With an ever-growing bilingual population, it is important to be aware of the benefits that bilingualism can bring. This can be helpful for parents, teachers and anyone responsible for advising and supporting those who raise and educate children who speak more than one language.
Every family’s multilingual journey is unique, and there is no secret formula for success. However, there are some key conditions that can impact children’s linguistic development.
It is very common nowadays to walk around any city or large town in Ireland and hear many different languages. Main streets are populated with road signs in Irish and English and with shop fronts that signal the presence of ethnic food, with signs written in Chinese, Arabic and Polish.
Taking roles is a fun activity that uses children’s incredible imagination and creativity, while supporting their development of language and communication as well as problem-solving skills.
Establishing communication channels helps teachers to learn more about the children, their history and their home environment, but it also helps parents on learning more about what happens in school.
While in the past it was common practice to refrain children from speaking their mother tongue in school, compelling evidence has been showing the benefits of supporting children’s learning across languages and through the inclusion of their mother tongue.
Research shows that dual language books are effectiveOver the last 20 years countries in Europe have seen an increase of approximately 20% in the population that speaks a language other…