Setting the Goals for You Child's Bilingualism

Raising a child bilingual is a great decision, but what about the journey to bilingualism? What would you like the outcome for your child to be? We found an interesting article that addresses those questions and helps parents to set goals for their bilingual journey.

When you raise your child bilingual you have to know the level of skill you are trying to teach your child in each language. That needs to be based on your own skills and time that you have in your everyday life as well as resources you can afford (i.e.. extra lessons, books, movies, cd's, play groups). Rarely a bilingual person will have the same proficiency in both languages. Most of the time there is a dominant language, which is used more and spoken better.

For parents to decided which level they want their child to achieve in the second language, they have to decided if they want their child to become passive bilingual (able to understand a second language and maybe speak some words), active bilingual (able to understand and speak a second language with close to fluency, but not able to read or write), or literate bilingual (the ability to read and write in a second language).

When parents decide about the level of bilingualism, they need to look at their everyday life and ask themselves, how much exposure to a second language is realistic, the requirement for the child to speak the second language, and how persistent can parents be in speaking the second language.

If you would like to read the full article, please click the link below.