Benefits of bilingual upbringing

Heightened language awareness: Children who grow up with two or more languages often have an intuitive sense for language. They find it easier to adapt to unfamiliar language rules and rhythms; they can often deduce many linguistic meanings on their own.

Better career prospects: Almost all children learn one or two foreign languages at school. However, anyone who speaks a second language at native-speaker level, that is, masters it perfectly, has significant advantages over their competitors in many professions.

Openness: Language and culture are inseparably connected, and thus bilingual upbringing always includes intercultural experiences. Children who grow up bilingual are therefore often particularly open and approach new things without prejudice.

Self-confidence: At a certain age most children recognize their bilingualism as an advantage and as a special ability, as something that sets them apart from others and strengthens their self-confidence.

How can I raise my child bilingually?

For many parents it is completely natural to communicate with their own child in their mother tongue. Often the focus is not on promoting language skills, but on a feeling of familiarity and the memory of one's own childhood, with the familiar nursery rhymes, lullabies, and terms of endearment.

Sometimes children also grow up bilingual because of their parents' limited language skills, for example when a family has immigrated to a country and the parents do not speak the local language. In any case, bilingual upbringing is usually an intuitive process. Nevertheless, there are some things parents should pay attention to:

• Bilingual upbringing requires consistency: A child can only properly learn a second language if it is spoken frequently. Ideally, each parent speaks exclusively in their mother tongue with the child from birth.

• Language should be alive: Language is part of everyday life and the second language should be treated the same way. Singing together or reading books aloud, word games or fooling around make the language come alive and should be a firm part of bilingual upbringing.

• Bilingualism requires variety: Ideally, a child communicates in the second language not only with their parent but with as many different people as possible. Regular phone calls with grandparents or meetings with other bilingual friends ensure variety in language use.

• 1/4 rule: A rule of thumb says that about one quarter of a child's communication should take place in the second language. In the first years this is not a problem, but the older and more independent a child becomes, the more actively parents should encourage the use of the second language.

• No pressure to perform: Even if a parent's native language and culture are naturally important to them, bilingualism should occur without coercion or performance pressure. A child will always be better at one of the two languages than the other – what matters is to use and appreciate both languages equally as living means of communication.

Risks of bilingual upbringing

Delayed language acquisition?Often children raised bilingually start speaking somewhat later than their monolingual peers. However, this difference is noticeable at most during the first three years of life. After that, bilingual children catch up and possess the same vocabulary in "double form".

Language mix:In the first years children tend to mix the two languages. However, this is not a sign of confusion or being overwhelmed – language researchers assume that when a word does not immediately come to mind, children for practical reasons simply use the word from the other language.

Overwhelm:It can happen that children reject a second language and although they understand it, they are reluctant to speak it. This is often the case when the second language is spoken relatively rarely and only with one person, or when there is no direct everyday relevance.

Feeling of being different:Children want to feel part of a group and be the same as friends and caregivers. Sometimes they find it unpleasant to be expected to speak with a parent in another language. Parents can do a lot to help perceive this "being different" as a strength rather than a weakness, and sooner or later the child will also recognize the advantages of bilingualism.

Image credit

Child smiles at the camera behind the parents © Mediteraneo - stock.adobe.com

A family has breakfast together © NDABCREATIVITY - stock.adobe.com

A family takes a photo together while lying down © VadimGuzhva - stock.adobe.com

Children climb on the parents © Halfpoint - stock.adobe.com