Prof. K.Wilson
Eng103.0855
Rezwana Islam
5/5/2007
Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens
George Saunders Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens was written for those
parents who are raising children bilingually. Saunders focuses on child Psychology and
history of bilingualism. The writer is mainly giving a background in linguistics, and
explaining some terminology and procedures in terms in a bilingual world. Bilingual
families are not an uncommon phenomenon now- a- days. As Joshua Fishman says,
“more than half of the world’s population today uses more than one language while
engaging in the activities basic to human needs”. In some societies such as: India, South
America, south east Africa bilingualism has been considered a norm. Other facts such as:
interest for acquiring new languages and leaving homelands to settle or work in other
countries for a better opportunity also lead bilingualism. Saunders explains the reason
why language shirt takes place, and why some parents fail to pass their language on to
their children? If an immigrant settles in an area of his new country where he has scope to
speak his language to a considerable number of people, he will not loose contact with his
language. His children would be able to communicate with them frequently and they will
improve their native language. Unlike this incident, if a family settles down in an area
where they don’t have much scope to use their language, they wouldn’t see any valid
reason to pass on their language on to their children. Some parents simply don’t want to
overwhelm their children with the load of two languages and shift quickly to using only
the majority language. Thus, children ended up learning only the majority language of the
country they live. According to the Australian linguist Michael Clyne, “the children of
immigrants will learn the majority language better if they forget their home language and
Prof. K.Wilson
Eng103.0855
Rezwana Islam
5/5/2007
if only the majority language is spoken in the home”. Unlike this comment, this book
portrays an optimistic view of raising children bilingually. As Henriette vent says, “I do
not think that in bringing up normally intelligent children bilingually, there is any danger
that their English will suffer and turn in to a hodgepodge. Their schooling as well as the
fact that most of their day is spent speaking English outside the home should prevent
that”. Even though becoming a balanced bilingual would be hard for children, it would be
a wise decision to teach them to know and speak their home language than to drop it all
together for fear of achieving ‘mediocre’ result.