Waltham Forest Bilingual Group - Guest speaker Colin Baker

Q: My child is now at nursery where he has experiences in English. Although he used to speak exclusively German to me, now when he comes home from nursery he wants to explain what he has done in English and may not even know the words in German. Should I pretend not to understand?
A: No, it is probably better to repeat what he has said back to him in German – to give him the vocabulary and may be ask him a question in German that he can respond to in German if he wants. It is important not to punish children for speaking the wrong language.

Q: A related question – if my children ask for help with their homework, although I speak French to them normally, I think I should do it in English, which is the language they study it in and not in French?
A: Actually it may help children a lot to discuss their homework in another language. This way they cannot simply repeat what they have read or heard, they need to rephrase it. This is probably very helpful as it means that they have to really understand and reprocess it.

Q: My children speak French when we are abroad but switch back to English when we get back home.
A: Even if a child has purely passive knowledge of a language i.e. can understand but can’t / won’t speak, it is worth persevering. In the right situation, it is possible to trigger speech and in a few weeks (literally) the child will be speaking fluently.

Comment: If a child learns a second language before the age of around 6 they will have a native or near native pronounciation. This is because of changes in an area of the brain called Broca’s area at around that age. It is not yet clear whether a passive knowledge of a language is sufficient or whether a child needs to be speaking the language by this age to avoid having a foreign accent in that language.
The earlier a child learns a language the more likely it is that the child will use it in the long term.

Very young children acquire language – they do not learn it i.e. they do not have to make an effort to learn vocabulary or grammar rules. They are exposed to it and they soak it up and reproduce it.

Q: How much exposure to a minority language does a child need?
A: They can’t get too much. Research has shown that children retain and use minority languages if there is a domain where that language and only that language is spoken e.g. community, mosque, synagogue. You need to try to establish some form of reserved area of your life for that language. This can be getting together regularly with a group of friends who speak the same language, speaking a language always at home (this is difficult if not everyone speaks that language).

Q: What about when fathers are not supportive?
A: Some research shows that on average mothers have more influence on their children in terms of communication. Others have shown that mothers are more likely to do routine care tasks with children (meals, baths) and also do more of the discipline. Fathers tend to do nicer things – do less chores and have more fun. This may also influence the child. It is important that both parents are supportive of bilingualism.

Q: Many schools have a poor record in terms of encouraging bilingualism in their pupils, is there evidence of change? Are there examples where parents have influenced schools positively?

A: There are some examples e.g. from the US, but these have involved mainly middle class parents who have worked as a group. There are gradations of schools valuing languages from displaying them on the walls, some schools may provide second language support in the classroom. In the UK there is a new initiative to introduce languages into key stage 2 and it has been clarified that this will be all community languages and not just European ones.

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