Blog Posts

Reading aloud with multilingual children (of all ages)

26/3/2022

By Ana Elisa Miranda, Ute Limacher-Riebold and Yoshito Darmon-Shimamori

Reading aloud is one of the most powerful things we can do to support language and literacy development.

This simple activity has an incredible impact on vocabulary, knowledge, confidence, emotional connection between children and adults, and much more.

For a multilingual family, reading aloud in different languages is like a window into different cultures and into the sounds, rhythm, words, structure and beauty of each language.

By reading aloud together we enrich and empower our children's language skills, helping them grow into confident multilinguals.

In this video, we talk about:

How to read aloud and make it engaging.
Why reading aloud is important in a multilingual family.
Which language we should read in.
The overall benefits of reading aloud with our children.
How we can read together with our children when they are:

- Babies
- Toddlers and pre-school children
- School-aged children and teenagers

We also give tips on how to support children who read in different scripts. So, stick to the end and don’t miss these!

Watch the video here and let us know in the comments: what’s your top tip for reading with children?

More about reading aloud:

0 Comments

How to help our children with pronunciation in a playful way

3/3/2022

0 Comments

A Tongue Twister is a sentence that has repeated sounds, which make it difficult to say without stumbling.

Tongue twisters are good for improving pronunciation and speaking skills. They are like physical exercises, as we strengthen and stretch the muscles involved in speech when we try to articulate them. This muscle exercise leads to a clearer pronunciation, to clearer speech patterns and helps to rectify sounds that could be hard for us to articulate.

Tongue twisters challenge our capacity to enunciate the individual sounds in each word so we don't trip up, they force us to pay careful attention to the precise sounds in each word.

They are not only a good exercise for beginners in the target language, but also for those whose articulation is affected, for example by retainers or tooth gaps.
Tongue Twisters are also a great warm up for actors, singers and public speakers!
When playing with Tongue Twisters, the aim is to enunciate the sentence as quickly as possible without making mistakes.

The fun part is that it is a tricky exercise for everyone! Even proficient speakers! So it can help children be less afraid of making mistakes and just give it a go.

Do you play tongue twisters with your children?
Which tongue twisters do you remember from your childhood?
What tongue twisters do you know in your other languages?

In this video we share some easy and fun ways to use tongue twisters with your children in all their languages.

You can find tongue twisters in over 100 languages here:
https://www.tongue-twister.net

Have fun with your languages!

0 Comments

Who is considered multiliterate?

24/1/2022

0 Comments

Languages are fluid, lively things. Your skills might change according to how much you speak, listen, read or write in a particular language. Multilinguals are rarely equally proficient in all their languages.

For example: my first language is Brazilian Portuguese. I then learned English, which I currently use the most - for work, relationships, leisure, studies. I often catch myself thinking in English. At this moment, I am highly proficient in all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). I use Portuguese much less often, and can even notice a "lack of fluency": forgetting words, losing my natural regional accent.

On top of that I have learned some French, but it is quite inactive at the moment. I can read and listen with some comprehension, and my speaking and writing skills are quite basic. Then there's (Flemish) Dutch, which I understand, speak, read and write often, to get by where I live. I can communicate in social situations but I am unable to use it for academic, formal or professional settings.

If I were to switch jobs or move to a different country, this whole balance would shift.
Despite the varying levels of skill, I read and write in more than one language, so I am considered multiliterate.

In her book, Learning to read and write in the multilingual family, Xiao-lei Wang describes a "multilingual literacy competency continuum" and defines the key elements of what being multiliterate means:

“actively using more than one language in reading and writing;
with different proficiency levels;
for a particular purpose.”

When it comes to our children and our goal of raising them multiliterate, it is important to reflect on the following:

What can they already do in each of their languages?
Why is it important that they learn to read and write in each language?
What level of proficiency do we expect in each language?
For what purpose will they read and write in (language)?

So, it is not really a question of “Will your multilingual children also be multiliterate?”
It is more a matter of where in the multilingual literacy competency continuum they will stand, in different moments in their lives.

