What are the most important factors in raising a bilingual child?
Children are born ready to become bilinguals and multilinguals. Too many are restricted to becoming monolinguals. No caring parent or teacher denies children the chance to develop physically, socially, educationally or emotionally. Yet we deny many children the chance to develop bilingually and multilingually. Language is about communication (and identity). We need language to communicate information, to build relationships, to play games and tell stories, to make new friends and work in groups. Some bilingual parents fuss endlessly about correctness or grammar, accuracy of vocabulary, not mixing two languages, and skilled interpreting and translating. Instead, the most important factor in raising bilingual children is to make their language development a pleasure, a positive and enjoyable experience. Children need to value their two languages, two cultures and in a modest way, become aware of the advantages of being bilingual and bicultural. Parents who make the development of profici
