Bilingual Children
A Guide for Parents

This practical and reassuring guide will enable readers to make informed decisions about how to raise their child bilingually.

Jürgen M. Meisel (Author)

9781316632611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 27 June 2019

272 pages, 6 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.4 kg

'While seeking to foster bilingualism during childhood is a laudable and quite reasonable goal, there is no one-size-fits-all approach for each family. This book is an invaluable resource for those wishing to understand scientific evidence and practical choices that will help them to support bilingual children. It is therefore highly recommended reading for parents and caregivers of young bi- or multicultural individuals.' Daniel O. Jackson, Japan Journal of Multilingualism and Multiculturalism

Are you raising your child bilingually, or planning to do so in the future, but are unsure how to proceed? Using a question-and-answer format, this practical and reassuring guide will enable readers to make informed decisions about how to raise their child with two or more languages. To grow up bilingually is a necessity or an opportunity for more children today than ever before. However, parents are frequently uncertain about what to do, or even fear that they may be putting their child's development at risk. Disentangling fact from myth, it shows that a child can acquire more than one 'first' language simultaneously and that one language need not have negative effects on the other. Each chapter is devoted to a question typically asked by parents in counselling sessions, followed by a concise answer, summaries of the evidence and practical tips.

1. Bilingualism in early childhood – disentangling myths and facts
2. How infants become native speakers
3. Two languages in one mind – differentiating linguistic systems
4. Keeping languages apart: mixing, interference and interaction of languages
5. Language dominance, strong and weak languages
6. Trilingual and more – the role of input
7. The age question
8. Benefits and advantages of child bilingualism
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Bilingualism & multilingualism [CFDM], Language acquisition [CFDC], Psycholinguistics [CFD], Linguistics [CF]