Chapter One

Bilingualism – An Introduction

We are now living in the age of globalization, and in that age bilingual families are no longer uncommon. The world is getting smaller because international travel is easy and people can live in any foreign country they want. However, as more people go to foreign countries and meet various people and encounter various cultures there, the more people have become to learn and speak more than one language to communicate with them.

That is to say more people are learning the community language of a specific group. A “community language” is the dominant language of the group. For example, in Japan, the community language would be Japanese. In a closed community with a local dialect, the community language would be that local dialect. When someone who is a “foreigner” enters this community (for example Japan or our pretend closed community), then that foreigner’s native language would be defined as the

“non-community language”.

In fact most people are surprised to learn that bilinguals outnumber monolinguals in the world. It can be seen, for example, in African countries, most European countries and India too. According to Joshua Fishman, a

- 1 - - prolific writer on bilingual matters, “More than half of the world’s population today uses more than one language while engaging in the activities basic to human need.”i

The fact that over half the world’s population is bilingual usually surprises many Europeans because they usually think that one person speaks one language and all speakers of that language belong to the same country. This is a kind of narrow-minded arrogance from people who assume the rest of the world is like them. The idea could stem from the fact that most European’s countries were once the strongest in the world (e.g. the U.K, France, Spain) and those languages are spoken all over the world. There are 3000-5000 languages in the world but only about 150 countries to fit them into.

The European monolingual idea is obviously not true because of these facts.

Of course, some special cases of numerical distributions are involved. Chinese, if we count it as a single language is spoken by 1000 million people (about a fifth of the world’s population). The opposite case, it was reported in the 1960’s that one North American Indian language was spoken only by two elderly sisters who only used it when they happened to meet.

Languages can also have very different geographical distributions. For example, English, French, and Spanish can be listed here. English is spoken in most major countries

(the U.K, the United States, Australia, Canada and New

- 2 - - Zealand) as is French (France, Belgium, Switzerland and

Canada) and also Spanish (Spain, Central/South America). On the other hand, the Welsh, the Scottish and the Ainu, for instance occupy only a very small part of their country.

Despite these facts, it is clear that speakers who have different languages must share most countries. Bilingualism would not be so common in the world if there were any evolutionary disadvantage to it.

Even in Japan, it is said that one marriage in 25 is an international marriage.ii That is why people will get more and more chances to hear and speak other languages and become bilingual. Also bilinguals may get more chances to succeed in any field, especially those involving international communication (business, academic etc).

I have been interested in “bilingualism” and I have taken an interest in international families that are obviously closely linked to bilinguals. But some information made me notice the fact that the children of international families are not always bilinguals. That is, some families have succeeded in bringing up their children bilingually and some families are not interested in bilingualism or haven’t succeeded in bringing up their children bilingually yet.

However, there are maybe some golden rules that could be suggested to promote bilingualism in the children of international families

- 3 - - What is Bilingualism?

What is Bilingualism? Most people who are not linguists would answer, “having the ability to converse fluently in two languages”. However, there is a problem. How do you measure

“fluency” in any language? For example, no one speaks the whole of the English language, only parts that are relevant to their lives.

Bilinguals must be the same. For example, a bilingual scientist, who speaks English at home and Japanese at work.

His domestic English would be better than his scientific

English and his scientific Japanese would be better than his domestic Japanese. That is why defining bilingualism is so difficult; with two different bilinguals you are never measuring the same thing. Moreover does knowing a few words in a foreign language make you bilingual, or if not, how many words and how much grammar does one need?

There are many definitions of bilingualism. Although it may be effective to explain one type of bilingualism, it also appears that these definitions don’t cover every aspect of bilingualism.

