If you are planning on raising your child to understand and speak two languages, you might be wondering how to get started. There are many different methods for raising bilingual children, and no one method is more effective than the others. Your overall approach can be custom-tailored for your daily life, your individual child, and your own fluency levels. While you are considering which method is right for you, take some time to go over these 13 tips for successfully raising bilingual children.
Tip # 1: Introduce the Target Language Early in Life
Introducing a second (or third, or fourth, etc) language to your child as early as possible makes it easier for them to learn it. From birth, we begin absorbing information about the world around us at an incredible rate, and even as babies we are able to discern between different languages! But it’s never too late to start learning a language, and the benefits are numerous, so don’t fret if you didn’t introduce the language to your child from day one!
Tip # 2: Be Consistent
Whichever method you choose, make sure to be consistent. Consistency helps to better integrate the learning process and makes the language a part of your daily lives. Routine helps children thrive and learn, and it’s no different with how they learn languages. However, if you find your chosen method just isn’t working, don’t be afraid to look for one that better suits you and your child. Everyone learns a little differently, so there is no one-size-fits-all approach!
Tip # 3: Set Realistic Goals
It is important to remember to set realistic goals for your child’s language-learning journey. Setting unrealistic goals can result in frustration, disappointment, and discouragement for both child and caregiver. It’s a great idea to set weekly attainable goals, celebrate successes, and to continue to work in their weakest areas. Set a natural pace that keeps your child motivated to continue to speak the language.
Tip #4: Speak the Target Language
Don’t underestimate the power of conversation! This may seem obvious, but speak the target language with your child. It isn’t enough to expose your child to the language in TV shows, YouTube videos, and the occasional game. Speaking the language to your child builds real-life conversational skills, encourages free-thinking, and exercises their ability to comprehend and respond appropriately in a natural scenario. Even if you don’t speak the language perfectly, or even if you yourself are still learning, using it with your child and learning together makes a big impact!
Tip #5: Sing Familiar Songs in the Language
Singing familiar songs in both (or all) languages is a fun way to learn! There’s a reason it feels natural to sing to your baby – it aids in their development and can serve as your child’s earliest language lessons. By singing the same songs in both languages, or even intermingling the languages from verse to verse, you can help to create a connection between them – all while bonding emotionally with your child!
Tip #6: Swap Out Frequently Used Words
Swap out frequently used words in the primary language with the corresponding words in the target language. For example, using “agua” in place of “water” or “우유” in place of “milk.” Taking advantage of their frequent usage can help your child to remember the new vocabulary. This is especially helpful when you yourself are not fluent in the target language, or if you find your child suddenly favoring the primary language. Consider addressing Grandma as “Abuela” or “할머니,” to keep the language and culture relevant in your daily lives. Be creative!
Tip #7: Keep it Fun
When you think about how to teach your child basic concepts, like colors and shapes, do you imagine writing and rewriting in notebooks? Not likely! For children, fun plays a major role in their early education – games, songs, crafts, and mimicking behaviors is how they learn! Keep the language learning activities fun and interesting, increase the difficulty as they progress to prevent boredom, and follow your child’s lead when possible. If an activity is met with too much resistance or stress, don’t push it! Keep it enjoyable for both of you!
Tip #8: Invest in Educational Materials and Resources
While TV and YouTube alone will not make your child fluent in the language, it’s definitely a great idea to invest time and money in materials and resources that will strengthen your child’s language skills! Books, toys, movies, music, extra-curricular activities, group classes, etc. can make the target language a part of their routine in more than one way and have a major impact on their language education. Check to see if your local library has weekly book readings in the language, or if your local park district offers cultural arts classes – you may be surprised by what you find!
Tip #9: Make and Eat the Foods Associated with the Language
Food is a great way to incorporate language and culture in your daily life! Meals are already an important part of family life and can be easily adjusted or modified for each unique family. Prepare and eat foods of the language’s home countries – and call them by their correct names! Food connects us to people, places, cultures, heritage, and, yes, language. It can provide fond childhood memories and strengthen their cultural identity.
Tip #10: Observe the Cultural Holidays and Traditions
Language and culture are strongly connected and observing the cultural holidays and traditions associated with a language can help teach your child through hands-on experiences. Learning about cultures expands your child’s world, connects communities, and builds a healthy multi-cultural identity. Research some holiday traditions you can observe with your child, or think back to your favorite traditions as a child and keep it going!
Tip #11: Travel Together
If possible, travel together to the country or countries where the target language is spoken and immerse yourselves in the culture and environment. It can do wonders for their motivation to speak the language! If not possible to travel outside the country, find more easily accessible ways to appreciate the country, culture, and language. Discover local events that celebrate it, such as Korean festivals, Floating Lantern ceremonies, folk-dance shows, art exhibits, and even parades!
Tip #12: Correct Mistakes Constructively
It’s important to correct mistakes in a constructive way. You want to make sure they are pronouncing, using, and spelling words correctly, but you do not need to stop conversations or correct after every other sentence. Give your child the opportunity to think and speak on their own to express their ideas and correct mistakes when necessary by modeling the correct usage or tense. Children can become quite frustrated and discouraged when constantly corrected, and this can ultimately lead to a refusal to speak the language. Keep the conversation going and leave opportunities for them to freely express ideas beyond one word responses. By modeling the correct language skills yourself, they will effectively learn them without being discouraged.
Tip #13: Find Community and Support
Find support in a community of other parents who are teaching their children another language – and even better if they are teaching the same target language! You can offer and receive advice, share ideas, and have play dates around language-learning activities – not to mention, long-lasting friendships with like-minded families!
However you choose to approach your bilingual journey with your child, keep in mind the unique needs of your child and your family. There are many benefits to teaching your child a second language, even if they never reach fluency, so don’t stress! We hope you find these tips helpful and wish you the best of luck in raising your bilingual child(ren)!