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Growing Up Bilingual
By: Meredith Price, Adapted from: The Jerusalem Post
http://meredithprice.com/articles/foundintranslation.html
1. Yarden Dvir, like many children in Israel, is growing up in a bilingual home, where
two languages are spoken interchangeably. A few years ago, it seemed odd to her
that some people in Israel only speak Hebrew, while her family speaks both Hebrew
and English. "When our daughter Yarden spoke to her Israeli cousins in English, she
didn't realize that they wouldn't understand her," explains her mother. Now, at the
age of nearly four and a half, Yarden has learned how to navigate between the
languages and fully understands when to speak Hebrew and when to speak English.
And she is not alone. After the age of two, most bilingual children are capable not
only of clearly distinguishing between their two languages, but also of knowing who
speaks what languages and under what circumstances.
2. The experts unanimously agree that keeping things in a multilingual home as
natural as possible is the best way for children to acquire language. "People should
raise their children how they feel comfortable," advises Dr. Sharon Armon-Lotem, a
language-acquisition specialist and a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University. Perhaps one
reason why parents are so concerned about using more than one language at home
is because for many years, bilinguals were considered to be at a disadvantage rather
than at an advantage.
3. In the past, unfounded urban legends about bilinguals being confused, slow to
speak and weaker in both languages than monolinguals were widely circulated.
Today, thanks to innovative research and migration trends, things are changing. Over
the past 10 years, serious linguistic studies have revealed that many bilingual
phenomena, such as mixing languages, are not random or unusual. Every
multilingual family is accustomed to hearing a mixture of languages. Things like
"that's my sefer" or "ani rotsa olives" or "not on the shulhan!" are commonplace in
Hebrew-English bilingual households, and the same mishmashes also appear in
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other language combinations. When she was younger, Yarden Dvir even made up a
word of her own using a combination of both languages. "Chickicolet" was her
personal name for both a chicken and a tarnegolet.
Questions
1. Yarden Dvir is mentioned in paragraph 1 as an example of a
______________________________ (ONE WORD) child. This means that
she can ______________________________________________________
2. Answer these questions based on paragraphs 2-3.
a. Why do many parents worry about using two (or more) languages with their
children? (Complete the sentence.)
Because they believe that ________________________________________
b. Do the experts agree with the view of these parents? YES / NO
Quote from the text to support your answer.
Par. #: _________
Quote:
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
c. Does the writer agree with the view of these parents? YES / NO
Which words from the text helped you answer?
________________________________________ (2-3 words)
3. a. (par.3) "…things are changing". (Complete the following sentence to explain the
change.)
In contrast to past beliefs, today bilingual children are not viewed as
_____________________________________________________
b. Which two factors contributed to this change?
_______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
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Growing Up Bilingual / 2
4. a. "That's my sefer" and "chickicolet" are examples of _______________________.
b. What does the writer think about this phenomenon?
a. It is a negative outcome of confusing Hebrew and English
b. It is a random and unusual bilingual phenomenon
c. It is a widespread and typical way of using two languages
d. It is not good to get accustomed to such phrases
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4. Aside from creating humor, recent studies have shown that children who speak
more than one language from an early age also show cognitive advantages over
monolinguals in problem-solving tasks. These advantages seem to relate to the fact
that bilinguals have different ways of analyzing problems and extra faculties for
storing concepts. Prof. Joel Walters, the chair of the English Department at Bar-Ilan
University, recently published a book entitled Bilingualism: The SociopragmaticPsycholinguistic Interface (2005), in which he reviews some of the phenomena that
make bilinguals cognitively unique. "For a bilingual, speaking in two languages and
flipping between them is as easy and natural as breathing," writes Walters.
5. So while bilinguals do differ from monolinguals, for many families in Israel, being
different is a good thing. "My children are not afraid of situations in which they don't
know the language since they have a lot of cognitive flexibility and adapt easily to
multilingual situations," says Susie Russak, the coordinator for the support services
in English at Beit Berl College and the mother of three bilingual children.
6. Having two languages is also closely tied to identity and family life. Often, bilingual
children need their second language to communicate with close family members who
either live in Israel but do not speak Hebrew, or who live abroad. "We chose to speak
to our girls in English so that they can communicate with their grandparents who only
speak English," says Efrat Gold, a physiotherapist from Ra'anana who is raising two
bilingual daughters. "They understood from an early age that they could only speak
English to their grandparents and have never had any trouble with confusion."
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Growing Up Bilingual / 3
Questions
5. Which positive aspect of bilingualism is discussed in paragraph 4? (Complete the
sentence.)
Bilinguals may be better at ____________________________ than
monolinguals because they are able to _______________________________
in a unique way and they have additional _____________________________.
