ExchangeEveryDay Past Issues

In my experience of many years of working with several groups of bilingual children the key to success is absolutely making every language valued and celebrating all the cultures-it is the school and the teacher's responsibility to support that idea that every child has value, every family every language- that can be done even in an environment where one language is used.To be an immigrant, to be an immigrant family is of itself of greatvalue to any community- their experiences enrich the whole- but this view must be integrated within the identity of the schoool community.

Regardless of what language a child's parents speak it's vitally important that he become fluent in the language of his new home country. If the child is in the United States he better learn English for his own good, and of course the same is true of French in France or German in Germany.

Of course it's a plus for anyone to be multilingual, but to be successful in any society you first must learn to speak it's language. Sometimes the learning process can be painful as Ms. Sekam pointed out, but sometimes life is just tough, and learning to deal with difficult situations is an important lesson too.

As to some languages seeming to be "more important" than others... well in a matter of speaking it's true. Sorry if offends anyone but the fact of the matter is if you are doing business in the world English is more important than Arabic (for example)... not that there is anything wrong with Arabic but far fewer people in the business (or academic for that matter) worlds speak it.

Language depends on environment where the child grows up in the childhood
We know the child have the capacity of words according to ages. Suppose a
three years old child has the capacity about 4000 words . I speak in Bengali
Hindi and English now but when I was 8 years I could not speak three languages . Now my child 8 years old can speak three languages because we
speak with him three languages and he is very very interested in this matter.

Languages are one of many tools we must offer our children. Learning other languages, either because the family speaks spanish or french or what ever language it is, it opens a world of opportunities to develope their aceptance, knowledge and curriosity of others as well as respect. Children that speak more than one language have a window of opportunity for life.
Children that learned a second or third language in school feel very proud of them self as they appreciete and develope a great deal of advantage over others.
I, my self speak three languages fluently and understand two more, my children speak three and i teach kindergartener a second language. They enjoy and discover their capability as well as they have fun.

Unfortunately, far too many teachers in the United States don't understand the value of supporting multilingualism.They discourage parents from speaking their native language at home. On the flip side, I've seen high school students whose teachers and families did support multilingualism.They are able to move between languages effortlessly, a skill that will certainly be valuable in the workplace. And, they have strong identities that reflect their different cultures, including their family's home culture and their Ameican culture. On a personal note, I feel deprived of my opportunity to be a native bilingual speaker. Believing it would be better for her children, my mother never taught us her native Yiddish. That is one of the reasons I am very supportive of families teaching their native langauge to their children as they are learning English in school.