Raising Bilingual Children: 10 Tips for Boosting the Minority Language
Your toddler may think that he or shes a complete superhero — and when it comes to language acquisition, its actually true! In particular, compared to adult language learners. Lena Sandvik in Boston says Im amazed that my 15 and 11 year olds have grown up to be completely bilingual. My accent and those silly, grammatical errors still havent disappeared, even after 15 years in the country. As easy as acquiring multiple languages is for small children, the single most important factor in language learning is the quantity of spoken language addressed to the child. So, if you worry that you arent providing enough, here are a few tricks to boost your superheros inherent powers.
Other kids: Join (or start) a playgroup for the second language. Children of all ages will learn from each other; there simply are no better language teachers than other kids. An added bonus will be that you will connect with other parents of bilingual children.
Books: Of course you know how vital those precious one-on-one moments are, but remember that they can be infused with language learning also. Books...