Benefits of a bilingual upbringing

Heightened linguistic 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, those who speak a second language at native-speaker level, i.e. master it perfectly, have clear advantages over their competitors in many professions.

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

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

How do 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 deliberate promotion but on a feeling of familiarity and the memory of one's own childhood, with the well-known nursery rhymes, lullabies and pet names.

Sometimes children also grow up bilingually because the parents lack language skills, for example if a family has immigrated to a country and the parents do not master the national language. In any case, bilingual upbringing is usually an intuitive process. Nevertheless, there are some things parents should be aware of:

• 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 must 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 an integral part of bilingual upbringing.

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

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

• No pressure to perform: Even if a parent cares deeply about their own mother tongue and culture, bilingualism should take place without coercion and without expectations. A child will always be better at one of the two languages than the other – what is important is to use and value both languages equally as living means of communication.

Risks of a bilingual upbringing

Delayed language acquisition?Bilingually raised children often begin to speak a little later than their monolingual peers. However, this difference is noticeable at best only in the first three years of life. After that, bilingual children catch up and have the same vocabulary, essentially twice over.

Language mixing:In the first years, children tend to mix the two languages. However, this is not a sign of confusion or overload – language researchers assume that if a child cannot immediately think of a word, they will for practical reasons simply use the word from the other language.

Overwhelm:It may happen that children reject a second language and understand it but 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.

Being different:Children want to feel part of a group and be the same as friends and caregivers. Sometimes they find it uncomfortable if they are expected to speak with a parent in a different language. Parents can do much 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 all over the parents © Halfpoint - stock.adobe.com