!) Languages by Virginie Raguenaud. But first of all my husband does speak to our kids in Spanish. Sometimes. Recently, our three year old started demanding "In English!!!!" Hence my desire to check out these books. To be honest, I would read pieces of one and then read pieces of the other, so I'm not exactly sure what info came from what book. Lo siento.

There was nothing extremely new in these books that I hadn't heard before here and there. I did learn some new vocabulary. Such as "heritage language." (My kids' heritage languages would be Spanish and English.) And OPOL (One-parent-one-language) technic. They did have some good suggestions for implementing a few rules. Mostly, I just found them motivating, which is good too. Also, both listed resources of where you can find books or websites in other languages, which I plan on keeping a list of. Another useful bit was just the redirecting of what our goals are for our children's language abilities. One of the books mentioned how rare it is to have a "balanced bilingual" or a person that is equally good in both languages in all aspects of life. We definitely want our kids to be able to read and write in Spanish, but expecting a balanced bilingual is really pushing it.

Probably the most thought-provoking part in both books is when they were discussing pride in your culture and heritage. Both books talk about parents and kids being embarrassed to speak another language in public. Errr... I find it irritating, at best, when my daughter Ana tries to "cover-up" the fact that she's Latina or speaks Spanish. My brother-in-law (in Arizona) used to tell people he was from Italy and refused to acknowledge he was Latino at all when he was in high school . The author even pointed it out in one of the books how little "status" Spanish has as a language in the U.S. I guess I can understand it on some level, I mean Arizona's new law certainly points out how clearly racist some can get. (Anybody taking issue with that last statement, just think--Is my illegal, red-headed Canadian cousin going to be questioned? Umm, no. Are my legal, thick accented Latino in-laws going to be questioned? Umm, yeah.) Also, when my husband first came here, he was turned away from a job, because he supposedly "failed" a basic math test (addition, subtraction, etc.) when he was taking advanced calculus at ASU. They didn't let him see the test after it was scored either, by the way. So I'm not saying discrimination doesn't happen, I guess because I take so much pride in my heritage and history and culture (eh?), it really bothers me when people don't do the same. So here's some of the research results regarding this. "Adolescents who are active in their families' cultural traditions, have a clear way to identify themselves, and show pride in their heritage, are happier and have a healthier sense of self." (Bilingual By Choice, pg. 46). "A 2002 study of U.S. adolescents who were second-generation immigrants showed that those who kept their parents' native languages have better relationships within their families, feel better about themselves, and have a more positive attitude about school than their peers who lose their heritage language and become monolingual English speakers. Another researcher reported that bilingual children have a sophisticated sense of their identities." (7 Steps pg. 22). There was also other interesting stuff of how bad it is for a kid to abandon their native language, ie less likely to function on a high literacy level in their second language, which is the reverse of what I was expecting, but it's true nonetheless. Anyay it led me to recognize how important it is for Leo to speak to them in Spanish no matter where we are, because if the parent is willing to speak it anywhere the child will be more likely to pick up a feeling of pride of their culture.

Oh, and one other random fact I learned from Bilingual by Choice, is that it's natural for the brain to "forget" (at least for a while) an expression or word in one language when we are learning a second language. It's temporary, but necessary for langauge acquisiton. This actually has happened to me occasionally. Made me feel happy that I might actually be progressing in learning Spanish.

Overall, I felt Bilingual by Choice dwelt more on ESL issues, because that had been the author's experience, and hence not as useful to me since that's not my children's issues. On the other hand, I felt 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child fit more those parents who can afford to look only for a Chinese speaking nanny, or a French preschool, or travel to Italy every summer. Umm, that's not really me either. But I still thought it was more useful all together and would be the one I recommend if you're just choosing one or the other.

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave helpful tips to encourage us along on our bilingual journey. I liked that this book doesn't have one right way but encourages all different types of bilingual ways.

[Yoanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have fallen victim to false advertising or there just isn't what I'm looking for.
This book is very much targeted at parents who are set out to make their child bilingual, not out of necessity - although that side is covered as well - but rather out of sheer ambition. Well, in some cases it's to keep the child in touch with his or her origins, which is something I strongly support. However, there is little to no useful information about people who live in a country with main language different than their own (which is my family's case) and are looking for a way to tackle the fact that their child will, want it or not, bilingual and even multilingual.
Oh, this is has useful information if you're from/live in the States.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an educator in the field of bilingual education, I can highly recommend this book. Written by a pediatrician and mom, its language is very straight-forward. I thought it was really neat how she addressed how monolinguals can raise bilingual children as well and gives ideas for doing as such. It wouldn't be nearly as cheap or feasible but given the right area (and/or money), could be done. Despite my knowledge and own extensive research in second language acquisition and dual-language programs, I am sad that even I fell into the trap of "my child is delayed/not speaking so I'm going to lay off the second language for a bit." Although part of me is mad at myself for doing that, I also know it's not too late - it will just be more difficult to implement the changes needed. It takes a LOT of input to create bilingual kids. I have read other books where children did EVERYTHING outside of school in another language and they still had difficulties. I know I want more for my children than to simply know the numbers, alphabet and a few vocab words. I want them to be comfortable using the language and be able to speak proficiently in it. Anyways, this is a great start-off point for parents who hope to acheive the goal of developing bilingualism in their child(ren).

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente! As a parent of a biracial child I have found this book to be very valuable and a great resource in teaching you as the parent how to encourage and direct the language development of your child.

[Emese K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is great, it creates a nice overall understanding of bilingualism. It is not totally for our situation as I feel it is meant mostly for parents with different languages, but it was a nice start on the topic. It has real-life examples, which are really helpful and fun to read.

[Malvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having a new born and planning to raise her bilingually, this is a great book for me. It is a complete guide, from planning and setting realistic expectation, to handling objections from the kids, to tips and tricks for executing the plan in the long run. It is really helpful to learn from plenty of examples of how different families facing different challenging in raising bilingual children.

A few keys takeaway:
1. Raising a bilingual children does not confuse them. It helps them be more creative.
2. One-parent-one-language since the beginning is the best way to start.
3. Need at least 5 hours of exposure every week to make it work.
4. There are different proficiency levels. Understand but can't speak; Speak some to fluently; Read & write. Be clear and realistic with your goal.
5. Older kids will question why they have to continue learning the second language once English becomes the dominant language. Be patient.
6. Make them proud of their language and heritage. Take them to the countries where the 2nd language is spoken will be great help.
7. Public school programs are usually not a good option. Hire babysitter and let them hang out with kids/people who speak the 2nd language is better.

[Elena · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly practical and in-depth guide to raising bilingual children. It gave me a lot to think about as I navigate teaching our son my Romanian language. She included convincing research as well as anecdotal stories of families who are successfully raising bilingual children. Here are her seven steps, each described in detail throughout the book. Step 1: Building the foundation for your child's bilingualism (what does it mean to be bilingual? What are advantages for a child to be bilingual? Debunking myths about bilingualism). Step 2: Making it happen (defining goals and making decisions, such as how proficient you want your child to be and picking a start date). Step 3: Becoming a bilingual coach (deciding who speaks which language and when. The OPOL, One Parent One Language method is recommended). Step 4: Creating a Bilingual Action Plan (organizing when and how the language will be learned at home, extended family/community involvement such as grandparents speaking only in the second language, school resources such as bilingual schools, online programs and TV shows). Step 5: Leaping over predicable obstacles (mixing languages, parental insecurity that they speak that language well enough to teach their child, what to do if a child no longer is interested in learning the language, etc). Step 6: Reading and writing in two language. Step 7: Adapting to School. I felt like a lot of my reservations about starting this journey were addressed, such as wondering if there is a speech delay in bilingual children (short answer: there is not). I also felt like there were enough suggestions that I could formulate my own Bilingual Action Plan to best suit our family, which I was able to put together after reading the book. Learning a second language isn't one-size-fits-all. There are different ways that work for different families, so I appreciated that she wasn't prescriptive and only recommended one way; instead, she gave many examples of how families are making this work for them. This book was written in 2008, so there are many new technological advances (such as YouTube) that obviously were not mentioned, so parents will need to do their own homework and find newer resources than audio cassettes and other older media that was recommended.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing in here is something you couldn’t think up in a 30-minute brainstorming session, but I can see how this would be useful to parents just starting to think about it.

