bilingualism

Back in 1997 I was a graduate student in Philadelphia finishing a degree for Teaching English as a Second Language (TESOL).  The study of language acquisition was an important part of the program.  My classmates and professors all valued the ability to speak other languages, and therefore, we were shocked and confused when we learned of a proposition on the ballot in California which would institute an English only language policy throughout public schools in the state.  I had spentRead More ...

While some of you might have read these articles from the links we recently posted on our Facebook page or tweeted about from our Twitter account, I figured that, in case you missed it, it’d be nice to compile the latest media content regarding bilingualism in just one post. So if you didn’t get to read any of these, here’s your chance to find out what the latest studies say about bilingualism. (Hint: we’re on the right track!) From TheRead More ...

Due to both my location (the wonderfully diverse Washington, D.C. area) and my occupation (Spanish interpreter), I have many friends who are also raising bilingual children. They are my support group, and when we get together the conversation invariably turns to our children’s bilingualism, our experiences and challenges. I was chatting with one such friend and we started discussing the deluge of English in schools, how it will be hard to keep the Spanish going at home, how we’ll haveRead More ...

When my husband and I met our daughter’s preschool teachers during orientation last year, we made sure we let both of them know we were raising her bilingual using the mL@H method. We explained that although, at first, it would seem as if Vanessa was not very verbal, the truth was that her vocabulary was much more extensive in Spanish than in English, since we only speak to her in the former. We just wanted to make sure that theyRead More ...

Have you ever heard of a blogging carnival? I hadn’t until we were recently invited to participate in one. A carnival is basically a blog event dedicated to a specific subject and including several links to other blog posts dealing with said subject. This carnival’s topic? You guessed it: raising bilingual children. So, how does it work? In this particular case, Eve, over at Blogging on Bilingualism, is the host of October’s carnival. So, last week she wrote this postRead More ...