Raising children bilingually: Insights from a webinar with Dr. Büyüktaşkın (English)
Last week, we had the pleasure of attending a webinar talk by Dr. Dicle Büyüktaşkın, hosted by Newbee, on the benefits of raising your child bi- and multilingual!
Dr. Dicle Büyüktaşkın is a doctor specializing in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Gazi University in Ankara, Turkey, who recently completed a one-year residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. During this time, she realized that families abroad would have to face the question of whether they would need to raise their children in the country’s language or multilingually.
Over recent years, it has become an increasingly important topic as more parents are raising children abroad or are made up of parents from different regions. Moreover, with global trade expanding, more parents are tuning into the fact that the more languages their child speaks, the more possibilities and opportunities they will have in the future!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Here are a few key points that we learned about how to raise your children multilingually from Dr. Büyüktaşkın’s webinar.
The first five years of a child’s life are considered the golden years, when they have exponential cognitive development and quickly learn to listen to and use new languages. This even applies to babies in the womb! They can start comprehending the distinguishing language(s) before they are born!
The most important thing that parents can do to help their children learn their language is to interact with their children in that language, such as through reading a book.
You don’t have to live in another country or have a multi-national family to raise a child multilingually - many parents try to expose their children to another language
RESEARCH ON THE BENEFITS OF BEING RAISED MULTILINGUALLY
Researchers have conducted several studies over the years to understand if and how brains might develop differently when children are raised multilingually. Although there are no physical signs of change, we do find that children raised multilingually show more empathy and creativity and are more capable with executive functions (such as problem-solving, planning, and decision-making). Nothing yet has been concretely proven, but researchers have identified differences in the microarchitecture of the brain and show more connectivity between different regions of the brain in multilingual children.
TYPES BILINGUALISM
During the webinar, Dr. Büyüktaşkın covered three forms of bilingualism.
Simultaneous bilingualism - this is when children are exposed to two native languages at the same time, such as when the parents both have different native tongues
Sequential bilingualism - this is when children learn one language at home and another one at school
Receptive bilingualism - when children are raised with multiple languages and understand them but only speak in one language, their preferred language
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Multilingualism can prove to be an advantage for children, but how do you make sure you’re doing it right? Here are some key tips that were presented in the webinar!
Give children access to different languages - if you live in a different country, make sure they are exposed to the language of the country as well
Make it interactive! Passive exposure is okay, but children will only really pick up a language if they engage with you or someone else in an activity that involves the language
Always speak in your native language - it’s how you express yourself best and that’s so important for your children!
But what should I do if my child mixes up languages?
It’s not necessary to correct children who mix up languages in the same sentence - it’s normal for children to mix up words. Don’t use negativity to correct children who do this. Using punishment as a way to correct your child may cause them to associate using a language with a negative experience and cause them to have lowered interest in speaking other languages
MYTHS
“But there are so many downsides to learning multiple languages. Won’t my child develop slower?”
There are a lot of myths that circulate about children who are raised multilingually. During the webinar, we went over some common myths of raising children multilingually.
“They won’t learn any language properly.”
🚫FALSE!
Whether your child learns a language properly has more to do with how they are learning the language and who they learn it from. Learning multiple languages at the same time will not decrease their ability to speak any language properly.“Children raised multilingually will develop slower and fall behind in school work and have speech impediments.”
🚫FALSE!
Although children who are raised multilingually have shown signs of learning to speak later than children who are raised mono-lingually, this slight delay will not have any effects on your child in the long term. Most children can catch up to other children within a few years. It’s important to pay attention to your child’s social development and how their peers treat them, as they might feel excluded due to slight delays in language acquisition.“It is more difficult for children to learn if they need to learn in more than one language.”
🚫FALSE!
Most children should be able to handle learning 2-3 languages simultaneously when they are younger.“I play audiobooks in German and Spanish for my child so that they can learn the language early on.”
🚫FALSE!
Passively exposing children to a language is not as effective in teaching your child a new language. Passive interaction does not engage the child enough to help them learn to use the language. Children need an interactive approach to learning a language, such as reading books together or engaging in language-based games.“We only speak one language! There’s no way for our child to be raised multilingually.”
🚫FALSE!
You don’t have to speak more than one language for you to give your child the gift of growing up in two languages. Sure, they need an interactive element, so find ways for your child to interact with a teacher, another adult, or even other children who speak a different language.
What a great talk! If you want to find out more about Newbee or watch the talk from Dr. Dicle Büyüktaşkın, click the links below to get more information!