Here are some of the definitions suggested by researchers and linguists in the past:

 “ The mastery of two or more languages – bilingualism or

- 4 - - multilingualism – a special skill. Bilingualism and

multilingualism are relative terms since individuals vary

greatly in types and degrees of language proficiency.” iii

 “ Bilingualism is native like control of two languages… Of course, one cannot define a degree of perfection at which a

good foreign speaker becomes a bilingual; the distinction is

relative.” iv

 “ The phenomenon of bilingualism is something entirely relative…we shall therefore consider bilingualism as the

alternative use of two or more languages by the same

individual.” v

 “Bilingualism is understood…to begin at the point where the speaker of one language can produce complete, meaningful

utterances in the other language.” vi

 “ Bilingualism is an optional or obligatory means for efficient two-way communication between two or more

different ‘worlds’ using two different linguistic systems.”

viiviii

I want to study bilingual families to see if there are any “golden rules” to help establish bilingualism in children.

This information would be very useful for parents and educators as bilingualism is something that will become more and more useful as the world becomes more international

The following chapter will suggest some ideas to think about “who is bilingual” and “what is bilingualism?” Chapter

- 5 - - Two contains all the information obtained on the families I studied. Using this information I will try to show any (if any) “golden rules” that are useful in helping bilingualism in children, this information will be presented in chapter three.

- 6 - - Chapter 2

Case studies

Introduction

In chapter one we discussed what exactly bilingualism is and why it is very difficult to define. We also discussed people’s general perceptions of bilinguals and bilingualism.

Finally we talked about the increasing incidence of international families and international children and the need for serious consideration amongst parents and educators in order to encourage bilingualism within these children.

In order to collect the raw data needed for this work, I interviewed a total of eight families. In this chapter I will give a summary of the information collected using a questionnaire (see appendix 4) from the eight families. The purpose of the questionnaire was to find out the personal, educational and language backgrounds of the parents and children. The questionnaire also was designed to find out the communication pattern within the family, who communicates with who, and how. The information is then presented in a diagram to illustrate these relationships.

The questions were answered by either faxing the questionnaire to the family, telephone interview or via email.

In some cases a second interview was made.

All of this information is available in appendix 2,3 and

- 7 - - 4 in excel format. This was done so an easy comparison could be made between different families to facilitate spotting any relevant patterns within the group.

There are three tables in all. The first table (appendix

1) is the “Children’s Background” table and contains a summary of children’s siblings, community/non-community language, parents language and any relevant extra information.

The second table (appendix 2) is the “Parent’s background” table and contains a summary of nationality, educational background, native/non-native language abilities and any relevant extra information.

The final table (appendix 3) is the “Language use” table and contains a summary of the percentage language use for each family member. That is to say, who speaks to whom within the group, in what language they speak and when they speak the language.

In chapter three I will then proceed to analyze this data collected. Using this information I hope to be able to get information about “golden rules” for aiding parents and educators to encourage bilingualism from their children.

Case Study 1 – Mitch and Izuru Abell

Mitch and Izuru are an America/Japanese couple living in

Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Mitch has lived in Japan for about

- 8 - - 15 years and he now works as an English teacher teaching to university students. Izuru studied English, Persian and

Chinese at University and is proficient in all three languages. She has worked as an English teacher at an English school for 10 years.

Both parents are extremely positive in their attitude towards bilingualism and they think that it is very important for the children to learn English in a country where English is spoken. Shun (aged 15) had 1 year in America when he was 4 years old and then spent another 8 months in America when he was 11 years old. Anju (aged 12) is in America now and has been there for 2 months. Michiru (aged 6) is going abroad in the future

The father always speaks to the children in English, whilst the mother speaks to the children in Japanese and

English. When the father speaks to the children they answer him 100% of the time in English. But when they don’t know how to say something in English, they ask the mother in Japanese and then answer the father in English. The children speak to each other and to their friends in Japanese and also use

Japanese at school.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 9 - - Each child’s Japanese is fluent and Shun’s English is the same as a native child of his age. Anju and Michiru’s reading and writing skills haven’t so far developed the same way as a native speaker’s. The children have had English input from TV, conversation with their father and picture books.

The father believes that it is important to bring up the children bilingually so he never speaks to them in Japanese.

So, even if they speak to him in Japanese, he pretends not to understand it. The mother believes that it is important for bringing up the children bilingually that they study the grammar of both target languages.