I was hoping for more research findings supporting why such-and-such a technique works better than another, or what ages correspond to certain types of language learning, but the book seemed bent on convincing parents to do something, anything. I can think to change the DVD audio to Spanish, thanks though.

(Soapbox alert!) Along those lines, it sugarcoats the subject of speaking a different language in public. In an effort not to discourage parents, the authors assure readers that most people don’t mind. I completely disagree. I’ve been around several parents who speak exclusively to their children in a different language, and much as I understand why, there’s always feeling I fight of being left out. That's human nature, I assume.

Maybe because I’m from Utah, I’ve run into enough indignation over parents “confusing” their kids with Spanish, or Hispanics being so rude as to not permit English-speaker to eavesdrop on their conversation. Several family members roll their eyes or get blatantly antagonistic about my kids’ Spanish names and the few phrases I use with them. (But maybe other languages are less controversial?)

Maybe I’m not giving people enough credit, but I’ve come to assume that when I use my limited Spanish, people will either (a) think I’m showing off or (b) feel excluded. But when my oldest sputters out a halting sentence to his delighted Tia (even if that sentence is asking her to buy him something), or when a native speaker does a double-take at hearing my gringitos use, with perfect accent, their limited Spanish, it’s so totally worth it.

[Kim Palacios · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had good information, but missed the mark, somewhat, for me. I'm not sure it's a shortcoming of the author, frankly. This is an enormous topic, and families who choose to raise children bilingually may be in very different situations. It's hard to write a book that will universally be considered useful when some families have two native speakers for parents, others have one, and others have zero. In my family's case, neither my husband nor I are native speakers of our second language, but both of us had significant exposure to the language and, in my case, I lived abroad and became functionally fluent. What I needed most was advice around how to improve my own skills and find resources to nurture my child's learning.

I agree with reviews that said much of this was common sense. I would have liked to see more information that offered ideas related to parents' level of fluency and comfort with the target language, as well as common struggles of parents, such as finding bilingual playmates and other resources.

That said, I am glad that books like this exist in any form. They are needed!

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just happened upon this book while wandering in the library and started glancing through it. the next thing I knew I had just finished the introduction. So I checked it out.

This book is so well written. I have had the desire to raise my sons to be bilingual but had no clue where to start. This gave me so many starting points and ideas, excellent statistics, and even some troubleshooting tips. I especially liked the examples from other families as to what worked or didn't work for them.

I recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest possibility of raising their child to be bilingual.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

While my kids are now in the quickly-closing puberty window for ease of language aquisition, I still would like to see how I can help them learn a couple of different languages easier. I have a linguistics degree and am bilingual myself and am still finding this informative and enlightening.

It's good to be able to cite research to silence outside critics.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I think this book does present the steps necessary to raise a child bilingually, I think I need more support than what this book offers. Perhaps I need my own bilingual consultant, but this book didn't provide me (as a non-native, not fluent speaker of the target language) the assurance that if I do x, y, and z, I will have a bilingual child. Maybe no one and nothing can.

[Aprill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't feel that most of the book applied to us. Since we already are a bilingual family. I felt the end of the book applied more to our family with ideas on improving there language skills, in there 2nd language.

