And so our enjoyment of books grew and grew. Because a child who lives in a world with two languages needs to be able to grow and learn in both languages, which obviously includes reading in both languages. This is referred to as subtractive bilingualism. Reading or telling stories to our children is one of the best ways for this communication and connection to take place. If children hear their parents switch to English whenever they are outside the home, whether or not they speak it well, then they may grow up thinking that their home language is second class, that their parents don't belong in their new school world and that they themselves are not as good as the other children.
Teachers have a crucial role to play here.
It doesn't matter if you don't speak a second language. It is your attitude towards language that counts. Because your opinion is so very important to the children's development of values, it is essential that you respect and value their language by reflecting it in your classroom. One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is through books. In the Heritage Language Bulletin, Jim Cummins points to research showing that bilingualism can help children do very well in school, in fact to out-perform monolingual children on both linguistic and educational tasks.