- 10 - - Case Study 2 – Laurence and Misako Dante

Laurence and Misako are an American/Japanese couple living in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. After Laurence graduated from University, he worked in Himeji ( and also Okayama

Prefecture) on the JET scheme (Japan Exchange Teaching scheme) for one year and then worked in Fukuoka as an English teacher at an English conversation school. Laurence and Misako met at that time. He returned to America to get a master’s degree and now works as an English teacher in a university.

Misako has studied English for three years in an American university after she had worked for some years as a nurse.

Laurence and Misako have two young children, Kouhei (aged 4) and Elena (aged 2).

Both parents are positive in their attitude towards bilingualism although they never took a conscious decision to bring up their children bilingually. They hope that their children would learn English naturally without their compulsion. When their children take interest in something and ask their parents, “What’s this/that?” the parents try to teach the words in two languages, Japanese and English

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 11 - -

The father and mother usually converse in English, but they sometimes converse in Japanese unconsciously. In the same way, the father speaks to the children in English (95% of the time) and Japanese (5% of the time). Kouhei spoke to his

Father mostly in Japanese until the family went to America this summer, now he speaks to him in English most of the time, while he still speaks to his mother mostly in Japanese. The mother speaks to Kouhei in Japanese more than Elena because she needs to explain more complex things in detail to him.

Elena speaks to her parents mostly in Japanese.

The reason is because the father’s Japanese is fluent (he got the Japanese language proficiency test level 1 when he returned to Japan). Like the father, the mother’s English is fluent too. Therefore, she speaks to the children in English in daily conversation except when she needs to explain complex

- 12 - - things. Kouhei can read the Roman alphabet but he cannot read the entire Hiragana alphabet. Whenever Elena speaks English, she still uses Japanese grammar. The mother thinks this is because she has been in the daycare center since she was very small. But each child’s Japanese is fluent for a Japanese child of that age.

The children have had English input through TV (English movies and news) and conversation with their father and mother and sometimes with their grandparents in America. The grandparents want the parents to teach English more because they want to converse with the children in English.

The father believes that it is important for his children to learn two languages bilingually by studying very hard. The mother believes that it is so important to bring up the children bilingually that the parents teach not only their own native languages but also about their native cultures too. She wants her children to both languages to communicate with many people.

The parents are thinking about moving to the United

States in the future so that their children later education can be at American schools (they have yet to decide). In that instance then while living in American they would speak to their children in Japanese while they are at home.

- 13 - - Case Study 3 – Brett and Yoko Reynolds

Brett and Yoko are an American/Japanese couple living in

Tokyo, Japan. Brett works as an English teacher in Junior and

Senior high schools in Tokyo. He teaches English at a senior high school. Yoko is a staff member at an international university for American and Japanese students that is also in

Tokyo.

Brett is from Canada and has lived in Japan for about 10 years so he has fluent level Japanese and he has the Japanese language level proficiency test level two, although he is weak at reading. If however he uses a computer then he can write in

Japanese.

The mother’s English is not fluent but it is at a very high level because of her work. She has to communicate with the foreign students at her university in English. Brett and

Yoko have one child, his name is Tomo and he is 1 year old.

The father speaks to the mother in 50% English and 50%

Japanese in front of their child. The mother speaks to the father in 90% Japanese and 10% English in front of their child. Whenever they speak in front of the child they only ever use one language, they never mix languages. At the moment the child utters words in Japanese only.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 14 - - . Both parents read a picture book with their child every night, the father always only reads in English, the mother reads in a both English and Japanese. The child only ever watches Japanese TV. The father has decided that when he speaks to the child he would only use English. The mother has not yet decided which language she will use and talks to the child in both languages at the moment.

The mother believes it is important to bring up a child bilingually that the parents should give the child a lot of

English input, as much as possible while they are living in

Japan. She is going to constantly change the way she teaches

English to her child as the child’s age increases.

This family plans to move to Canada in a year. When they live in Canada they plan to use Japanese in the home environment so that the child is exposed to as much Japanese as possible while outside of Japan.

Both parents are worried that if they move abroad the

- 15 - - child won’t learn to read and write in Kanji, especially if they return to Japan. Both parents believe it is important that the parents decide how to bring up their children bilingually and that they give as much contact as possible to the child in both target languages.

