Children growing up

My son is 7 and is 'bilingual'. Perhaps I should explain why I use inverted commas: although he has always spoken two languages, (English and Kurdish) his ability in Kurdish seems to be less, rather than more as the years pass. He speaks less well than he did when he was younger. He is forgetting vocabulary, and the gap between the two languages gets progressively wider and wider. He has a sophisticated command of English for his age and he is frustrated with his clumsy expression in Kurdish. More and more words of English, or constructions that are basically English with Kurdish words, creep into his conversations with his father. It seems that being a child bilingual is not a battle that is ever won once and for all, but an ongoing struggle! I wonder if there is something else we need to do now to make sure his command of Kurdish does not deteriorate to the point where he stops using it. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Ricky

I wondered if you can quickly tell us what you have already tried and what you are already doing - as I think that this would help people make more suggestions.

Claire

My son's are 8 and 9. I remember being worried when they started school, because I was not sure what to do with their second language. Since they were very young, I have tried to maintain an environment at home where the second language (French) was prominent. Books, games and television have always been as much as possible in French. But as they grow they become more independent: they learn from what they hear but also from what they read. As soon as they are ready for it, learning how to read is very important to keep learning the second language by themselves. My older son often surprises me with words he learns by reading about subjects he is interested in (animal dictionaries, comics). Because they don't attend a language school I did not want to confuse them with learning different sounds as long as they were learning how to read their first language, and I started teaching them to read the second language when they were fluent readers in their first language, and this will depend on each child (only started recently with my younger son). Because they know the words by hearing, it is much easier for them to learn to read, with a little guidance in the beginning, they can learn very quickly. I am obviously talking about a second language which has the same alphabet as the first language.

Hi

Thanks so much for the posts. Sorry for the long delay in replying. Dana and his father have been away in Sweden, visiting Saad's brothers. Saad tells me that Dana's Kurdish is MUCH improved by 11 days of speaking Kurdish with a variety of speakers, including - most excitingly and first time ever! - a child of his own age (and a boy at that!). So that is great and it has given him a boost, but I realise that now the rest of the year is going to be a slow erosion of what he has learnt....

Karin, I agree with you about reading. To that end I have been trying to learn to read and write in Kurdish myself !!! It is a long haul but now I recognize the script and so can help Dana, with Saad's help. It's a bit like the blind leading the blind, as, although Saad is literate in Arabic, he is not in Kurdish and neither is he a natural teacher. (Hence he needs me to be involved.) another problem is that any Kurdish language school - if we could find one - might have some kind of agenda. So, it is all a bit of an uphill struggle. Notwithstanding, I think you are right and we have to pursue reading and writing. We were faltering, (there is little material for us to use) but what you say makes me determined to do it - that will be our goal for this year. (The next struggle will be to find things for him to read; there won't be the equivalent of Harry Potter in Kurdish!)

To answer Claire's question: Saad has always spoken to Dana in Kurdish -and he talks to him a lot- and Dana also speaks to various members of Saad's family. However, this does not seem to be enough. I'm discovering that the Nigerian saying: 'It takes a whole village to raise a child' is true, at least it is true that it takes a whole village to teach a child a language, even if that village is composed of videos, books and TV. You seem to need lots of input. Or have members discovered timely interventions that really do make a difference? We can't afford to go to Sweden more than once a year! And, as Dana gets older, the Swedish-Kurdish children will have learnt English at school and be keen to practice it, so that situation will change and another opportunity will disappear.

Dear Ricky,

Very interesting to hear about your experience!

I'm very excited! This summer my son's Croatian has just exploded while we were visiting our relatives in Bosnia! He was speaking it all the time with a range of people who use different accents. Even to me, to my surprise! He is 9 and this is the first time that I heard him speaking so much. He was very confident, accepting his mistakes, correcting himself which was not the case last year. He even reminded me once not to speak English to him when some English words accidentally slipped my tongue! It was so rewarding to see that all the work I have been putting in has finally materialised.

My husband speaks English to him and I speak to him in Croatian 99% of the time, and he responds to me 99% in English! We've had the same system since he was born. I've never had a hard on approach, but I've tried to incorporate the language into the activities he enjoys doing. As he loves acting and role play I've done lots of these with him in Croatian. I feel that this has boosted his linguistic confidence. He also started Croatian Saturday school in January this year and I'm sure this has also contributed to this sudden development. Although it's very hard to get him going on Saturdays, we have been persistent. We are now back in England and he has switched back to English! He promised this morning he will speak to me in Croatian every weekend.. As you say, unfortunately we can't visit our relatives so often. Watching this transition from passive knowledge to active usage was utterly rewarding! Good luck with your efforts! Mirela

Ah, I like the idea about role-play. Dana loves drama. Thanks, you have given me a new idea.

Good on you for your persistence. I have a friend who had the same sort of experience in Spain. She never gave up with the English and now her kids are bilingual.