Is it possible to raise a child trilingual?

Published by Charlie Davidson on

Is it possible to raise a child trilingual?

Being bilingual or trilingual can put young children somewhat behind their peers in English vocabulary development or grammar, but most catch up by seventh grade, says Camille Du Aime, head of the primary school at the Atlanta International School, a private school with immersion programs in Spanish, French and German.

Can you raise a child speaking 3 languages?

There are many things you need to raise a multilingual child. This could mean your child can speak 3, 4, 5 or even 6 languages, but is not actually fluent in one of them. If a child does not have the language resources necessary to help language learning, they cannot become fluent.

How do you raise a trilingual child book?

Top 10 Books about Raising Bilingual Children

  1. Be bilingual—Practical ideas for multilingual families (Bourgogne)
  2. Maximize your child’s bilingual ability (Beck)
  3. Raising a bilingual child (Pearson)
  4. The bilingual edge: Why, when, and how to teach your child a second language (King & Mackey)

How do I teach my child 3 languages?

Read books in your own language, learn songs, show videos and cartoons. Teach your child to read and write in this language. Multilingualism opens up distant horizons. Think of it like this: a multilingual child does not only speaks several languages, but he or she belongs to several cultures.

What is the best age to teach a child a second language?

Paul Thompson and his team found out that the brain systems in charge of language learning have accelerated growth from six years old until puberty. Another study was done at MIT and it concluded that the most optimal time to learn a new language and achieve native fluency was by age 10.

How many languages are too many for a child?

The rule of thumb is that about 30% of a child’s waking hours needs to be spent in a language to obtain conversational fluency, so, realistically, you’re looking at a max of three languages. Once you have those three languages at a decent level, it would make sense to add another one.

How many languages is too many for a child?

How do I make sure my child is bilingual?

Expose them to your language in many ways: Read and tell stories, play games, sing songs and play music in your native language. Look for play groups or other activities in your community that support your child’s use of their second language.

How does a bilingual brain work?

As bilingual individuals age, their brains show evidence of preservation in the temporal and parietal cortices. There also is more connectivity between the frontal and posterior parts of the brain compared with monolingual people, enhancing cognitive reserve.

Should I speak to my child in two languages?

Mixing languages is both inevitable and harmless. But to some unfamiliar with bilingualism, it’s proof that the child can’t really tell the languages apart. Most children who are raised bilingual do resort to mixing as they sort out both languages.

Is it possible to raise a trilingual child?

Yes, you could raise a bilingual or a trilingual child as a non-native speaker. You would need to rely on resources in a second language, such as books, audio books, CDs/ DVDs with children’s songs and cartoons, children’s radio , in order for your child to pick up the correct accent and grammar.

What are the trilingual languages of my Children?

For those who are just joining our journey, we are raising trilingual children who speak English, Chinese, and Korean. English is the dominant language in our small town, USA. My children’s minority languages are Chinese (through me) and Korean (through our nanny).

What are some fun things to do with a trilingual child?

You can invent a football game, where you have to do as many goals as possible by moving the ball only by blowing on it ), move small pieces of paper from one container to another holding them by sucking though a straw, slowly increase the distance and use thicker paper.

What’s the best way to raise a multilingual child?

Therefore, speaking, the most common ways of exposing a child to a language is one of the most important aspect of language learning for babies starting from the very birth. In this section, I summarized the tips on how to raise a multilingual child from the perspective of speaking.

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