what are the best methods to teach your children to speak 2 languages?
Hi my boyfriend and I will be starting to try for our first child later on this year. I am English and my boyfriend is Danish and we want our children to speak both languages, especially as some of my boyfriends family in denmark can’t speak much english. We just wanted some advice as to how to go about teaching our children both languages … I am in the process of learning danish myself but Im not very fluent at the moment. Any advice from other parents who have bilingual children would be much appreciated.
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I took Child Language Acquisition in University, and studies have shown that the best method to teach your child both languages is for each parent to speak their native language with the child. The child gets linguistic input from both parents, and they learn to differentiate between the languages eventually. Kids become completely bilingual earliest with this method. Good luck!
I was taught that you teach the child one exclusive language for the first few years, and then introduce the new language. If he gets both at the same time during the early years, he may grow up to speak a ‘pigeon’ mix of English and Danish and have problems learning how to read and write properly in both languages.
I’d get your boyfriend to speak Danish and English to him as a matter of course. I think it’s fantastic to be bi-lingual.
For a child to be fluent when young, they really need to start to learning it the moment they begin to talk. By three a child will be fluent in their mother tongue.
So I’d advise trying to introduce them to both languages straight away. Kids are like sponges and after a few months, it’s possible to tell where a baby is from based on their babbling.
When they point to something, try and tell them what it is in both languages. Just, whatever way you’d teach them English, do the same with Danish.
The amazing thing about babies/young children is that they are hard-wired to learn language .. and can easily learn 2 or 3 at once. You don’t have to teach them Danish, any more than you have to teach them English.
You speak to baby in English. He speaks to her in Danish. She will also be exposed to both languages in other settings — tv, radio, people on the street. And she will learn both languages. She will probably start talking a bit later than average, but she’ll understand everything, and when she DOES start to talk, she’ll be able to speak both.
(I used to work at a preschool where most of the kids were bilingual — most spoke Hebrew at home, and English in school. (There was also a Korean child, and a Tibetan child, and one little girl being raised trilingual — she had an Israeli father and a Dutch mother and was growing up in the American heartland!)
The best way to do it honestly is to start when they are young. teach them both languages at the same time. He will pick up what you are saying in both languages, and will use both fluently at a young age.
Teach the child one language first and then a few years later teach the second language, you can try teaching at the same time but it may be confusing, but as they grow they can distinguish between the two languages…but consider doing this while they are young, because its harder for children or adults to learn a different language when they older
i think ive heard that it works well for each parent to talk to the child only in that language…if your boyfriend speaks to him ONLY in danish, and you speak to him ONLY in english, then he will learn both, when he first starts speking he will think that he must speak danish to the father/english to the mother but one they are a little older they will understand that what they really know is 2 seperate languages…
Hi!
I am French and my boyfriend is English. I always speak to our little boy in French and his dad always speaks to him in English. You won’t need to ‘teach’ your child. He / She will effortlessly acquire both languages.That’s the beauty of it!
I wish you good luck!
I was raised bilingual, as were my cousins. I think if the father only speaks Danish to the baby and you only speak English, the child will grow up to know both equally well. Also, once your Danish is better, try to speak only Danish at home and the child can get the English practice out of the home once he is older. What might happen is that the child will only speak in Danish to his/her dad for a while, and the same for you with English, especially when the child is very young. They may interchange a few words here and there, like inserting a Danish word in an English sentence, but they still know both languages. Reading and writing won’t be affected negatively by the acquisition of verbal language – just make sure the child gets exposed to books and texts in both languages and practices reading and writing in both when he/she is older. Good luck!
Get him to speak danish to her and you stick to english, if she starts to speak danish faster than english don’t be tempted to switch now and then cos her english will be rubbish! I had this with my first daughter, we had a house full of bengalis all the time and she picked that up faster when she started talking, so even though my bengali were rubbish I’d just say something to her in it alot to get it through quicker but this obviously doesn’t help! you have to be a bit patient.
You need to expose them to both languages by the time the child is 12 months, or it will be harder for them to learn later. By this age the child learns to recognize all of the sounds within their native languages and if you don’t expose them to it, then they may not be able to recognize the sounds as easily later. If the child lives in an English speaking society, then it will be harder to learn Danish. You will have to focus on Danish more at home, but then risk having a slight lag when the child starts an English speaking school. During the first 2 years you may want to stick with one primarily to avoid confusion, but still use the other sometimes. You can look for classes when the child is around 5. After 7 years old, the ability to learn another language starts to go downhill.
Those that I know who have used only used one language exclusively early on did not end up having bilingual children later, the child simply never learned the other language. You have to start early.
I have young children that primarily speak English but also know a good amount of their father’s language. We try to work on it a little each day and they spend time with the grandparents who also help them learn (because they don’t speak English). I will send them to a formal class to learn to read and write soon too. It’s easier said than done, your really have to invest time in it.
Hi I have a question…I’m living in Canada with my family.I have 3 years old chld i came here when he was 10 months and our language is Arabic.So,my son went to daycare when he was almost 13 months and he just picked up little bit English and non of Arabic till now.So, I think he confused because he heard me and his father speak Arabic with each other at home and we speak with him English.So my question is do u recommend me to speak with him just english at first till he pick several words and then switch to our native language or not??? plz help me am sooooo worry about him.
Hi, I am also had the same problem , and we live in Boston ,we are from Sudan, and we speak english with him , but i speak Arabic with my wife, but recently my child started to study arabic online ( in secret) with a good tutor from Syria , and he started to surprise us with some arabic sentences , then he told us the truth..
he studies Arabic language in the weekend , i think that his tutor became famous here ( i mean between arabs), he has italian website http://www.lalinguaarabapertutti.com (which means : the Arabic language for all) , i sow it , there is an english section too.
try to make your child learn now, because usually children are able to learn in this age…
I am in a dilemma and need a professional answer. I speak 3 languages and wish to teach my daughter all 3. My husband speaks only English so it’s a given he speak English to our daughter. However I’m not sure how to teach the other two languages simultaneously. How do I do it with getting the best results and confusing her the least. Both languages are equally important to me so I don’t wish to focus on one only. I was thinking speaking to her in one language when my husband is away and speak the other when he’s here at home. Any other suggestions? Thank you.