One of the most common struggles for parents raising bilingual kids is getting their children to speak Spanish. This is especially true once the rebellion stage hits and children refuse to use their minority language making their parents extremely frustrated.

Bilingualism experts agree that one of the most important tasks for parents raising a child with two languages is to create a perceived need for the minority language. In other words, your kid HAS to feel there are some circumstances in which she NEEDS her minority language to communicate.

How do you do this? Check out some tips:

1) Invite your Spanish-speaking family/friends to stay with you: As many of you know, we had some of my family visiting us last month from Peru and Mexico. This gave my children the opportunity to experience first-hand how important it is for them to speak Spanish to communicate with their aunts, uncles and cousins.

2) Show them you’re proud of speaking Spanish and of your Latino culture: If your children see you take pride in your language and your culture, they will follow suit. I saw this happen before my very own eyes with my stepson. His father, my husband, is extremely proud to be Puerto Rican. He has always spoken highly of his beloved Island, its music, its food, its folklore. He owns a vast collection of Puerto Rican music which he plays on a regular basis. My stepson, although born and raised in Miami, has always identified himself with his father’s home country. I hope my kids have a similar connection not only to Puerto Rico, but to Peru, my homeland.

3) Give your friends & your kids’ friends a taste of your heritage: Not only will you show your kids how proud you are of your culture (tip #2), but it could also be a lot of fun. Hispanic Heritage Month, which is almost upon us, is a great time to do this. If you happen to be from one of the countries celebrating their Independence Day during this time, you can throw a party. Serve traditional food from your country of origin and teach the children a few words in Spanish. Again, if your children see that you’re proud of your heritage, they will be too!

4) Expose your children to Spanish and their Latino culture first-hand: Traveling to a country where the Spanish is spoken is probably one of the best ways to create a perceived need. Although it’s sad that both my husband’s and my family is dispersed in different Latin American countries, it does gives us the opportunity to go visit them, allowing our children to be immersed in the language while spending time with their family, as we did this summer. Our plan is that as soon as Vanessa and Santiago are old enough, they will spend their summers with their cousins in Puerto Rico. We did this with my now 22-year-old stepson as he was growing up, and I’m convinced this is one of the major reasons he is bilingual today.

{photo by  kate.gardiner}

Photo by kate.gardiner

The following post was originally published on September 18, 2009 under the title “How To Create a Perceived Need for the Minority Language.”

My 18-year-old goddaughter, Veronika, was recently in town for the weekend and I noticed something pretty interesting that I’m still trying to figure out.

Although she was raised bilingual by my (Peruvian) sister and her father, who is Cuban, (but moved to New York as a toddler and thus speaks more English than Spanish,) ever since I can remember, we have always communicated in English. I mean, I know she understands Spanish, but when I talk to her, she has always answered me in English–no matter which language I use.

So, I was pretty surprised when I noticed that whenever she talked to my daughter, her cousin Vanessa, she addressed her in Spanish. Why? I didn’t really get around to asking her, but I think it’s because she probably thinks–rightly so–that Vanessa understands Spanish better, unlike everyone else in our bilingual family.

I guess the interesting thing about this anecdote is that even though, growing up, Veronika basically refused to speak Spanish, the fact that we all continued talking to her in the minority language, somehow paid-off. (I should mention, though, that it has also helped that her boyfriend’s first language–as well as his family’s–is Spanish, meaning that she’s been forced to speak it in order to communicate with them.)

Either way, all this got me thinking about how the topic of how to get your children to speak the minority language continues to be one of the most popular ones since we started SpanglishBaby more than half a year ago. The evidence is in the questions we continue to get for our Ask an Expert series, including this week’s question, the comments in the forums and just the stuff we hear whenever the subject of raising bilingual kids comes up.

One of the main things to do, according to bilingual experts, is to create a perceived need for the minority language. In other words, your children HAVE to feel as if they NEED to speak the minority language in order to communicate. So, how do you do this? Here are some tips:

1) Show them you’re proud of minority language + culture: If your children see you take pride in your language and your culture, they will follow suit. I saw this happen before my very own eyes with my stepson. His father, my husband, is extremely proud to be Puerto Rican. He has always spoken highly of his beloved Island, its music, its food, its folklore. He owns a vast collection of Puerto Rican music which he plays on a regular basis. My stepson, although born and raised in Miami, has always identified himself with his father’s home country.