Case Study 4 – Craig and Mitsuko Sower

Craig and Mitsuko are an American/Japanese couple and live in Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Craig was born in America but from the age of 11 to 14 he lived in Germany so he speaks fluent German. He also went to Denmark, Scotland and Italy for some time. After that he returned to America where he obtained a masters degree and then came to Japan, he has lived in Japan for about 15 years. He now works as a university English teacher. Craig’s Japanese understanding is excellent but his other three skills of reading, writing and speaking are not so strong. Craig and Misuko usually only speak to each other in

English in the home environment so there has never been the need for him to study Japanese extensively

Mitsuko went to America to study English when she was a university student but she now works as an English teacher at a senior high school. Mitsuko’s English is fluent because she uses English everyday at work and at home. She also tries to read an English newspaper as much as possible.

- 16 - - They have two children, Joe (aged 9) and Sam (aged 7).

Joe, the eldest child has very strong understanding of spoken

English because of contact with his father and mother. He also speaks English but sometimes makes grammatical errors. Since he was very young Joe has been exposed to English picture books and has strong reading skills. Sam usually speaks

Japanese at home and usually doesn’t speak English at all although he understands most of what his father says to him.

The father and mother converse in English in front of the children. The father speaks to the children in English only and the mother speaks to the children only in Japanese. Joe recently started to answer in English to the father although only a little. Usually he speaks to the father in Japanese.

Sam speaks to his father in Japanese but he tries to speak in

English. Both children speak to the mother in Japanese but when they are asked something by the mother in English, then they speak to her in English if they can. The children only ever speak to each other in Japanese.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 17 - - All TV programs at home are in English if the father is present. However if the father is not there, the children watch TV in Japanese (about 90% of the time). The children have also had English input through natural conversation with the father and from English picture books and also English movies. They have also traveled to English speaking countries once a year and have had the opportunity to speak English outside of Japan.

The parents plan to bring up their children as Japanese first because they live in Japan and if they have time later then they will teach them English. The parents believe it is up to the children to decide for themselves. The mother is positive towards bilingualism but wants her children to see other countries and cultures for themselves instead of studying lots of languages. The father believes that it is important for a child to become bilingual naturally and not

- 18 - - through teaching.

Case Study 5 – Rob and Tomoko Waring

Rob and Tomoko are an English/Japanese couple living in

Okayama Prefecture, Japan. Rob lived in Australia for about 10 years and he went back to the UK for traveling and then returned again to Australia to get his some teaching qualifications before coming to live in Japan. He has lived in

Japan for 12 years and now works as a university English teacher. His Japanese listening and speaking are strong but not always fluent, however he used to speak French and German reasonably well.

Tomoko went to Australia for a year to study English while she was at university and now her job is a garden designer. Tomoko’s English is fluent as she speaks English everyday. She became very fluent in English by studying and practicing with her family.

They have one child, Mariko (aged 8). She has been to the

UK for one year when her father was on sabbatical. She has native level fluency in both English and Japanese and she goes to private elementary school where she learns English once a wek, but it is too easy for her.

The father and the mother always converse in English in front of Mariko and the father speaks to the child in English

- 19 - - only. The mother speaks to the child in Japanese if the father is not there. If the father is there then the mother speaks to the child in English (about 90% of the time). Mariko answers in English (about 98% of the time) when spoken to by her father and Mariko answers in Japanese if the father is not at home. She always speaks Japanese at home or at school. The family policy is that English will be spoken when the father is at home. The aim of this is to provide an ‘English only’ environment for Mariko.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

Mariko usually watches TV 50% of the time in English and

50% of the time in Japanese. She also listens to music the same way. Mariko also reads in English early everyday and watches English movies and writes emails to friends in

English. She gets exposed to Japanese naturally with her

- 20 - - friends.

Both parents are very positive about bilingualism, the house rule is when the father is at home they use only English and if the father is not at home then they speak Japanese.

The father believes it is important that when he speaks to his child in English, not to dent her confidence or make her choose between languages. He wants her to feel natural so that a positive attitude is encouraged. The father also believes it is very important to take the child overseas often so that the child can become bilingual and bicultural.

