10/1, 9/29/2026
A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker.
One of them is related to bilingual and brain.
"Is it better for my child to learn a language early to secure better storage in the brain?" I've never thought this way!
"One recent area of research on bilinguals is how their two languages are stored and used in the brain. For example, if someone learns two languages from birth, with bilingualism as their first language, are the two languages stored differently in the brain from someone who learns a second language at school or in adult life?"
"One much publicized piece of research by Mechelli and colleagues (2004) suggests that learning a second language increases the density of the brain's gray matter. When comparing 25 monolinguals, 25 early bilinguals and 33 late bilinguals, brain gray matter density was greater in bilinguals than monolinguals, and with early bilinguals having an increased density over late bilinguals. The authors concluded that the 'structure of the brain is altered by the experience of acquiring a second language' (p.757).
Each parent speaks a different language to the child. This is often called the "one person-one language" )OPOL approach.
What are the advantages of my child becoming bilingual?
It will affect the rest of their lives and the lives of their parents. For children, being bilingual or monolingual may affect their identity, social arrangements, schooling, employment, marriage, area of residence, travel and thinking. ... Bilingualism has educational, social, economic and cultural consequences.
For many mothers and fathers, it is important for them to be able to speak to the child in their first language. This may enable a subtle, finer texture of relationship with the parent. Many parents can only communicate with full intimacy, naturally and expressively in their first language. ... At the same time, both parents are passing to that child part of their past, part of their heritage.
A bilingual child can bridge between generations.
The advantages of being bilingual: communication, culture, cognitive, curriculum, cash (economic benefits)
With two languages goes a wider cultural experience, and greater tolerance of cultural differences and less racism.
Bilingualism requires motivation and a positive attitude from parents, often considerable perseverance to achieve a distant goal, and a willingness not to expect too much too soon.
One important example of using a minority language is when the children are in their teenage years. If a parent speaks the majority language with a foreign accent, the teenager may be embarrassed. By speaking a minority language, the parent may retain more authority and credibility, and be more valued by the teenager. Continuity in minority language experience from early childhood through the teenage years is important if that minority language is to survive through to early adulthood.
There is a need to engineer the language environment in the home.
What are the most important factors in raising a bilingual child?
Children are born ready to become bilinguals and multilinguals.
Mistake to avoid: the child has learned that bilingualism is associated with pressure, anxiety and constant correction.
Avoid making it a source of conflict, a series of mini crises, and a competition against monolingual standards. A language castle is simultaneously built and attacked.
The wind of influence usually blow in the direction of the majority language. The balance of language experience needs tilting in favor of the minority language. While ensuring the child becomes fully fluent in the majority language, some sheltering from a pervasive majority language may be important.
A most important factor in raising a bilingual child is the language that surrounds language.
Will my child become equally fluent in two languages?
The answer is 'no' with only a few exceptions.
For a bilingual, each language tends to have different purposes, different functions and different uses. Bilinguals tend to use their two languages in different places at different times with different people.
It is important not to compare bilinguals with monolinguals in their language development. Bilingual should be compared with bilinguals. Bilinguals are not two monolinguals inside one person. They own a unique combination of two languages that are both separate and integrated within the thinking system. While two languages are visible in production, in the thinking quarters of the brain, one feeds the other. One language helps the other to grow. In this sense, there is integration between the two languages. Ideas and concepts learned in one language can be easily transferred into the other language.
The bilingual is a different language creation from the monolingual. For many bilinguals, bilingualism is their language. For those who acquire two languages from birth, bilingualism is their first language.
B10: Are there benefits if my child has a less well-developed second language?
Take heart and think positive. A less well-developed language is still a success. The child or teenager will still have a foundation, a passive knowledge of that language, a readiness to develop and use that language in the future. Early second language learning that fades does not die. Relearning from the beginning will not be needed. Much can be quickly reactivated.
The gift of a second language can be stored. Later, when the time, people and place is right, the gift is employed, expanded and esteemed. Developing a weaker second language in the family is an investment that can be banked for the future.
Having two or more words for each object and idea may mean there is more elasticity in thinking.
B15: Will my child's attitude affect the learning of a second language?
...if children's attitude, motivation and interest in their language are not inspired, the parent may find that hopes about bilingual development are not fulfilled.
It's important for the child to have a positive self-concept about their two languages.
C7: Will my child's thinking be affected by being bilingual?
The answer is yes, and probably for the better. The presence of two languages in the operating system of the brain is likely to produce a more richly fed thinking engine.
E22: What language strategies are used in immersion classrooms?
Immersion education is based on the idea that a first language is acquired relatively subconsciously. Children are unaware that they are acquiring a language in the home. Immersion attempts to copy this process in the early years of schooling. The focus is on the content and not the form of the language. It is the task at hand that is central, not conscious learning.
Ten specific techniques used by immersion teachers
1. Providing plenty of contextual support for the language.
2. Deliberately giving more classroom directions and organizational advice to the students.
3. Extensive use of visual material.
4. Being a role model
5. Indirect error correction...
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The bilingual is a different language creation from the monolingual. For many bilinguals, bilingualism is their language. For those who acquire two languages from birth, bilingualism is their first language.
This passage makes an important point: a bilingual person should nosyst always be thought of as “a monolingual person who has added a second language.”
1. “The bilingual is a different language creation from the monolingual.”
This means that a person who grows up with two languages may develop a different linguistic system and experience from someone who grows up with only one language.
Instead, the two languages can become part of one integrated linguistic life. The person may use one language with certain people, another language in other situations, and sometimes move between them naturally.
So “different language creation” is probably the author's way of saying that bilingualism is not simply monolingualism plus an extra language.
2. “For many bilinguals, bilingualism is their language.”
The author is saying that for someone who regularly lives through two languages, being bilingual itself becomes the person's normal way of communicating.
For example, your grandson might eventually speak English with his father, Chinese with you, and perhaps switch between the two depending on who he is talking to. He wouldn't necessarily think:
Now I am using my first language. Now I am using my second language.
For him, using both languages is simply how language works in his life.
3. “For those who acquire two languages from birth, bilingualism is their first language.”
This does not mean that such a child has literally one language called “bilingual.”
It means that if a child grows up hearing and using two languages from infancy, the experience of managing two languages is present from the beginning. There isn't necessarily a period in which the child first establishes one language and then later adds another.
This is particularly relevant to your grandson.
If he hears English from his parents and Chinese from you and other Chinese-speaking family members from infancy, you could say:
> Chinese would not be a “second language” added to his life later. It could be one of the two languages through which he first experiences the world.
That is a much more interesting idea for your essay than simply saying, “Babies can learn languages easily.”
And it connects beautifully with your reason for wanting him to learn Chinese: you are not merely teaching him a foreign language. You are helping make Chinese part of his earliest experience of family, love, stories, songs, and culture.