I've been wanting to explain, why I write in English. The simple explanation is when I write, I think in English, but when I speak, I think in Spanish. I learned to write in English and I guess that's the reason this is my language of preference when writing. While growing up, my brother, sister and I spoke mostly English among each other, and also a whole bunch of Spanglish. The odd part is, we never lived in an English-speaking country when we were growing up, and our parents aren't fluent English speakers. But we did attend American International Schools most of our school years, that had English immersion programs. Also, it was a way to speak "code" among my siblings and make use of our ample repertoire of bad words without our parents noticing.
Given my background, it was a no brainer for me that I wanted Victoria to be fully bilingual. Since we live in an English speaking country, she'll learn English from the 'outside world' pretty quickly, but in our home, we speak Spanish. So my husband and I are using the "Minority Language at Home" approach. Meaning, the spoken language we use to communicate in our home is Spanish because we live in place where she will regularly hear English in her everyday life. I still speak to her in Spanish when we're out but if we encounter someone who speaks English we will turn on the English switch. A) I don't want to be rude, and B) she needs to understand this is the language we function in outside of our home. If we were to go back to South America to live, we would do the opposite, and speak English to her at home and Spanish everywhere else. There are several ways to go about how to raise your child bilingual, and many of them are going to depend on, how many languages are spoken at home, by whom and when those languages are used. For example, one could follow the one-person-one-language or the time-and-place approach. This page, has a pretty good summary of the different methods families can use.
Which ever approach a family adopts, the important factor is that the amount of exposure to a language has to be constant. Many people still think that speaking to my child in a different language will somehow confuse her or delay her language skills. All of these are myths, there is nothing richer than exposing your child to an additional language as early as possible. If there is one piece of advice I can give, is please speak to your child in your own language if it is different to the one spoken where you live. The first reason being it is part of her culture and a way to connect with her family, but also because the earlier you start, the higher chances of reaching true bilingualism. Furthermore, there are numerous advantages of being bilingual such as: enhancements in both executive functioning—a set of cognitive processes that includes attentional and inhibitory control skills—and cognitive flexibility, which aids problem solving and planning (Ferjan Ramirez & Kuhl, 2017). Studies now show that babies are learning language when they are still in the womb and until about 6 months of age, babies have the ability of hearing the differences between the sounds that make up words across all languages. (Ferjan Ramirez & Kuhl, 2017). I liked how Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl described babies as: citizens of the world in her TED talk, because of this innate ability they have to learn any language their exposed to.
Saying that, if I could afford a childcare provider that would speak to my daughter in a third language I would do so in a blink of an eye. As research shows, it is only when listening and interacting with people that infants actually learn to discern sounds and learn the language. Having them listen to audio or videos doesn't have the same effect. Knowing that, there are still several strategies I use and I will plan on using as she grows older, in order to make her more receptive to other languages, or at least make her curious about them. I'm not planning on her mastering Mandarin from these strategies but at least she'll know languages other than Spanish and English exist. It might sound ridiculous to you, but I made a playlist on Spotify with children songs in Italian, French, Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin. We play those songs daily since the day she was born. I'm also planning on showing her movies in several languages, maybe movies she's seen before so she doesn't lose complete interest. I want her to feel comfortable with listening even though it doesn't involve understanding.
When we read, I try to read as many books in English as in Spanish. Additionally, I've started a collection of books in different languages. I want her to be curious about other cultures, and I feel an important way to learn about others is through their language, oral and written. That is why, every time one of our family members or close friends travels to a country where they speak a different language, they get her a book in that particular language, preferably "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". We already have it in: Spanish, English, Hindi, Thai, Dutch and Japanese. I'm not thinking about reading those to her myself, obviously. I'm asking friends who speak those languages to send me a recording of them reading. Ultimately, I want to her to learn about the differences in written language across the world. Also, because it is the same book we can eventually compare how the word Monday looks in Dutch, and English, versus how it looks in Thai. It is important for me to acknowledge others by respecting their form of communication.
Another thing I did since I was around 5 months pregnant, was have her listen to complex instrumental music. This means music that really doesn't follow simple patterns. I've read several articles about how music and speech functions have many aspects in common and that many parts of the brain are similarly involved in speech and music (Tallal and Gaab, 2006). Also, Strait and Kraus (2011) argue that music represents a potential benefit for auditory training. Knowing that, I found this very interesting app called Nuryl, which we used daily for an hour. It gave you a preset playlist per month of instrumental music. It made my life easier to have it in the app already made for me, but I guess you can also build your own playlist without the app. The repetition is important, thats how Nuryl helped me get organized with the music task. I have to say, I'm guilty I haven't been that consistent in listening to this music these past months, with the move and everything it has slipped my mind. But now that I remembered, I'm asking Alexa to remind us daily (that how I roll, or else, bye bye routine). I'm not planning on my child on being the next Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, mainly because I don't think my hubs or I have a lot of musical talent to share and I haven't been the best at maintaining consistency with her music schedule. However, I have read a lot about the correlation between listening to rhythmic patterns in music and language development.
Last but not least, I'm thinking about starting some Spanish or other language baby play groups. I'll start with Spanish because I know a lot of Spanish speakers here. However, if any of you reading me out there live in Seattle and speak a different language, please write me! We can set up play times in different languages. How fun would that be?
In the midst of interculturalism, I want to recommend the cutest book about languages I ran into with my brother at our favorite map store. It's called "Hello Atlas" and it has beautiful illustrations of children all around the world speaking just one or two words in their language. It's not about learning the language, but exploring. Boy, I am a sucker for books like those.
If you have any questions or thoughts let me know!
:)
#bilingualbaby #growingupbilingual #earlyintervention #speakyourlanguage #sehablaespañol #bebesbilingües #introducelanguages #multicuralbaby
References:
Ferjan Ramirez, N. & Kuhl, P.K. (2017). The brain science of bilingualism. Young Children, 72, 38-44.
Strait D. L., Kraus N. (2011). Can you hear me now? Musical training shapes functional brain networks for selective auditory attention and hearing speech in noise. Front. Psychol.2:113.10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00113
Tallal P., Gaab N. (2006). Dynamic auditory processing, musical experience and language development. Trends Neurosci. 29, 382–39010.1016/j.tins.2006.06.003
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