Insights on bilingualism
Raising children in more than one language brings real questions, and the answers online sometimes contradict each other. I've gone through the research on the questions I hear most from parents, and written up the answers here.
- Language development
How to keep the home language alive during the school years
Something often changes in multilingual families when children start school. Here is what research shows about language loss during the school years and how to keep the home language strong.
Read more → - RICH LANGUAGE INPUT
Is 30% enough? On how much exposure a child needs to learn a language
The 30% input rule is a useful starting point, but research shows that age, measurement accuracy, and quality of exposure matter just as much.
Read more → - Family strategies
"Should I even try?" Raising bilingual kids when you're not a native speaker
Whether you should speak a language with your child when you're not a native speaker, and what the research says about how to think through it.
Read more → - Family strategies
One Person One Language (OPOL): does the research support it?
OPOL is one of the most widely cited strategies for bilingual families, but does research actually support it? The answer depends on your family setup.
Read more → - RICH LANGUAGE INPUT
What makes language input rich for learning? What the research on bilingualism says
Not all exposure to a language is equally useful for learning. Here is what research says about the kinds of input that actually drive acquisition.
Read more → - Language development
What the research says about why children mix languages
Language mixing in bilingual children is one of the most common concerns parents bring up. Here is what the research says about why it happens and what it means.
Read more → - Family strategies
The sibling effect: how brothers and sisters shape a family's languages
Siblings shape each other's language use in ways no parent strategy fully reaches. Here is what the research says about the sibling effect on bilingual development.
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