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Bilingual By Choice: Raising Kids in Two (or More!) Languages
Includes 100 creative activities and strategies for the home and community!
More and more people-hundreds of millions around the world-are living in bilingual homes. In the U.S. alone, more than 54 million people over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home. Yet once children enter school, the pull toward one language becomes stronger and maintaining the bilingual advantage requires a serious family commitment - a bilingual choice. The good news is it's worth it.
Research shows that bilingual children are known to have more social, cultural and economic opportunities as they grow to adulthood and that learning a second language from birth can even result in protection against Alzheimer's later in life. Bilingual By Choice provides families with specific activities, games and insights that will show them how to not only teach their kids more than one language but also to help their kids retain and develop those language skills.
For parents, educators, immigrants and expatriates, Bilingual by Choice deals directly with the obstacles to sustaining a second language, including unsupportive relatives, issues at school, frequent relocations and discrimination, countering each one with the author's firsthand experience with both sides of the growing-up-bilingual journey, as a child and as a parent. Commit to the choice, and help your children become bilingual - for life.
More and more people-hundreds of millions around the world-are living in bilingual homes. In the U.S. alone, more than 54 million people over the age of 5 speak a language other than English at home. Yet once children enter school, the pull toward one language becomes stronger and maintaining the bilingual advantage requires a serious family commitment - a bilingual choice. The good news is it's worth it.
Research shows that bilingual children are known to have more social, cultural and economic opportunities as they grow to adulthood and that learning a second language from birth can even result in protection against Alzheimer's later in life. Bilingual By Choice provides families with specific activities, games and insights that will show them how to not only teach their kids more than one language but also to help their kids retain and develop those language skills.
For parents, educators, immigrants and expatriates, Bilingual by Choice deals directly with the obstacles to sustaining a second language, including unsupportive relatives, issues at school, frequent relocations and discrimination, countering each one with the author's firsthand experience with both sides of the growing-up-bilingual journey, as a child and as a parent. Commit to the choice, and help your children become bilingual - for life.
201 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
June 25, 2010
So here's my review of two books I recently read on bilingualism. The other was the 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child by Naomi Steiner. 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. Anyway 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.
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. Anyway 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.
March 23, 2021
Not entirely what I was looking for, as the book is very American-centric, and focuses mostly on native Spanish speakers in the US (even though that is not the background of the author).
Several hints and activities are useful ideas, no matter which country you live in, but only if you live in a big city (and not some rural, monolingual community like I currently do).
Given the title, I was really hoping for a more general list of options and strategies.
All in all, yes, it was fairly interesting read, and might be rather useful to a certain segment of the world population, unfortunately, about 75% is not applicable to my personal situation.
Several hints and activities are useful ideas, no matter which country you live in, but only if you live in a big city (and not some rural, monolingual community like I currently do).
Given the title, I was really hoping for a more general list of options and strategies.
All in all, yes, it was fairly interesting read, and might be rather useful to a certain segment of the world population, unfortunately, about 75% is not applicable to my personal situation.
September 4, 2018
A very informative book and a quick read. This book was written most specifically for families who have moved to America and who are trying to maintain their Heritage language while also helping their children to learn English. Although I moved from America to Mexico and I am helping my children learn Spanish as their second language, I still found many valuable points and a lot of information about raising bilingual children. Overall a great book for people who are interested in languages, learning languages, and teaching language to children.
December 26, 2020
Very much American-centric (and therefore irrelevant to the rest of the world). Not a lot of actual strategies or insight into best practices and research to back those up. Also more for immigrants than for kids learning a minority blanguage from birth.
February 7, 2020
Really useful, inspiring book.
March 26, 2022
Incredibly dated, boring, repetitive, preachy, and utterly unhelpful. This is the last book I would ever recommend to someone wishing to raise their children bilingually. Stay away!!
October 13, 2025
I mean yeah?
September 10, 2016
This book starts out great. It provided a lot of information and research that really helped with my worries about raising my child bilingually. It also deals with common myths and the public's opinion that bilingualism is bad, or dangerous or that it will destroy the Engish language.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book suddenly only dealt with children who were being raised bilingually because of an international move of the family, e.g. an American family moving abroad, and having to learn a new language, or vice versa.
This information does not apply to my situation and made the book less relevant for me. I think this focus should be made clear in the title.
Unfortunately, the rest of the book suddenly only dealt with children who were being raised bilingually because of an international move of the family, e.g. an American family moving abroad, and having to learn a new language, or vice versa.
This information does not apply to my situation and made the book less relevant for me. I think this focus should be made clear in the title.
July 18, 2016
First half of the book filled with great research to support the benefits of early exposure to additional languages. This author did a great job noting references and it is a great "jumping off point" for additional reading. The focus of this book is more for those who already have a second language in their family history, but there are still some gems for monolingual parents who have bilingual hope for their kiddos. The second half is filled with ideas of how to expose your child to another language and many sources for the U.S.
April 17, 2016
Pretty decent summary of language research. Contains suggestions for handling a myriad of difficult situations that arise when trying to rear bilingual children.
The book is primarily focused on teaching a "heritage language", I.e. the language you or your spouse grew up speaking. In our case, neither of us are native speakers of the second language, so there were sections of the book that were somewhat irrelevant to our situation.
The book is primarily focused on teaching a "heritage language", I.e. the language you or your spouse grew up speaking. In our case, neither of us are native speakers of the second language, so there were sections of the book that were somewhat irrelevant to our situation.
July 31, 2016
Great tips in the last 2 chapters! The majority of this book was written for parents that aren't like me--which is fine, of course, but wasn't exactly the same. I don't have family who speak Spanish and it isn't my personal cultural heritage. However, as a Spanish teacher, I want to bring Spanish into the life of my child as much as possible. It was a very well-written book, just not exactly the book for my specific needs.
July 12, 2013
Gave me quite alot of insight and tips in how to start on my baby's bilingual (trilingual) education. In Singapore, bilingual comes natural to us because we are schooled that way from young. But in Japan, where everything is done in only Japanese, this is alot harder to achieve, and this book is quite helpful in getting me to think about how to and when and some ways I can start on this.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews