Lauren Miller

Raising a bilingual child in the United States can be quite difficult and confusing (although also rewarding and beautiful). Therefore, parents should not feel alone or that they have done something wrong if their child prefers to speak English or even resists speaking the heritage language at home. General tips that I give every parent are included below and are geared toward families living in the United States in mostly English-speaking communities and in the absence of bilingual schooling and raising children without any language, hearing or cognitive difficulties.

 

To all university students who struggle with heritage language maintenance, take a Spanish class! We want you there, there are other people like you in Spanish classes and even one class can make a huge difference. Please email me if you'd like to meet or have any questions.

 

1. If your child was born in the US or came here before the age of 5, their difficulties will NOT BE with acquiring English. In the long run, they will have much more difficulty maintaining the heritage language. This means that you are doing them a disservice if you encourage them to speak only English or use them as your personal English teacher. You are often their only Spanish "input" so...

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2. Speak all Spanish at home if you can (both mother and father). Research has shown that bilingual children living in the United States have no difficulties becoming fluent in English and that English becomes the dominant language for children living in the US raised in minority-language households around third grade. 

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3. Understand that test scores or grades may vary throughout elementary school as your child catches up to their peers who have been speaking English since birth. Obviously this is a personal choice, but I feel bilingualism is worth a few low test scores in K-5th grade. 

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4. Read to your child in whatever language you can and discuss differences in writing systems and alphabet (in Spanish h is silent, in Spanish "q" is pronounced differently, etc.)

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5. Discuss academic topics that your child is covering in school in Spanish in order to allow them to develop professional and academic vocabulary in the heritage language (discuss how to say "thesis statement", "Queen Elizabeth", "photosynthesis" and other technical terms in Spanish)

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6. Make speaking the heritage language necessary and fun. Travel to a Spanish-speaking country as often as possible and socialize with monolingual Spanish speakers whenever possible (grandparents are great for this). Also, try to have your children develop Spanish-speaking peer networks (in a Spanish-speaking country or the United States). If the heritage language is necessary and fun, the child will naturally speak it. It is very difficult to force a child to speak a language that they don't see as necessary (because everyone they know understands English, for example).

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7. Don't make the heritage language the language of "punishment" or a language that you force them to speak. Understand that they will feel clumsy and maybe even a little stupid when they try to speak Spanish and reach for words without finding them. Don't expect their Spanish to be just like yours or focus too much on small errors in spelling, vocabulary or grammar.