Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: How to bring up a bilingual child / help needed

Hi everybody,
I need some help.
I think I speak quite a good english and, now that I am pregnant with my
first child, I am thinking about bringing him up bilingual, or at least
trying to !
Up until now all the informations I gathered on the subject are quite
controversial:
the child could get confused if you start too early / you should start as
early as possible ;
each parent should stick with just one language / there's no problem in
switching languages...
an so on.
Can anyone suggest any good text on the matter, or volunteer his/her
personal experience?
Thanks in advance
Elena

 personal experience?
Children start learning from birth (maybe earlier), but it's usually
suggested that each parent should use his/her native language with the
baby.
Although I'm English, I've found it very difficult with my own son, who
was born in Italy; he spoke mainly English until he was 3 and went to
the scuola materna, after which his Italian predominated. 
Other people I know have had more success, but I don't know anyone who's
tried this without being a native speaker.
For it to work, I think you'd always have to speak to the child in
English (not a mixture of English and Italian) and your husband always
in Italian, to begin with, at any rate, otherwise s/he is more liable to
get confused.
You can find some useful links, including the Bilingual Parents Mailing
List, at:
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/links/parenting.htm
Mary

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Non ho un'esperienza diretta al riguardo, ma una ragazza che frequentavo,
che era bilingue, mi ha sempre raccontato che per lei fu molto importante il
fatto che suo padre (americano) le parlò sempre e comunque in inglese (e
continuava ancora a farlo all'epoca in cui la frequentavo). Vivendo in
Italia, non si corre assolutamente il rischio che il bambino non impari
l'italiano: la scuola e la televisione (soprattutto cartoni animati) saranno
due maestri perfetti. Il difficile sarà fare in modo che il bambino cresca
senza dimenticarsi l'inglese, e per far questo è necessario che la lingua
venga parlata sempre e in continuazione all'interno della famiglia.
Un altro esempio che mi sento di raccontarti riguarda un ragazzo che
conosco, nato in Italia. Quando aveva 8 anni, la famiglia (italiana al 100%)
si trasferì negli Stati Uniti per seguire il nuovo marito della madre, che è
appunto americano. La cosa incredibile è che questo ragazzo, che ora ha 15
anni, non parla italiano. Nonostante l'abbia parlato come lingua unica fino
all'età di otto anni (frequentando anche due anni di scuola elementare), e
nonostante in famiglia comunque adoprino anche l'italiano, lui ha molte
difficoltà a capirlo, e sicuramente non riesce a parlarlo. Come pronuncia,
accento, e lingua parlata, è un normale ragazzo di Los Angeles di 15 anni. I
suoi fratelli, di circa 5 anni più grandi, soffrono del fenomeno contrario:
parlano benissimo italiano come lingua nativa, parlano bene inglese come chi
ha studiato fin dalle High school negli stati uniti, ma comunque si sente
che non sono native speakers.
Questo per dirti quanto potrebbe non bastare ad esempio parlare al bambino
in inglese fino all'età di 6-7 anni, presumendo che dopo, comunque vadano le
cose, se lo ricorderà per tutta la vita.
Spero di averti dato degli spunti di riflessione. Auguri per il bambino!
Giovanni Bajo

 an so on.
Don't bother even to try! It would not work, unless you were of
English mother tongue and knew only little Italian or for another
reason spoke only English with your husband, child, and everybody else
in the house.
---
Xakero

in the house.
...
however, if you persist, you may want to join the bilingual discussion
group at 
http://www.byu.edu/~bilingua/
---
Xakero
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://usenet.iol.it
 

trying to !
I don't have any direct experience about that. If your idea
is to have your child to become *really* bilingual, I guess
that could be accomplished only if one of the parents is
a native English speaker.
+--
I know you can't speak, I know you can't sign
So cry right here on the dotted line

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 ha studiato fin dalle High school negli stati uniti, ma comunque si sente
I confirm what is said above from my own experience as a mother of two
children born in Romania but educated in England since they were nine
and ten.  They still speak Romanian at home with their parents but
they talk to each other and think in English. Although their spoken
Romanian is near perfect, the written Romanian is quite poor and they
refuse to read Romanian books because they find reading in Romanian
"too difficult". English has replaced Romanian as mothertongue, as
most of their education, from secondary school to university, was done
in English.
In light of my experience with my sons, I don't think that a person
can be perfectly bilingual: one language, usually the language in
which he/she was educated for most of the time, will become the
person's dominant language.
In practical terms, it doesn't matter in which language parents speak
to a child. It is good for a child to start a foreign language while
in nursery but the child won't turn a bilingual just because of
another language has entered in his/her life. The only thing that
matters is the language in which the child will be educated.
A discussion on bilinguals took place on it.cultura. linguistica and
everybody agreed there was not such a thing as a bilingual (someone
who speaks two different languages with the same degree of
perfection).
However, not everything is lost with the secondary language, the
language learned at home. My elder son choose Italian language as a
part of his degree.  He is the best student of his intake and often
praised for his Italian good pronounciation and verbal skills. The
Romanian spoken at home put him ahead of competition, at least when it
comes to Italian...

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