The Bilingual Edge - Book Review

As someone with a Masters degree in Communication, speech and language have always fascinated me. I've written before about how excited I am to watch and participate as Myles acquires language. In fact, we're planning on teaching him pre-verbal language skills with baby signs, starting around six months.

I was interested to read and review The Bilingual Edge, a book written by two women who are both linguistic researchers and parents, for several reasons:

• As part of my graduate work, I took several classes in linguistics and speech development. I've actually read research conducted by the authors, Kendall King and Alison Mackey
• I have seven years of Spanish language study, including a minor in Spanish, but I never had a chance to become fluent. At some point, I'd like to give Myles an opportunity to do what I didn't.
• Teaching a child a second language seems like a daunting task, hell, teaching them a first language is hard enough! This book promises to answer the questions "Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language".

The authors are extremely knowledgeable and the book is easy to read and structured well. It offers information on how to choose a second language to teach your child, when to begin bilingual education and how to promote bilingualism at home.

I enjoyed the additional information provided regarding how children acquire language and different learning styles. The authors also provide information to debunk common myths about language learning.

The benefits of teaching children a second language are huge.  Being bilingual teaches children to think in different and more creative ways, it helps them to break down cultural barriers, and in today's global society, knowing a second language is clearly advantageous. But where do you start?The Bilingual Edge helps to answer that question by providing information on choosing the best language education program for your child.

I will say, I felt a bit that the authors, both of whom have a PhD in linguistics make it all sound a bit too easy. Teaching a child a second language is a huge commitment and it seems the authors gloss over that somewhat. On the other hand, this book provides a great jumping-off point for those interested in getting started and a lot of really rich information on the topic of bilingual education.

If you're interested in learning more about how children acquire language or in getting your child started on learning a second language, this book is a must-read. The Parent Bloggers Network has more reviews of The Bilingual Edge. It's interesting to get other perspectives on what is quickly becoming a new parenting trend.

Comments

[Michelle]

Hullo from a long-time reader but now a seldom commenter 'cause, well, I'm childless and have very little to contribute these days. :)

Anyhoodle... I noticed that you are planning to start baby signs with Myles starting around 6 months. If I may... I am almost fluent in American Sign Language (like Arabella, I think) and was taught by a deaf woman married to a deaf man who have 2 hearing daughters. Of course, they started signing to their babies immediately and by 3 months old, the babes could make the sign for Milk when they were ready to breastfeed and nap when they were ready to sleep. Perhaps you could start sooner with Myles with the basics?

[HeatherK]

Two of my online friends have done the one parent/one language bilingual thing with their kids (Russian/Spanish) and it's interesting to see how the kids progressed with language. We did a handful of simple signs with the girls and it really, really helped in that time from 8-12 months, especially with feeding and requests. My 3yo even reverts to using a signed 'please' or 'more' when she really, really wants something. ;-)

[Arabella]

Thanks for the review; it sounds like a very interesting book. I've been speaking to my kids a bit in Italian, and reading them some Italian storybooks, but I have no idea whether I'm going about it the right way. Maybe I'll pick up a copy of this book.

(Also, thanks for recommending Freddie the Firefly! He's wonderful!)

[Ortizzle]

I have scads of anglo friends in Spain who married Spaniards and I could go on and on about the problems and rewards of a bilingual education. One thing for sure: yes, ultimately, it is a great thing in my opinion. How to go about it is a very particular question. My English-speaking friends managed to raise children in Spain who spoke perfect English until they started school. Once they were surrounded by Spanish speaking children in school, they would tolerate Mom speaking in English to them, but answer in Spanish. At some point during their teen years, if the mom insisted enough, there was a reversal and they began picking up on their English skills, realizing how advantageous it was to have a mother who was a native speaker of English. All of them ended up bilingual to varying degrees, and in their cases, they were also bilingual culturally.

It is critical to have a language model in the home in the early years if you want them to develop blingualism naturally. If you don't have that advantage, your best bet is a private school (one of these international ones that offers 2 or 3 languages.) Children can pick up a lot, say, from a Spanish speaking nanny, but if they aren't required to use it, all of their skills can gradually fade as they grow older.

On another front, I teach Spanish to a lot of "heritage speakers"... kids of latino parents who grew up here. They understand and even speak Spanish well, but their writing is full of errors and their level of vocabulary is limited to everyday language with a lot of Tex-Mex thrown in.

Sorry, I said I could go on and on, and now I have. It's just that this is a topic I am familiar with from both sides of the pond, and from birth to adulthood. Not an easy question to answer, but there are a lot of advantages, for sure, as I said.

In my own particular case, I would say it has kept a few of my dendrites from withering up altogether. I spend every day speaking an equal amount of each language, and when you think about it... that's double the vocabulary in your head, to say nothing of language parsing skills, and maybe that will fend off the horrors of Alzheimer's disease further on down the road, LOL.

[Mommy off the Record]

My parents are both Spanish language teachers, but are of Italian heritage and also speak Italian. We decided early on that we wanted them to speak to my son in either Spanish or Italian when they watch him (3 days a week). What ended up happening is that my mom decided to speak only to him in Italian. We read that children learn language faster when they associate the language with a person. He now understands a lot of Italian and knows quite a few words but he only uses it with her. For example, when he goes to say goodbye to everyone he says "kiss, hug, bye bye" in English to everyone but then when he gets to my mom, he says it in Italian. It's quite fascinating!

[Boca Beth]

I preordered this book when I read a Google Alert about it coming out in July 2007! I love it, refer to it often as a bilingual mom and educator and raise others' awareness of how great it can be to raise a bilingual child.

I have lived in an English-speaking only home, a Spanish-speaking only home and a dual language home and know how daunting the task is of trying to introduce two languages and maintain the level of proficiency of both with three children.

This book addresses many myths and clears them up, and the authors shed light in a very approachable manner on the topic of how can I do this if ........

Now if we would all make the commitment as parents to give the gift of a second language to our children since our system/society is clearly never going to.

Not everyone can afford the nannies, the private schools, and that is why I am thrilled with other affordable resources available to begin the second language journey early in life! Just do an internet search - you will find lots of tools to make it fun and easier than ten years ago.

Happy Educating!
¡Sea feliz educando!

Boca Beth

[stella]

zack and i have talked about teaching our children french while we are teaching them english.

but first we have to learn french.

the little bit we picked up in france for that month...was pretty exciting. we think we could do it.

so now im convinced i have to buy the Rosetta Stone.

awesome.