***

0 Comments

3 tips to travel light as a multilingual family

17/12/2021

0 Comments

by Ute Limacher-Riebold and Ana Elisa Miranda

Have you ever packed a backpack in the wrong way? Made it too heavy, causing you back pain; brought the wrong or unnecessary things, making it difficult to reach what you actually needed, quickly enough?

Or have you ever been on a hike where the pace was much faster than yours, so that you ended up exhausted, frustrated and didn’t enjoy the journey?

If we carry too much, the wrong items, or walk too fast, we can get out of breath, frustrated and are more prone to giving up, as we don’t enjoy the journey.

Raising children with multiple languages is a journey that starts before the children are born and never ends.

Here are 3 tips on how to “travel light” on your multilingual journey:

1. Define the journey

As parents of multilingual children, we are on some kind of international journey. We either live abroad in our partner’s country, or our partner is a foreigner in our country, or we live in a country where both of us are foreigners.

Each parent brings his or her very own baggage. This is our cultural background, our attitudes, preferences, habits, patterns, ideas and expectations, our personal experiences, values, beliefs, assumptions, convictions, our way of doing things, as well as our way of communicating, our languages, our memories and more. Our baggage is determined by what we consider important, essential and “good to carry with us” on our life-journey.

When on a journey together, following the same goal and carrying what is necessary to reach it, makes the journey easier. You are less likely to become overwhelmed and to experience attrition. You should have enough energy to focus on what is really important.

Have you agreed and defined the multilingual journey of your family?
What are the short and long term goals for you, your partner, your children?

2. Pack your baggage wisely

The art of packing a backpack is to think carefully about what we really need. Translated to our multilingual journey, this means:

Decide if judgments or expectations (of others as well as our own) are important for us or not. Do they support our short and long term goals?

We all have our very own assumptions, experiences and expectations. Some are relics from our childhood or earlier phases of our life, and we carry them like a safety blanket to give us comfort.

Are your expectations aligned with your common goal or are they rather hindering you, your partner or your child?
Are the expectations you have realistic and achievable?

If our assumptions and expectations are realistic, we keep them, if some are not helpful right now, we can put them aside (in a mental drawer).

Have a survival kit. Items we must always bring on a hike are a water bottle, food, a first aid kit and our IDs (and with young children, everything we need to take care of them).

On our multilingual journey, these would be resources that “feed” our languages: books, music, games, podcasts, audiobooks, lessons, playgroups; websites and discussion groups that can give us the necessary support; a guide for parents of multilingual children, or our Toolbox for Multilingual Families, where you can find activities and games to foster your languages and enjoy communicating with your children.

Do you know how to keep transmitting your language, in an engaging and motivating way for the whole family?

3. Adjust the pace

For a hike to be successful and enjoyable for every family member, it is important to distribute the weights wisely. We adults carry the heavier items, and our children carry the lighter ones. Our older children can also take over some tasks and roles, depending on their abilities and strengths.

During our journey, the pace of our walk should allow us to proceed and progress steadily. This means keeping the pace of the weakest or youngest person in the group, stopping when the youngest or weakest member is tired, because a group – or team – is only as strong and effective as its weakest member. This also means that the group will do their best to support each other to achieve the common goal.

One of our goals on our multilingual journey is to reach the milestones safely and with enough energy left to enjoy the landscape and celebrate the small steps.

Have you paused to consider the pace you are going?
Is every member of the family feeling supported and enjoying the journey?

We have created a journal prompt to help you reflect on your cultural baggage. Download it here.

0 Comments

22 Reading Prompts for Multilingual Children

10/12/2021

0 Comments

December has started with wet, cold, dark days here in Belgium.

But also with sweet smells of candles and baking, comfy sweaters, slowing down and looking forward to a break.

How have you been?

I have a gift and an invitation for you today: let's read more. You, me, our kids.

Here are 22 Reading Prompts for us to try this month. Let's get cozy, slow down, enjoy good stories together. Download it here.

Have a lovely end of 2021!