Nursery World - Home learning - A parent's guide to ... bilingualism

More children now grow up with two or more languages, but how can
you help them learn? Penny Tassoni offers some advice.

One of the wonderful changes to our society is the increasing numbers of children who have more than one language. It is estimated that one in six children in schools have two or more languages. But while there has been an increase in the number of bilingual children, it can be hard to find advice about how best to support their learning. Here are some of the things that all parents and adults working with children need to know about learning two or more languages.

1. Languages are codes

Learning a language requires children to break and then use a code. Children who are bilingual are, therefore, using more than one code. In order to speak fluently, children will need to learn the sounds of each language (phonology), the meanings of words and phrases (semantics) and also the grammar, including word order.

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