monoligual family... bilingual baby?

[MrIC]

Has anyone had experience of this? Is it possible?

DW & I are English, but we live in Madrid, where DD was born. She's just coming up to her first birthday.

Obviously DD is exposed to Spanish - in the street, at the doctors, when friends visit, radio and so on. I also try to speak to her in Spanish and probably remember to do so about 30% of the time. But neither DW or I speak Spanish brilliantly; if the Common European framework on languages means anything to you then I'm maybe C1 and DW B1. We're both English teachers so actually have very little need to speak Spanish - we have to make the effort to socialise with Spaniards and go to lessons. DW is also addicted to BBC6Music, which is constantly on at home, so most of the time she hears English. The Spanish also don't seem to be all that keen on mother & baby playgroups - we've been looking but haven't found any in our area.

Now, in the normal run of things DD would start going to playschool, then real school and so on and pick up the language that way. The spanner in the works is that, if all goes to plan, we are going back to the UK in July so I can do a PGCE. I would then like to come back to Spain to teach again, but that may be a few years down line. But even if we don't ever come back to Spain I'd still like DD to speak Spanish - she was born here, she's entitled to Spanish citizenship and we'd like her to keep that connection. (To put in context, I grew up in Yemen, but can't speak a word of Arabic to my great embarrassment.)

Anyway - sorry finally getting round to the point here - has anyone experienced a similar situation? Any advice? How did you keep the second language going?

Obviously I've thought of the following:

• books, music and DVDs in Spanish
• finding Spanish speaking babysitters
• maybe getting a Spanish AU pair that we could offer English lessons and accommodation to by way of payment (we're going to be poor for the next few years!)

any other good ideas?

I think your best bet is for one of you to speak Spanish to her 100% of the time.

At this age, quality is probably less important than quantity - and you have another year of essentially controlling the conversation (ie focussing on stuff you can say convincingly and correctly) in which you can extend and consolidate your knowledge.

She is unlikely just to "pick it up" on the street, I think, precisely because her language models are you, your partner, and anyone else who speaks to her extensively and regularly.

There's a book called "Bringing Up Baby Bilingual" - I don't think it's a very good book, but it does chart the experience of an American woman who, with quite a low level of French, attempted to bring her kids up as native speakers. So it can be done - but I think you will find that she, too, essentially forgot her shortcomings and spoke to the almost exclusively in French for several years.

I think that if it were me, I would concentrate on increasing her exposure to native Spanish speakers, whether through friends, babysitters or other methods.

She does hear Spanish around her all the time after all. And she will learn to associate her environment out of the home with Spanish. So, it's likely that she'll come out with nouns/simple words and phrases she hears frequently when you're out and about. And if you can enable her to have as much direct contact with native speakers, more the better. Does she go to nursery when you both work? If so, she'll be hearing Spanish around her quite a bit.

I wouldn't push it by speaking in a language that you don't speak perfectly, especially when she is so young. I'm not sure how much benefit it would be to speak in Spanish to her - if she copied you, her sounds would not of course be right and she would effectively be speaking Spanish words as an English speaker would say them.

Regardless of method employed, most bilinguals will tell you the same thing - that a child will only make progress in a language if he/she has sufficient motivation to do so.

Hearing the language does not provide that motivation. Language acquisition is hard and a child is only going to bother if he/she needs to use the language to communicate with someone.

Even children who are in bilingual homes can take some "encouragement" to actually use the weaker of their two languages and often end up as receptive bilinguals or, if the language use in the home drops, forgetting it altogether.

What Viloeta says is true as far as it goes - but it misses a like-for-like comparison. If you speak to your child in Spanish, there is a risk that he/she will speak imperfect spanish with a British accent. BUT she will then have the possibility of communicating confidently, albeit inaccurately, with native speakers at a later date - which may then straighten out her accent and grammar errors.

If you don't speak to your child in spanish, you guarantee that her comprehension will be minimal and her productive use zero. She will not be able to speak to native speakers unless and until she has "lessons" of some format. If those lessons take place in the UK she will probably ... speak imperfect Spanish with a British accent! But, of course, without the confidence or breadth of vocabulary.

In other words - and obviously I am biased here - I think this is a no-lose gamble and, if you are ready for a bit of hard work, I would go for it.

I would add that you will really have to work to keep it going when you go back to the UK. My two DCs (then 3 and 5) were fairly fluent in Romanian when we went back to the UK for 3 months last year. I (stupidly) thought they'd be fine and not forget the language because they'd always used it as their language of play and to speak to each other. First month we were back fine - they kept on using it together. Then they both went to pre-school and completely switched to English.

By the time we came back they had both lost it. DD1 (5) picked it up again pretty fast as she's at Kindergarten and had a better level anyway, but DS has taken the best part of a year and is still no way as confident as he had been.

I'm sure it's possible and it's definitely worth it but don't underestimate how fast they loose it without consistent practice.

We are in the same situation exactly! DH and I both English and living in Valencia, Spain. DD is 20 months and is saying words in both Spanish and English, though most of her phrases are in Spanish at the moment. "no va" etc

We are both teachers too and speak in English all the time at home, DD goes to a Spanish playgroup and is picking her Spanish up there. She follows the Spanish curriculum and they focus on a different topic every few weeks with different vocab. I then make sure I reinforce it at home in English. When we are out our Spanish friends speak to her in Spanish.

We have always been told NOT to speak to her in Spanish. Although she does have Spanish books at home which DH reads to her, his Spanish is excellent and much better than mine.

"We have always been told NOT to speak to her in Spanish." Who told you that, Chica, and on what authority?

Not actually challenging it, I'm just always interested in what is behind such blanket prescriptions.

TBH if you were staying and your DD was going through the Spanish education system etc I'd keep English as a home language and Spanish as the community language because in a few years it would be English under threat, which is probably the rationale behind the advice to chica. I know families in the UK who don't speak English to their children ever because they intend to stay for good and some who even have decided that because it's only temporary one parent will speak English to get the children into the habit of it.

So if you were staying I'd say don't speak Spanish to maximise the English while you're ahead HOWEVER if you're going back then try to keep up the Spanish as much as possible - C1 is fine for communication with children and it doesn't matter if she's speaks Spanish with a British accent/less than perfect grammar. At this age it's you who needs to make the concious effort and your DD will follow fairly naturally. Leave it a while and you'll have to change her set habits as well as yours.

A native speaker IMO is always preferable so your Spanish au pair idea is a good one but you would need to pay them a salary as well (sorry!) if you expect them to do any kind of childcare. Otherwise take them in as a lodger, let them have another job, and say that instead of rent you'll provide room, board and English lessons if they'll only ever speak Spanish to your DD.

I totally agree with MIFLAW though. Language is there to communicate, active communication is what cements and reinforces language and children will communicate in the way they find easiest. If there's no 2 way communication in the second language then they may end up with perfect receptive skills but will never be able to string 2 words together.

cool, thanks for the advice/shared experiences everyone.

nos vamos!

On the au pair idea, I do have friends who've only ever had German au pairs (in the UK) and they've always spoken German to the DCs. They are now pretty fluent (oldest is 7) while the parents don't really speak it at all.