A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism Quotes

“When people talk about other cultures, they tend to describe the differences and not the similarities. • Differences between cultures are generally seen as threatening and described in negative terms. • Stereotyping is probably inevitable in the absence of frequent contact or study.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Parents who listen to their children read are engaging in a most valuable activity.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“sayings, folk tales, family history, and funny and important incidents told by previous generations and the extended family. A self-made, treasured family book can be jointly produced. The past is celebrated in the present; the contemporary is engraved in the history of the child.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Vary what the child writes in the home: for example, helping to compose a shopping list, writing and rewriting a favourite family story together, writing a recipe to cook together later, keeping a diary, writing in a photo album that records family experiences, poetry, imaginative or personal stories, and writing jokes and cartoons.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“It is often important that the anchor language is retained. The home language gives assurance and a feeling of security when there are stormy seas. Even if the child is slow in sailing in that language with progress delayed, it is the boat known to the child. Being forced to switch to the majority language will not make the journey faster or less problematic. It is more important to learn to sail in a familiar boat (the home language) in minority language situations.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“deriving from the research of Professor Jean-Marc Dewaele of Birkbeck College in the University of London, bilinguals and multilinguals appear in research to have higher levels of open-mindedness (being more receptive to new and different ideas and more broad-minded to the opinions of others), and of cognitive empathy (being able to understand another person's experiences and feelings and an ability to view the outside world from another person's perspective).”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“It is natural for a child or adult to have different identities in different contexts which change across time. Identities are about becoming rather than being. It is not only ‘who we are’ or ‘where we have come from’, but also ‘how we are represented’ and ‘what we might become’ and ‘what we cannot be’. Cultural, ethnic or language identity is often about making sense out of our past, present and future.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“The parent has been successful in providing the conditions for later growth. Not all flowers bloom early. Some flowers that bloom late in the summer, even in the autumn, retain all the beauty promised in the sowing of the seed.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Parents can do three things to make reading active. (1) Elaborate and explain the text to the child. This extends and deepens the experience of the story. (2) Relate the story to the child's own experiences. An interest in reading and understanding the meaning of the text occur if there is ‘further information’ to personalize the text. (3) Ask questions to ensure the child understands the story, thinks about the characters and plot, and extends their imagination.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Ensure the child has the opportunity to read and write in the minority or heritage language. Parents can write with their children the important wise”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“For example, there is transfer of: learning to recognize that letters mean sounds, making sense of words as parts and wholes, making sensible guesses at words given the storyline, understanding the meaning of sentences from a string of words and moving left to right (or right to left) across the page.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Many reading skills (and attitudes) are simply transferred from one language to the next.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“As parents read to the very young child, they can gently hold a child's finger and show the movement of the words across the page from left to right (or right to left in some languages), in a rhythmical sequence. As favourite books are read night after night, a child will begin to recognize certain words and begin to associate meaning and word form.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“There are exceptions to this sequential pattern. In a language majority context, children sometimes learn to read in their second language. For example, in Canada children from English-speaking homes take their early years of education through French. Hence, they may learn to read in French first, and English a little later. This usually results in fully biliterate children. Learning to read in French first will not impede later progress in learning to read English.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“When one language is much stronger than the other, achieving literacy in that one language first is preferable.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“When children come from language minority backgrounds, working towards integration between their two cultures and languages may require more emphasis on the minority language, particularly in the early years. To counterbalance the effect of the dominant majority language, there may need to be two objectives. First, ensuring the child feels secure and confident in the minority language and culture. Second, to ensure that the child is taught the advantages of biculturalism (see Glossary), the value of harmony between cultures and languages, and not taught that conflicting competition is the inevitable outcome of two languages and cultures in contact.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“One example of the pay-off for a parent using a minority language is when the children are in their teenage years. If a language minority mother or father has ignored their first language and speaks the majority language to her children, problems can arise. The majority language may be spoken with a ‘foreign’ accent (see Glossary), the language used may be perceived by the teenager as incorrect. One outcome might be that the teenager is embarrassed, the parent mocked and held in disdain, and the minority language hated. If such a language minority mother speaks her minority language instead, she may retain more prestige and credibility, and be more respected by the teenager.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“The transmission of the parents’ heritage is best recounted in the mother tongue.