[Alla · Rating 2 out of 5]

All commonsense information, nothing new. More pertinent information would have been on the balance of the two languages in the child's life, and multilingualism. Both are mentioned, but glossed over.

[Andie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found great comfort in this book. I had no idea where to even start teaching a second language to our daughter, and now I feel like I have a very solid foundation to start with. The toughest part now will be deciding whether to teach her Spanish or German first.

[Jim Peterson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is very focused on couples raising bilingual children in the US. As an American married to an Italian who will raise a child in Germany, it was often not that useful. Still, it was a good start and I know what to look for to find something better.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The steps listed in this book are all common sense. Nothing earth shattering. However, it was good to have someone confirm what I already think I need to do to raise a bilingual child/children.

[Jon-Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gives you the bare-bones skeleton of how to plan. Implementation is lacking and limited to vignettes that may or may not apply to you. Does present some good info, especially in the beginning.

[Flying Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent enough book; just on the lower side of 3.5 stars.

A book on this subject will never be able to meet the expectations of every reader, since every child and every family is different, with different motivations, different circumstances and different rates and manners of linguistic development. The authors do an admirable job of trying to cover as many different bases as possible and address the concerns that the majority of parents are likely to have.

There are many good ideas in the book. They are not all groundbreaking, but useful if this is your first or only book on raising bilingual children (in my case it was my third; of which I would most recommend Adam Beck's "Maximize Your Child's Bilingual Ability").

This is by no means a bad book; it is just not the best in its field (nor even the second-best: that position, for me, is currently held by Annika Bourgogne's Be Bilingual). On top of that, there were a number of things that irritated me (other than those resulting inevitably from the impossibility of meeting the needs of every family):

After the introduction and an initial chapter explaining what it means to be bilingual, myth-busting etc, which I did not need but can appreciate that others might, some 30 pages were devoted to identifying your motivations, defining goals and filling in worksheets. Really? Just get on and tell us how to do it already.

The book as a whole felt very US-centric. This is, of course, no doubt its largest market, but I felt that this could easily have been toned down a bit to appeal to an even wider (perhaps even non-English-speaking?) audience. The majority of the ideas can absolutely still be understood and used by ignoring this aspect, but it struck me as, at worst, narrow-minded and, at best, a missed opportunity.

On the one hand, the authors did in places acknowledge the vastly different ways in which different bilingual children develop, but on the other made some rather sweeping statements and advice presumption that the same would be good for everybody, such as the need for a tutor provide formal instruction in the rules of phonics if the parent is not trained as a teacher.

A couple of smaller things that grated:
The excessive references to the "second" language where what was meant was the "non-dominant" language and/or the language other than the one spoken in the country of residence - neither of these is necessarily the second language, or even the weaker language - and, following on from that, suggesting that rather than splitting the 30 minutes' daily reading recommended by many schools (on the basis that the schools recommend that amount of time as appropriate for advancing the children's English reading and comprehension skills), "you could read for 30 minutes a day in English and 10 minutes in your language": A sure-fire way, if ever there was one, to relegate your language to "secondary" status!

I suspect I would have found this book more useful had I not previously read two superior books on the same subject matter, but the above niggles remain, as does the fact that there are better books out there.

[Lisa Burgess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Naomi Steiner and Susan L. Hayes address misconceptions and concerns about raising bilingual children, describe the clear benefits thereof, walk through the steps of developing a plan for one’s own children, and provide numerous examples of how various families have developed such a strategy.

Dr. Steiner’s research demonstrates the benefits of dual language picture books. With regard to learning to read in more than one language, she writes, “Researchers have found that young bilingual children are better able than their monolingual peers to recognize the relationship between a letter and it’s sound (called letter-sound recognition), which is an essential ‘pre-reading’ skill.” (p.132). She recommends reading books with pictures as “The pictures will help your child understand the story better and aid in learning new vocabulary, such as Little Red Riding Hood’s cape” (136). Steiner also acknowledges that, “Bilingual books can make a second language attainable and, as a result, the reading experience much more enjoyable” (140).