2) Give your friends and your kids’ friends a taste of the minority culture: This goes along with the first tip, except it takes it a little farther. Now, and until October 15th, it’s the perfect time to do this by celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a party–especially if you happen to be from one of the countries which celebrates its Independence during this time. You could serve traditional food from your Latin American country and teach the children a few words in Spanish. Again, if your children see that you’re proud of your heritage, they will be too!

3) Invite your family/friends who speak the minority language to stay with you: This works well especially if there are children involved. My cousin, her husband and their 10-year-old daughter are coming from Mexico to spend Christmas with us this year, and I couldn’t be happier. Not only do I get to see them and show-off Colorado’s winter wonderland, but my daughter, Vanessa, will spend about 10 days surrounded by Spanish coming from people other than her father and I. In other words, she’ll experience first-hand how important it is for her to speak Spanish, so she can communicate with her family.

4) Expose your children to the minority language + culture first-hand: Traveling to a country where the minority language is spoken is probably one of the best ways to create a perceived need. Although it’s sad that both my husband’s and my family is dispersed in different Latin American countries, it does gives us the opportunity to go visit them, allowing our daughter to be immersed in the language while spending time with her family. Our plans are that once Vanessa is old enough, she will spend her summers with her cousins in Puerto Rico. We did this with my now 19-year-old stepson as he was growing up, and I’m convinced this is one of the major reasons he is bilingual today. Not only will this kind of trip help reinforce the minority language, but Vanessa will get to experience the culture of her father first-hand.

In which creative ways do you help  your child feel she needs to speak the minority language?

Today´s question was sent by Tricia, who is looking for advice on how to create a perceived need for Spanish in her family.  For more tips check out this article Roxana recently wrote on the topic.

“Do the experts have any advice on creating a perceived need for Spanish in families that aren´t from any sort of Spanish-speaking cultural background? We´re located in a rural area with almost no Spanish speakers, making it even more difficult. We are making it a point to travel to Spanish-speaking countries, but I´m still kind of constantly scrambling to find ways to give a 4, 9, and11 year old any sense of needing to speak Spanish (other than with me). I’d definitely appreciate any suggestions!”

Dear Tricia,

What a great question – and a timely one for me. I just returned from giving workshops at a professional conference in Europe. I was astounded (and impressed) by how many people speak English – and not just a little English, but a LOT! People in Europe are obviously convinced about the importance of learning more than one language! I wonder why it is such a struggle in the United States to convince folks of this need?

With regard to your children, I would suggest finding them a keypal (computer keyboard penpals) who speaks the minority language with whom to communicate. You can try any one of a number of services that provide worldwide connections for young people – Student Letter Exchange is one example of this kind of service. By connecting your kids with a native speaker of Spanish, you will be providing them with an important link not just to language practice, but to cultural and social connections.

You might also get them interested in Spanish-language media like films and music. If your kids are intrigued by movies, TV and music coming from the Spanish-speaking world, they will find themselves more engaged on a personal level with the language and see more of a need to speak and understand it. Try these sites:

• La música en español

• Yahoo música en español

• TvGratis.tv

• Películas gratis en español

Overall, I applaud you for trying to make Spanish more relevant for your kids. If they feel connected to people who speak the language, they will be motivated and driven to learn it and to speak it better and better each day. ¡Buena suerte!

-Lori

Lori Langer de Ramirez, Ed.D

Lori Langer de Ramirez – Bilingual educator who began her career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL. She holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently the Chairperson of the ESL and World Language Department for Herricks Public Schools, New York. Lori is the author of Take Action: Lesson Plans for the Multicultural Classroom and Voices of Diversity: Stories, Activities and Resources for the Multicultural Classroom, as well as several Spanish-language books and texts (Cuéntame – Folklore y Fábulas and Mi abuela ya no está). Her interactive website (miscositas.com) offers teachers over 40 virtual picture books and other curricular materials for teaching Chinese, English, French, Indonesian, Italian, Spanish and Thai. Her areas of research and curriculum development are multicultural and diversity education, folktales in the language classroom and technology in language teaching. You can read her answers here.