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“In teaching a child your native language, you are transmitting something about yourself, your heritage and the extended family.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“simply speaking the majority language will not cause a sudden change away from racism, discrimination and prejudice. Such negative attitudes by majority peoples tend to be based on anxieties about a different ethnic group, a fear of their economically privileged position being overturned, a fear of the unknown culture, and a fear about loss of political and economic power and status. Becoming monolingual majority language speakers does not change economic disadvantage nor racial prejudice. Bilingualism that includes a well-developed fluency and literacy in the majority language has the equal advantage of allowing potential access to different economic markets and employment, as well as retaining all that is good from the past. There is good reason for the family to become fluent in the majority language. This need not be at the cost of the first or minority language.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Geographical isolation needs counteracting by creative means of communication to launch a language community. If there are self-doubts and derision by outsiders, there is strength to be gained from being part of a language community.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“It is important for speakers of a minority language to have high self-esteem. Minority speakers can form cohesive, self-confident networks which take pride in language vitality.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“Their poking fun may be a sense of their inadequacy in communication, their underlying jealousy, their worries about exclusion from the conversation, and meeting someone different from themselves. For bilinguals meeting this situation, it is a matter of diplomacy, building bridges and breaking down barriers, keeping a good sense of humour, and trying to be tolerant. Pragmatically, rather than idealistically, it is bilinguals who often have to forge improved relationships. Bilinguals have the role of diplomats and not dividers, showing that language diversity does not mean social divisions, that speaking a different language can still mean a harmonious relationship. Ironically, those who are the victims have to become the healers.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“C19: People make fun of our speaking a minority language. How should I react? It is often people who can't speak a second language who tend to poke fun at those who can speak two or three languages.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“It is often people who can't speak a second language who tend to poke fun at those who can speak two or three languages.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“C18: A child is autistic or has Asperger's syndrome. Should we use one language only with the child? Children diagnosed with a specific autism spectrum disorder have a greater or lesser degree of impairment in language and communication skills, as well as repetitive or restrictive patterns of thought and behaviour, with delays in social and emotional development. Such children use language in restricted ways, expecting much consistency in language and communication, and are less likely to learn through language. However, such children may experience the social and cultural benefits of bilingualism when living in a dual language environment. For example, such children may understand and speak two languages of the local community at their own level. Like many parents of children with language impairment, bilingualism was frequently blamed by teachers and other professionals for the early signs of Asperger's, and a move to monolingualism was frequently regarded as an essential relief from the challenges. There is almost no research on autism and bilingualism or on Asperger's syndrome and bilingualism. However, a study by Susan Rubinyi of her son, who has Asperger's syndrome, provides insights. Someone with the challenge of Asperger's also has gifts and exceptional talents, including in language. Her son, Ben, became bilingual in English and French using the one parent–one language approach (OPOL). Susan Rubinyi sees definite advantages for a child who has challenges with flexibility and understanding the existence of different perspectives. Merely the fact that there are two different ways to describe the same object or concept in each language, enlarges the perception of the possible. Since a bilingual learns culture as well as language, the child sees alternative ways of approaching multiple areas of life (eating, recreation, transportation etc.) (p. 20). She argues that, because of bilingualism, her son's brain had a chance to partly rewire itself even before Asperger's syndrome became obvious. Also, the intense focus of Asperger's meant that Ben absorbed vocabulary at a very fast rate, with almost perfect native speaker intonation. Further Reading: Rubinyi, S. (2006) Natural Genius: The Gifts of Asperger's Syndrome . Philadelphia & London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“C18: A child is autistic or has Asperger's syndrome. Should we use one language only with the child?”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“There are other occasions where changing from bilingualism to monolingualism is unnecessary and wrong. If someone who has loved, cared for and played with the child in one language suddenly only uses another language, the emotional well-being of the child may well be negatively affected.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“developed than another, it may be sensible to concentrate on developing the stronger language. When a child has severe educational needs or is severely cognitively challenged, then ensuring a solid foundation in one language first is important. This does not mean that the chance of bilingualism is lost forever. If, or when, language delay disappears, the other language can be reintroduced. If a child with emotional problems really detests using or even being spoken to in a particular language, the family may sensibly decide to accede to the child's preference. Again, once problems have been resolved, the ‘dropped’ language may be reintroduced, so long as it is immediately associated with pleasurable experiences.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism

“The advice too frequently given is that the home, minority language should be replaced by the majority language. Such an overnight switch may well have painful outcomes for the child. The mother tongue is denied, the language of the family is buried, and the child may feel as if thrown from a secure boat into strange waters. This solution is likely to exacerbate the problem.”
― Colin Baker, A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism