Love, love, love this short article. It warms the cockles of my heart to hear about schools and districts where people are making strides in respecting and supporting the language journey of bilinguals. I especially love this bit: A school where every teacher is trained in ESL techniques, in a district where everyone from the … Continue reading Teaching ELLs: Arkansas Educator Shares His Approach to Language Instruction – Learning the Language – Education Week
Category: Content
The Languages you Speak to Your Bilingual Child | Psychology Today
This is a great article that explains, from the research, why no one method is a guarantee of bilingual success. When I do parent seminars we talk about this a lot. Being an OPOL family doesn't automatically mean your kids will be bilingual. Having a minority language at home does not automatically mean your kids … Continue reading The Languages you Speak to Your Bilingual Child | Psychology Today
Why is bilingual education ‘good’ for rich kids but ‘bad’ for poor, immigrant students? – The Washington Post
This is a fantastic article about the two-sided nature of the bilingualism debate. "Desirable bilingualism" involves children who speak the host-country language and another, high-status language. These bilinguals are considered "lucky" to have two languages. On the other side, immigrants and refugee children who speak a lower-status language and are learning the host-country language are … Continue reading Why is bilingual education ‘good’ for rich kids but ‘bad’ for poor, immigrant students? – The Washington Post
And now for something completely different… The Language Show Live!
Tomorrow I am off to London, not to shop, but to talk. In a departure from my normal audience and topic I will be speaking to adults, about adult bilingualism. Although the main focus of my work is helping teachers and parents support child bilingual development, I am not an early bilingual myself. In fact, … Continue reading And now for something completely different… The Language Show Live!
Three years of blogging about bilingualism!
So it happened, the moment every married person dreads... I forgot my anniversary! Thankfully, it was only my blog anniversary, so I only need be angry with myself. But to mark the milestone, even a few days late, here are some interesting facts: 1. What I blog about: Bilingualism/multilingualism 2. What my "specialization" is: child … Continue reading Three years of blogging about bilingualism!
International Family Fair October 11
Apparently this is the season of events rather than blogging, but I promise the next post will be a real blog post! In the meantime, this upcoming International Family Fair is a must for parents living in and around The Hague. All the topics you would like to know about, under one roof, on one … Continue reading International Family Fair October 11
New Year, New Bilingualism Projects!
To have another language is to possess a second soul. Charlemagne Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/c/charlemagn182029.html#trkFxkBroweWuwU0.99 As someone who has lived within the academic world since the age of five years old, I always feel like the beginning of September is the "New Year" for me. The last six months have been very busy for me, … Continue reading New Year, New Bilingualism Projects!
The Bilingual Zoo: New support forum for parents
I've written here before about Bilingual Monkeys, which is a great website full of information about raising bilingual children. There is a new spin-off from the website, The Bilingual Zoo, which is a proper forum for parents looking for support from other families on the same journey. I think this is a great initiative; parents … Continue reading The Bilingual Zoo: New support forum for parents
Five ways your school can support multilingualism
As we come to the end of the school year I've been reflecting on how much the school impacts successful bilingual development. Most schools are not "bilingual" schools, or "immersion" schools, or indeed any kind of language-based school model. Many schools believe that their only job is to ensure that all their pupils master the … Continue reading Five ways your school can support multilingualism
Let’s talk about Dutch Mother Tongue support (Hup! Hup! Holland!)
So as the rest of the country sits wide awake, glued to the Netherlands-Argentina game, I too am considering the position of Dutch in the world, but the language, not the football team. Don't feel sorry for me; I'd really rather think about language than watch the World Cup semi-finals... (small confession: the game is … Continue reading Let’s talk about Dutch Mother Tongue support (Hup! Hup! Holland!)
