June 13, 2007

Raising My Children Bilingually by Alan Twigg

Hi, my name is Alan and this will be the first of 15 posts on how I raised my children bilingually. This entire set of posts is also available as an audio book from the talking-book-store.com of the same name called (Raising Children Bilingually).

This series of posts will encompass the following chapters:

Introduction
About the Author
The advantages of your child becoming bilingual
Beginning the language journey
First words and committing yourself to the task
Beginning to understand, speak and have fun
Boys and girls, role models and language development
Why books can be so much fun and inspirational
7 reasons to embrace audio books
Kill your television
Biliteracy - learning how to read
Expectations of equal fluency
How bilingualism helped gain the respect of two tax inspectors – a short story
Wouldn't it be better and easier to raise my child in one language?
Conclusion

Here is the first chapter:

According to the Centre for Applied Linguistics children that learn a second language are more creative and better at solving complex problems than those who do not. It has also been shown that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals in verbal and non-verbal intelligence tests, as well as achieving higher scores on standard tests. Giving a child the gift of a second language will enable your child to communicate with more people, to have access to more knowledge and to enjoy a large number of other activities such as foreign travel more fully. As well as promoting self-confidence, being fluent in two languages improves children’s career prospects later in life and gives them a competitive advantage over their peers.

Hello, my name is Alan Twigg and welcome to this guide that has been written to give encouragement to anyone raising or thinking of raising children bilingually, regardless of which languages happen to be involved. Given that you are listening to this audio book on raising children bilingually, it’s probably fair to assume that you have reached the same or similar point in your life that my wife and I found ourselves ten years ago when our son Tom was born. I am English and I live together with my German-speaking wife in Germany. For me there was never any doubt that I wanted to give my child the gift of a second language. Something inside was telling me very strongly that not committing myself to teaching my child English would be to withhold one of the greatest social and communicative assets that it is possible for any parent to give. Yet for all my certainty that it was the right thing to do, I didn't have a clue about how to proceed, what to expect, how others would react, where to find materials, what was normal, whether or not I could achieve my goals and a large number of other questions. Indeed, it wasn't until later that I discovered that many parents are so daunted by the challenge that they decide not to attempt it in the first place.

The good news about bilingualism is that there are virtually no negatives. Speaking two languages is a win-win situation for everyone involved, for the parents, grandparents and, above all, the children. During this audio book program I will be drawing on my own experience of bringing up my son and daughter bilingually and substantial research into the subject to address most of the major concerns that I faced and that most of you will face on the wonderful language journey upon which you are about to embark. I will be explaining the advantages of becoming bilingual, the most important factors in raising a child bilingually, whether to achieve success by concentrating on one language first, the way in which your child's attitude and even gender can affect his or her progress, how to approach learning to read and a large number of other subjects. In addition to all this practical information, on a more personal note, I will also be sharing some of the funny and interesting experiences that have happened to our family over the past 10 years, as well as revealing some great tips that will help you to succeed.

The goal of this audio book, then, is to encourage you to take advantage of the critical window of opportunity to introduce a second language to your children. The older children get, the more difficult it is for them to learn a separate set of necessary sounds. In fact, children taught a second language after the age of 10 are unlikely to ever gain native fluency.
Make no mistake; raising children bilingually is not only a challenging-yet-rewarding task, but one that is both practical and accessible.
I’m happy you’re listening, so let’s get started.

Part 2 to follow next week.