If you use more than one language at home with DC

[user1484167681]

… what sort of resources do you use? I mean, books, flash cards, posters in the different languages? TV shows, music etc? I have the beginnings of a business idea and I’m wondering what other parents would find useful when developing their children’s second / third languages?

We speak Greek at home. The kids are fluent.

We don't use any resources and don't feel the need to. We just talk!

We do play Greek music at times but that's about it.

We just talk. And read them books, listen to/sing songs in my first language. I wouldnt use flashcards, that makes it "learning" not just immersion which i think is nicer. The language is just around them all the time at home.

None. They aren't "learning" a language in the way a non native speaker learns. They're "acquiring" one of their own languages. Different bits of the brain used. (in layman's terms)

If you mean how to get them fairly proficient in a second language- TV programmes.

We are an Italian- English family in Italy (though DD is now at uni in the UK) I teach English and can hear immediately which kids watch films/TV in English.

DH speaks Afrikaans and I speak english. We both speak to the kids in our native languages, we read them books, and watch tv shows, listen to songs etc again in our native languages. TV shows come from youtube mostly, and music from spotify etc. I'd love to be able to get more Afrikaans childrens books in our local library but it's understandably not their highest priority in terms of language provision.

I wouldn't use flash cards or posters, as tbh they're learning through ongoing immersion and exposure, and that feels a bit unnecessary.

I learned my parent's languages as a kid. No special resources, we just spoke and lived them in a normal way. We did have books in both that were read to me/ I read, and other exposure came from listening to the radio.

It was never approached in a ‘now you’re going to learn this’ way to marked it out as anything out of the ordinary. That came as an older child when I started learning others that I wasn’t immersed in until later.

Resources are more helpful in the latter case, imo, if it’s not a native language of the parents either.

My nephews speak fluent German, English and a Slavic language at home as both parents speak. The interesting part learning the Slavic language was the grammar - as only mum spoke that language at home, her boys learned the grammar based on how a woman would form words, so they spoke “like girls”. They needed a lot of additional exposure to the spoken language to correct themselves but by the end of primary it was fine.

Neither of the boys enjoy learning languages and have shown no interest in learning any more!

Nothing of value to add, except that I think it's a marvellous thing to teach children their parents languages. My mum was Danish and made the decision not to teach me Danish or have much Danish culture in the home for reasons unknown (she passed away years ago so can't ask her now and she would never talk it when I did ask). I've always felt a bit of my identity is missing because of it and could never properly converse with my Danish family. I tried to learn Danish as a teenager but really struggled.

We use language selector on the TV to get programson.
And buy books when we visit DHs family.
Wouldn't think to look to buy stuff in the UK, as would assume it is very expensive.

We didn't buy posters, flash cards etc for English, why would we for a different language?

We don't use any resources just buy books in both languages so they can choose to read in either language and shown them how to change the language on the tv channels so they can watch in either language. As others have said, its not a 'learning' moment it is just their life.

We speak two languages at home and don't use any resources, just speak, works good for us.

Okay, thanks, this is helpful! Sounds like I’m the only lunatic who would want something like the resources I’ve mentioned…

when mine was small we did lots of DVDs, now you can select the language on Netflix. We also used the local library which had a brilliant foreign languages section for children. I never used flashcards or any formal learning tools, I suspect those may be of more use to non native speakers?

I worried about it before DC1 was born, because DH and I have different native languages and live in his native country, but we're both fluent in the other's language. We decided that we all speak whatever we want whenever we want because we didn't want our children only communicating with us in our own languages, creating a separation in the family. That was really my opinion of the OPOL method.

In the beginning we had more books in my native language but DC1 has always chosen what we read so it could have gone either way. DC1 is now fluent in both languages and beginning to recognize words in both equally for reading so I'm pretty sure it's working out fine. We'll take the same approach for DC2.

Same as other posters here. DH spoke to the DC in his native language from birth and I did the same so no need for resources. We did have books in both languages and they loved watching cartoons and movies in the second language.

one thing that might be useful is a resource to help with reading and writing the second languages in primary years. I see so many bilingual adults who speak perfectly but their written language is not great. Reading a lot in the second language does help, but not all children are big readers or there is not much spare time, or reading in the second language is more of an effort. Maybe something that would help parents with teaching this. Not all languages have Saturday schools.

We are not a bilingual family but my DH and I are both fluent in Spanish, which we speak to each other at times. The kids don’t really know much Spanish but are really keen to learn based on hearing us and visiting Spain every year. We do watch Spanish tv but I think there is a gap in the market for really good bilingual books. My kids won’t let us read to them just in Spanish (because they don’t understand enough so it’s boring) but we’ve had the odd bilingual book which they really like and helps their learning massively. Maybe you need to think about resources for parents to teach a language they speak but who are not necessarily raising kids bilingual. Not sure how big this market would be!

Completely agree with this, as someone bilingual with trilingual children…

I speak English with my kids and we live in a European country and so they attend formal education in the majority language. We have lots of books at home but they are story books rather than books specifically aimed at learning English. We watch lots of tv shows in English too. I do like to have some bilingual ressources so that my children can see how terms in their two languages match up - so things like if I want them to have a little calendar on their wall with their weekly timetable plus the date then I appreciate if that can be in both languages. For me it’s more about making sure there aren’t too many gaps in my children’s English vocabulary knowledge and sometimes helping to make the differences between the languages explicit so school here is less confusing - like why the alphabet song is different and the same letters have two different names. My kids are still very young though, not yet reception age.

And we have the same issue finding good quality Spanish books!

This is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind.

We just talk and they have books in both languages. Sometimes watch the telly in Welsh but mostly in English. Their school is Welsh but they speak English with friends so they’re pretty equal at both

We speak 2 languages at home. Dh speaks his language which is the country we live in and I speak English to ds.
Ds barely uttered a word in either language until he turned 2 and now suddenly he's catching up a bit. We have and do use flash cards for the language of the country we live in, songs and also books. We started this because of the speech delay, and i also feel its more important that he can speak and understand the main language he will use. However I probably needn't have worried as he understands both perfectly and is starting to speak more English words too now.

I think help for reading and writing is useful. At home we only speak English. Ds has almost all books, tv, etc in English at home.

But he’s growing up in European country where he is fully immersed in second language at nursery and will then be at school. So all education in Country languages.
I plan to teach him to read and write in English at home and am gradually buying resources such as phonic books for him to start

Surely you just buy Spanish books by Spanish authors for Spanish children if they're bilingual?

I'd agree with @Melassa about the writing - up to a point- as I said, my DD is bilingual and went through the Italian school system (so obviously writing everything in Italian) and is now at university in the UK. If the language acquisition is done competently, then there won't be a massive problem (there'll be more problems relatively speaking for non phonetically regular languages like English BUT those will be compensated for from the sheer multitude of TV, books etc exposure that we all have these days) Additionally, writing is, in any case, the last skill to reach competence in, whatever the language and whatever number of languages you speak. Needs to be said also that writing skills books for L2 and onwards are, generally speaking dire.

SIL is Brazilian. DH leaned Portuguese and kids are fluent/bilingual.

No resources, they can order books in other languages on Amazon if they want and have few Brazilian tv channels.