Growing Up in a Bilingual Family Essay

AbstractSome bicultural families take to deal with the determination of how, when, and if they should make their kidren be multilingualist. They worry that if instead of helping their tikes doing so, it may lessened them. Most the great unwashed agree that in long terms, being bilingual is a great tool. Since most p bents agree on that, non all in all agree on how early kids should be introduce to a plump for verbi fester. Should it be as soon as they ar born, or root learn one language and then a south? suppuration Up in a Bilingual FamilyEducators and psychologists bequeath advice to introduce a second language when kids are under the age of 3. De Houwer, (1999) says Brain image studies show that languages in bilingual infants are stored closer to make believeher in the brain than in later bilinguals. This means, learning a nonher language subsequently the age of 3 both takes greater effort and is treated otherwise by the brain compared to the child who acquires them simultaneously. The earliest a child is opened to a second language, the better. Contrary to what m each parents think that their kids may get confused and end up not learning completely any language. For instance, there are cases of kids who were assailable to both languages and by the age of 6 they know very well both languages. And the people that learn a second language in an adult age, they are most promising to acquit an accent after several years of been speaking a foreigner language, and most likely they will have their accent for a lifetime.Although, researches show that The main reason for dominance in one language is that the child has had greater picture show to it and needs it more than to communicate with people in the immediate environment (Grosjean, 1983, p.209), and it is not usual that kids are undecided to two languages equally. There is usually one dominant language or mother language, and the minority language. This is why the minority language, should be balance by reading, dancing with music that has lyrics of the weaker language, watching TV shows and specially lambasteing conversational experiences are the most valuable, easy tool parents can used. The case of Mia, who is two years old, and William, a 4 years old boy who are more exposed to English than Spanish, the parents try to reinforce the weaker language by teaching them songs in the minority language and reservation up songs with stories that calls the kids attention. This method worked in many families, and the result is always positive. iodin of the most common frustrations in bilingual families is when their kids start mixing up two languages.Children feel single out and this situation makes them feel uncomfortable, in particular when there are people around who dont realize what the child is saying, this will end frustrating the child and start to turn away speaking in a language that is not common in their environment Parents, who naturally tend to inte rpret a mixed vox as distinguish of confusion when in fact the child is getting on with the task of building up two sets of patterns by making more and more subtle contrasts (Harding-Esch, 2008, p.56-57). Kids are not conscientiously nerve-racking to mix up two languages, they do it because is natural, it is normal for a child to pick different words from each languages to express their feelings and thoughts. We, as a bilingual parents, should instead of focusing on the mistakes that our kids make, is praise their effort and fervor on their ability to speak two different languages. There are many ways that we can help bilingual kids learn two or more languages, the most important probably is never mother up and think that the kids are not understanding or comprehend to what we are saying.They have busy minds, and while we think they are not listening or watching us, they are. Parents should use any opportunity to talk to them especially on the minority language. Make them fee l that they are not different than majority language speakers. Getting them spend as a great deal time possible with other minority speaker children by transcription play dates. as well as, the bilingual kids should visit the country where the minority language is spoken. Cunningham, (2002, p.117), in her book In Growing up with Two Languages says, The potential, advantages of this are complicated The children get to know monolingual speakers of their own age, they learn to use their weaker language in different situations, they learn about the culture of the country.This will be a great boost for bilingual children, to be exposed to a total immersion to a different culture that they are not very use to. In chapter 14, Cognitive Functions, it is mentioned that Early exposure to some language increases ability to learn another language later. Also it is mentioned that children are better at pronunciation and grammar when they learn a second language early in age. There is not real ly blemish on learning a second languageat any age but it is better to take advantage of the ability kids have to grasp almost anything during their first stages of life.ConclusionThere is not evidence of negative effects of y learning at early age two languages or more. Instead, there are many evidences that children growing up with two languages have advantage over the ones that are not. As Grosjean says, researchers have found that bilingualism is, after all, a great asset to the child, and he continues, Especially, in intelligence and cognitive growth, researchers stress the assets of bilingualism. There is nothing to relax getting our kids to learn two languages, all what it requires is our patience and consistency.ReferencesCunningham, U. & Anderson, S. (2002). Growing up with two languages A practical Guide. New York Taylor and Francis Group.De Houwer, A. (1999). Two or more languages in Early Childhood. Retrieved from http//www.cal.org/resources/digest/earlychild.html Gros jean, F. (1992). Life with two languages. Massachusetts Harvard University Press.Harding-Esch, E. & Riley, P. (2008). The bilingual family A handbook for parents. New York Cambridge University Press.