I was happy to find a copy in my local library. Please check your library and request a copy to read!

[Inês · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good way to start thinking and to outline a bilingual education strategy for parents, proposing the OPL method (one parent - one language). But it ends up being a little repetitive. My one negative critique is that the author is a little oblivious to social class, economic conditions and each own's cultural context. It's a little unrealistic to suggest one should just hire a nanny from the ml (minority language) or to attend ml Saturday's schools. It's not every family that can afford it, or maybe sometimes is just not possible at all to expose the child to ml language through extra curricular activities, because they are not even available. Finally, I liked a lot of her focus on consistency and that language's learning should not be seen as just a matter of usefulness, bur rather, multilinguism is much more about to expose your kids to other cultures & fomenting emotional ties with language/ cultural universes that matter for families.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

She covered some basics, but the resources she mentioned all look like they came from 1980. Not sure they would be compelling to a modern day child. They weren't very compelling to me!

Also, the one parent, one child method with regard to parents who DON'T both speak the target language- I thought she didn't really address my main concern with that. I want to be part of my family too! I don't want my husband and daughter to be in their own Spanish club that leaves me, who only speaks English, out. Would have liked to see some discussion on how other families deal with that. I know from others that I'm not the only one who struggles with this.

[Lynnaea · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative and helpful foundation for parents thinking about raising a child to speak multiple languages. This book helped me think more about my goals (and why I value them) and options for strategies. Some of the suggestions felt simplistic and perhaps unrealistic (like HOW do I find playmates who speak the same language? Or a bilingual nanny?) but for the most part this book was accessible. Some of the concerns I have were not addressed (if my child attends a school in a language I don't speak, how will that complicate things should my child have issues in school?).

4/5

[slowmokim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was easy to read but not very helpful.

Trình bày rất dễ đọc, dễ tra cứu. Tuy nhiên có thể là vì cuốn sách này viết vào đâu đó năm 2008 nên các tips có vẻ không còn mới mẻ với thời nay rồi. Không cần phải đọc ngấu nghiến thứ tự từng bước một, nếu bạn có thắc mắc gì nên lật luôn vào chủ đề đó, bác sĩ Naomi Steiner sẽ giải thích, đưa ra các case liên quan, cuối cùng là bảng tổng hợp ý chính mỗi chương. Bảng tổng hợp này 10đ ngắn gọn tiện lợi, đỡ dài dòng.


Sách có 1 chương tập hợp các nguồn youtube, website cho trẻ học song ngữ. Nào rảnh sẽ check

[Karina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well this book was almost entirely unhelpful. A lot of it is common sense. It really pushes One-parent-one-language. It mentions some resources but not in my language. Some tips are not applicable because of where we live: there aren’t any Russian babysitters, or schools, or even books in the library. There usually aren’t Russian audio/subtitles on common movies/radio... I just need to do my own research, and buy books, cds, dvds, podcasts, internet radio, any other helpful materials.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very comprehensive book about how to raise your child to be bilingual and bicultural. Spoiler alert though: it’s going to take a lot of work. Also, it does seem that this book is written for middle/upper income families. The author talks a lot about language schools and other resources that are out of reach for the many Americans. All in all, though, it has a lot of good ideas.

[Rochelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant resource for anyone who wants to introduce multiple languages to their children. Reassuring if you are already on the journey. Down to earth, a practicle and reassuring book to read as a parent.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded up.

Good starting point if you're trying to raise your kid bilingual in a monolingual culture, or if you're a monolingual parent. Rather America-centric, especially when it comes to schooling systems, but a lot of the other info is of value internationally.

[PowdyrdWyg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Geared towards those who want to raise a bilingual child but don’t know where to start. The information contained in the book is largely common sense, and the entire book could’ve been condensed into a blog post.