Eowyn Crisfield - Bilingual Families: A Practical Language Planning Guide

Bilingual Families

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Bilingual Families

A Practical Language Planning Guide

Eowyn Crisfield

MULTILINGUAL MATTERS

Bristol Blue Ridge Summit

DOI https://doi.org/10.21832/CRISFI9349

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

Names: Crisfield, Eowyn, author.

Title: Bilingual Families: A Practical Language Planning Guide/Eowyn Crisfield.

Description: Bristol, UK; Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: This insightful, practical book can be used as a stand-alone guide for families on their language journey, or as an accompaniment to the authors successful seminars for families and schools. Learn from the authors extensive experience of helping and advising families on how to raise their children as successful bilinguals and multilingualsProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020037795 (print) | LCCN 2020037796 (ebook) | ISBN 9781788929332 (paperback) | ISBN 9781788929349 (hardback) | ISBN 9781788929356 (pdf) | ISBN 9781788929363 (epub) | ISBN 9781788929370 (kindle edition)

Subjects: LCSH: Language acquisitionParent participation. | Bilingualism in children. | Multilingualism in children.

Classification: LCC P118.5 .C75 2021 (print) | LCC P118.5 (ebook) | DDC 418.0071dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037795

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020037796

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-934-9 (hbk)

ISBN-13: 978-1-78892-933-2 (pbk)

Multilingual Matters

UK: St Nicholas House, 3134 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK.

USA: NBN, Blue Ridge Summit, PA, USA.

Website: www.multilingual-matters.com

Twitter: Multi_Ling_Mat

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/multilingualmatters

Blog: www.channelviewpublications.wordpress.com

Copyright 2021 Eowyn Crisfield.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufacturing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned.

Typeset by Nova Techset Private Limited, Bengaluru and Chennai, India.

Printed and bound in the UK by the CPI Books Group Ltd.

Printed and bound in the US by NBN.

This book is dedicated to Maddie, Max and Kate, who have, in their own inimitable ways, taught me so much about the childs unique role in their own bilingualism journey

Love you all, Mum

Contents

This book has been building in my brain for over 15 years, as I spent time with hundreds of families trying to raise bilingual children and listened to their stories, concerns and questions. Each unique family added to my own understanding of family language planning, and is in some way a part of this book. I thank them all for their confidence in me, and their willingness to share their stories with me.

My own children have been a part of the process, and I thank them for sharing their thoughts and opinions about languages and languaging along the way. Despite the best professional knowledge of what I should be doing, I still havent always got it right with my own children, for which I ask their forgiveness.

And to my sister Erin, who is my greatest cheerleader in my writing, as well as being my time-keeper, coach and copy-editor, I couldnt do it without you. When do we start the next one?

Eowyn

But Dutch is a Useless Language!

When we first moved to the Netherlands I was struck by how often parents talked about not having their children learn any Dutch simply because they perceived Dutch as useless. Some people obviously feel that Dutch is a language with limited usefulness even when they live in the Netherlands. However, even for those staying on a temporary basis, the choice against bilingualism because of the perceived limited usefulness of Dutch is very short-sighted. As a language teacher and specialist in bilingualism, I have long known of the many benefits children can accrue from being exposed to more than one language.

After several of years of getting up on my soapbox and expounding on the benefits of bilingualism even for a short time, and including if the second language is Dutch I decided to take my message to a wider population, through seminars on raising bilingual children and with my blog (On Raising Bilingual Children: http://onraisingbilingualchildren.com/blog/). Over the past 15 years I have worked with a wide variety of families, either directly, or indirectly through the schools I work with.

In order to support the needs of families and schools, I have continued to engage in research and to refine and refresh my knowledge about bilingual/multilingual development, so as to provide accurate expertise to the families and schools I work with, and to contribute to the growing body of research knowledge about bilingual development.

Alongside my professional interest in bilingualism I have been doing my best to raise my three children as bilinguals, with varying results. Each of them has taught me many valuable lessons about children and languages, providing both aha moments and plentiful oh no moments. After many years of saying No, Im sorry, I dont have a book, Ive finally decided to sit down and put onto paper all the knowledge and work that goes into my Parents as Language Partners seminars and my family language planning work. The impetus behind my parent blog, parent seminars and now this book is to share key information with parents and educators about why bi/multilingualism can be the right choice for any child, and how best to plan for success.

I hope that you will find this book provides you with an understanding of why bi/multilingualism is for every child, as well as how to make it work for your unique children and family situation.

Choosing bilingualism for your child

In many situations, children naturally acquire more than one language through community bilingualism. This type of bilingualism can be perceived as happening almost magically and with little effort on the part of the child. Raising children to be able to use two or more languages outside a community of speakers is much more challenging. Bilingualism is often misunderstood and/or misrepresented in monolingual contexts, and in order to be advocates for our bilingual children we need to talk about bilingualism, we need to know what we are talking about and we need to have a good strategy, with explanations for our decisions.

There are many places along the bilingual road where you may question yourself and your decisions. You may meet other people professionals or just friends or family who question your decisions. Your task is to promote the benefits of bilingualism, for your child and for your family, and to advocate for the right help, resources or assessments for your child. You may need to work with teachers who do not understand how your childs bilingual mind works. You may be up against those Saturday school teachers who do not use methods that are sympathetic to their bilingual pupils. You may be opposed by family members who feel that one language is more important than the other. Your best resources in all these cases are accurate information, your dedication to successful bilingualism for your children and your willingness to advocate for them.