The 5 questions: How do you inspire your
children to learn a 2nd language?
Profile: Sarah with her son Griffin (4 ½) and
daughter Gwyneth (14 months)
Location: Lafayette, Colorado, USA
Native language of Sarah and the children: English
Language learned: French
1. What is your favorite activity that helps
your son and daughter learn a 2nd language?
My favorite activity? Only one??? Okay, okay, if you insist! I’ll have to say “reading.”
The part of me that used to be a full-time
French teacher knows that the best way to familiarize students with new
vocabulary is to read with them, because books--even children’s picture
books--offer many words that most people don’t encounter in their everyday
lives. Meeting these words and
ideas from reading and storytelling means that they are presented in a
meaningful context (the plot and characters) with other clues (such as
illustrations and tone of voice).
Thus, reading allows us to learn new words (in any language) without
having to study vocabulary lists of definitions and translations. It’s more natural--and of course much
more fun.
When I read to my children, I often follow the
text word-for-word (especially at bedtime when I’m soooo sleepy)--but not
always. Sometimes I simply
describe the illustrations to baby Gwyneth (“Voici
un papillon orange et noir qui vole au-dessus d’un champ de tournesols jaunes”--here’s
an orange and black butterfly soaring over a field of yellow sunflowers) or ask
my preschooler, Griffin, open-ended questions about them (“Montre-moi un insecte sur la photo. Tu connais d’autres petites bêtes? Lequel est ton préferé?”--Show me an
insect in the picture. Can you
name some other bugs? Which one is
your favorite?)
Then we can continue the discussion, using the
picture as a springboard to singing songs or reciting rhymes about bugs in
French, looking for other depictions of bugs around his room, playing with a
stuffed butterfly, retelling the story.
We can spend half an hour on a picture book without ever finishing it!
Moreover, the part of me that now works at a
library recognizes the power of books to introduce ideas, open minds, and
transform lives (in any language).
And finally, the parent in me knows that if my
children see me interacting with books and getting excited about them, then I’m
modeling a very valuable behavior--they will grow up assuming that books are
cool and that people read them for fun.
2. What is a helpful tool or technology you
use?
I’d have to say the iPad. While we managed to parent a would-be
bilingual child just fine for 3.5 years without a tablet computer, the iPad was
a lifesaver when Gwyneth was born. Griffin loved playing on it, which meant
that he resented less the time his maman
was spending with the new baby instead of with him.
The iPad also gives Griffin a greater sense of
autonomy and of ownership in his French language learning. For example, one of his favorite French apps involves dragging and
dropping letters to spell out words.
While I never would have pushed him to learn spelling in his second
language at age four, he loves being able to figure it on his own and see the
celebratory fireworks after successfully completing a word. He also really appreciates opening the
YouTube app and watching the playlists of songs, movie and cartoon clips, and
footage of children speaking French--he gets to choose which ones he wants to
see when.
As for me, as a non-native speaker, I love
finding apps in French for native-speaking children--songs, rhymes, video
clips, animated storybooks, games, along with the ability to watch movies (via
streaming Netflix) listen to the radio, and read websites in French no matter
how often I move from room to room chasing the children. It’s so easy, so portable.
And if I had friends or family in a
French-speaking country whose children were around Griffin’s age, I would
totally set up regular times to Skype with them--it’s so easy to do with the
tablet computer!
3. What is your #1 challenge? What helps in
overcoming this challenge?
Being a non-native speaker of the only language I ever
speak to my children is still a challenge after 4.5 years! My lifesavers have been the following:
•
Reading books and websites in French
about parenting (so I could learn the lingo that I had never needed as a
student or teacher, like “the baby just had a diaper blow-out all over his
onesie in the bouncy chair”)
•
Joining a French playgroup that meets
one morning a week
•
Founding a storytime in French at the local public library
•
Accepting that my own French is not
quite fluent but that it doesn’t matter--I’d rather have children who speak
French with an American accent and some grammar and vocab mistakes than
children who only speak English.
If I want speaking French to feel natural with my family, I can’t obsess
about it.
4. Any
tip or advice you have for other parents?
Teaching your children a language other than
the one(s) spoken where you live is worth the effort, but you have to make it
work for your family:
•
With your partner, make an explicit
decision as parents how to go about it--who will speak which language(s) in
which context(s)? For example, if
you’re consistent as to where and when and how you use the second language, you
don’t necessarily have to speak it exclusively with your children.
•
Help your children understand why it’s
important to know another language (rather than imposing it).
•
Make learning the second language fun
with games, songs, puppets, movies, playgroups, storytime, travel, and more.
5. What
drives you to continue?
I want my children to recognize that they are
surrounded by fascinating people from all over the world, to want to travel to
these places, and to be able to communicate with more than they would be able
to as monolinguals.
I hope that they will be curious about how
languages work and that the skills they develop learning languages will also
transfer to studying other subjects such as math and music as they grow up.
Finally, and probably most practically, being
bilingual should help them in the job market as adults.
You can read more of what Sarah does to inspire her children to learn French on her great blog Bringing Up Baby Bilingual.