6. What may help bilingual children deal with situations where people don’t speak
their languages?_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
7. But raising bilingual children also involves challenges. Because social identity is
closely linked to language, children sometimes rebel against anything that makes
them different from their peers, including the use of another language. If their home
language, be it English, Russian, German, Arabic or something else, differs from the
dominant language of society, they might decide that the language of their peers is
more important for social adjustment. Parents should be prepared to deal with those
situations without being bullied into either relinquishing their own language by
language clinicians or forcing their children to use only one language. Until three
months ago, Yair Geri, the four-and-a-half-year-old son of Danielle and Dan Geri,
spoke mostly English to his bilingual mother. He recently decided to speak Hebrew to
her too. "I got good advice from Jack Moore, the director of his kindergarten (Kids'
Gan in Ra'anana) about how to handle this change," explains Geri. "When I tried to
force Yair to speak English, he rebelled, but now that I let him express himself in
whatever language comes easier, he has naturally gone back to using more English."
8. One little Japanese boy who also attends Kids' Gan refused to respond to a
Japanese greeting. "That's for my mother," he said emphatically, hands on hips and
brow furrowed. For him, Japanese is not acceptable in the public domain. It is a
special tongue he only uses with his mother. It is important to accept what children
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choose to do with their language because it relates closely to their feelings and
sense of identity.
Questions
7. In paragraph 7 the writer says: "But raising bilingual children also involves
challenges." Skim paragraphs 7-9 to find two challenges related to language.
a. ________________________________________________________
b. _________________________________________________________
8. a. For English- and Russian-speaking children growing up in Israel, what is
"the language of their peers" (par. 7)? ____________________________
b. Why do they prefer to speak this language?
Because it helps their ____________________________________________
9. The writer mentions several ways of dealing with the first challenge of
bilingualism (par. 7). Two of these approaches seem inappropriate, while the
third one is recommended. Fill in the table with the relevant information.
Ways of Dealing with Challenge 1
Inappropriate Approaches
The Recommended Approach
10. Which two examples show why the recommended approach is preferable?
________________________________
________________________________
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Growing Up Bilingual / 5
9. One additional challenge for bilingual children arises when difficulties with
language do occur. Many speech therapists, who are trained to deal with
monolingual difficulties, do not consider the fact that bilinguals with language
problems need to be treated differently. Armon-Lotem claims that there are two types
of speech therapists in Israel: those who recommend waiting out a problem and
those who diagnose the problem but give the wrong advice, such as foregoing one of
the languages.
10. Although many language clinicians in Israel recommend dropping one language if
bilinguals encounter problems, according to Armon-Lotem, the more exposure to the
two languages, the better. "If a child has problems with their first language, they will
most likely also have problems with their second language," she explains. "The
problems are underlying and are not caused by the bilingualism. If problems exist
anyway, more exposure can only help and not hurt." The linguistics department at
Bar-Ilan University is currently conducting a study of bilingual children with language
impairments to try to prove that their language difficulties are not connected to the
fact that they speak more than one language. "For many years, it was assumed that
problems are caused by bilingualism. We are trying to prove that this is not the case
and that bilinguals with language problems are not at risk because of their
bilingualism," explains Armon-Lotem.
Questions
11. Why don’t many speech therapists treat the language problems of bilingual
children appropriately?
______________________________________________________________
12. The writer mentions several ways of dealing with the second challenge of
bilingualism (par. 9-10). Two of these approaches seem inappropriate, while
the third one is recommended. Fill in the table with the relevant information.
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Ways of Dealing with Challenge 2
Inappropriate Approaches
The Recommended Approach
13. According to the Bar-Ilan researchers, what is the main cause of bilingual
children's language difficulties?
a. Too much exposure to each language
b. Mixing two different languages together
c. Some underlying language problem
d. Impairment in their second language
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11. So what can parents who are raising bilingual children do to improve their
children's language other than speak to them? Start as early as possible, keep things
natural and provide an exciting learning atmosphere. "Try to maintain a language-rich
environment with lots of stimuli like songs, films, literature, videos and
conversations," recommends Russak, who is also the author of a series of books
aimed at helping people with language difficulties. At the same time, the second
language needs to be presented as more than a song or a rhyme. In order to ensure
successful language acquisition, children need to be exposed to it in a setting where
it will be natural and spontaneous to speak and use the language.
12. As each situation is unique, no general rules and regulations apply to everyone
for raising bilingual children. Some linguists recommend the "one parent-one
language" approach to avoid confusing the child. However, it has not been proven
that mixing languages at home creates any more problems for the bilingual child than
strictly separating each language. And if the division between languages is unnatural,
it might do more harm than good. So forget trying to stop children from saying, "I
want mitz" or "buba is hurt." Mixed speech is part of a natural process. At the end of
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the day, raising bilingual children might be more demanding than raising monolingual
children, but the multilingual families in Israel seem to unanimously agree that the
challenges are well worth meeting.
Questions
14. (Paragraphs 11-12) Below are suggested ways of raising bilingual children.
Which of them, according to the writer, will ensure successful language
development? (Circle all of the correct answers).
a. introducing the "one parent-one language" approach
b. using stimulating learning activities
c. preventing children from mixing languages at home
d. creating conditions for natural language use
e. speaking regularly to bilingual children
f. creating natural ways of separating the languages
g. demanding that children become monolingual
h. allowing children to use both languages simultaneously
15. a. Which approach does the writer see as more problematic – mixing
languages or
separating them? ________________________________
b. What is the main criticism of this approach? It is not ________________
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