Raising bilingual children at home is a learning process for both the parents and the children. My native language is English and I am almost completely fluent in Italian while my husband's native language is Italian and he is not fluent in English. Since we live in Italy and since our common language (between my husband and I) has always been Italian, we have continued to speak Italian to eachother in the home. This I believe has been a negative influence on our children.
I have always tried to speak only English with our children but I find myself more and more speaking Italian to them just because it is becoming more and more natural for me. I really have to stop myself, think and then start over in English. My eldest child who spoke consistently in English with me is now speaking more and more only Italian. This may also have to do with the fact that he is in preschool and speaks Italian with everyone but me. So after doing some research and talking to my husband, we decided that we will try to bring back the English language in our household so that at home we will speak English with eachother, no matter how strange it might feel. It would be the best not only for our children, but also for my husband who has never taken a formal English language class in his life!
The other thing that happened to us regarding our bilingual children, is that my eldest son after returning from a three month vacation in the United States, began to stutter quite profusely. It seemed like the words just could not come out. After speaking with the kind and helpful people at the Stuttering Foundation and reading their literature (www.stutteringhelp.org), we realized that it is a very normal occurence with bilingual children that may come and go, but that will pass in many instances. After a month of stuttering, he is now speaking normally...but in Italian mostly.
There is a lot of literature available about dealing with bilingual children at home but the best advice I found on www.italiakids.com "Raising Bilingual Children: The Most Successful Methods" by Christina Bosemark or visit www.MultilingualChildren.org. These are both very helpful sites for raising bilingual children. I will let you know how we do! Buona fortuna.
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3 comments:
hallo, nice artcle
Our daughter speaks English, German and Italian. She is 7 years old. Both her mother and I only speak English. Naturally, our daughter speaks English quite well.
She attended a dual immersion school in Houston, TX - German and Enlish. The rule they taught the parents was whatever your native language was, that was the language you should speak to your child. So, in your case, you would speak only English and your husband would speak only Italian to him/her.
At our daughter's school they had two teachers. One who spoke only English (but knew German) and one who spoke only German (but knew English). Regardless as to how the children responded, the teachers would only speak in their particularly assigned language.
The only exception I, myself made (not that I had any choice since my German was terrible) was I would read to her in German. Now, in Milan, Italy, we read in German and Italian.
Just my two cents worth. But it might help you. You really don't want your kids to lose the English. It is the language of international commerce. You will keep open many, many doors for them when they are older. Looks like you realize this.
Interesting article. Italian is my native language (born in Sicily and emigrated to the US as a teenager). I never taught my kids, now 25 and 22 years of age Italian for the same reason that my husband who is first generation Italian American didn't speak Italian. Although I conversed with my parents in mostly the dialect and they heard it, they never learned it.
Now, I regret it very much because they can't communicate with family back in Italy and of course, they can't understand why my kids and husband never learned the language. I now find myself obsessed to teach them.
Sorry for such a long comment. I would encourage you to try to teach them English especially since it's become the most common second language.
Funny thing about stuttering, sometimes I find myself doing that when I switch from one lingua to the other.
I just found your blog.
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