The father thinks that bilingualism is a good thing because it builds a good mind and personality and the child can talk to other relatives within the family. However he worries that in becoming bilingual, his child may be bullied at some time.

Case Study 6 – Andrew and Tin Tin Barfield

Andrew and Tin Tin are an English/Myanmar couple who live in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Andrew went to Yugoslavia for 6 years as an English teacher and then he came to Japan, he has been in Japan for 12 years. He now works as an English teacher in a university. Andrew can speak Yugoslavian although not fluently, he can speak French and German fluently and his

Japanese listening is strong but he can’t speak, read or write

- 21 - - very well.

Tin Tin came to Japan after she got a masters degree in psychology from university in Myanmar. She has been in Japan for about 10 years and she got her doctorate from a Japanese university. Tin Tin speaks English fluently as she has been studying English since she was a Junior High school student and she speaks English everyday at home with Andrew. She can also speaks, read and write Japanese fluently too.

They have one child called Moemin (aged 2) and he goes to a daycare center everyday. His Japanese development is slower compared to other 2-year-old Japanese children but he speaks

Japanese the most fluently at the moment. He usually speaks

60% Japanese, 30% English and 10% Burmese. He understands all three languages although his mother thinks that he understands

Burmese the most.

The father and the mother always converse in English. The father always speaks to Moemin in English. The mother always speaks to Moemin in Burmese. Moemin always speaks one of the three languages to either parent at random. He speaks Japanese at the daycare center.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 22 - - Moemin always watches TV in Japanese and always watches videos in English. He reads books mostly in English (75% of the time) and also Burmese (15% of the time). He doesn’t read much Japanese. Most of the music he listens to is in Burmese.

Moemin has got his language input from picture books, TV, movies and conversation with parents in all three languages.

The family house rule is that the father speaks to Moemin in English; the mother speaks to him in Burmese. Both parents are very positive about bilinguliasm/ trilingualism and they both hope that Moemin can understand the identity of both

England and Myanmar. The father doesn’t like Moemin to use

Japanese at home.

The mother believes it is important to bring up a child bilingually by teaching both cultures conscientiously. The parents also believe it is also important for the child that the parents speak their own languages.

- 23 - - They plan to send Moemin to an international school from

Junior High school onwards. The family goes to England once a year and is planning to go to Myanmar once a year from now on so Moemin can use the English and Burmese that he has learned.

They are planning to live in Japan for another 10 years.

Case Study 7 – Jeff and Samantha Romonko

Jeff and Samantha are a Canadian/English couple living in

Okayama Prefecture, Japan. They have been living in Japan for

9 years and both of them teach English in Okayama. Jeff teaches English at a junior high school. Samantha teaches

English at a senior high school.

Jeff speaks French fluently because he lived in Quebec for a year to study French and his Japanese is fluent too.

Neither parent has taken the Japanese language proficiency test but they are at about level 2 they think. Samantha is also fluent in French because she has learned French since she was 8 years until the age of 23.

They have two children called Hannah (aged 7) and Emily

(aged 3). Hannah was born in Canada and was in Canada for two years. Emily was born in Japan. Both children can understand and speak English and Japanese but Hannah’s writing and reading skills are weaker in Japanese.

Emily can’t read or write either Japanese or English

- 24 - - however she can understand and speak both. However, she is more comfortable speaking Japanese.

Hannah went to a day care center from the age of 4 until

6 years old. Emily has been going to day care center from the age of 8 months until now.

The father and the mother always converse in English and the father and the mother always speak to the children in

English too. Hannah speaks to them mostly in English, Emily however spoke to them mostly in Japanese until the family went to Canada this summer, now she speaks to them in English most of the time. Also before the Canada trip, both children spoke to each other in Japanese, but now they speak to each other mostly in English.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 25 - - Both parents are positive about bilingualism but they think it is difficult to encourage it. They think that it is important for the children’s future experience and they will become more open-minded. They believe it will be important for bringing up their children bilingually if they use Japanese as little as possible while they are in Japan.

They also think that while they live in Japan there children will become bilingual naturally because they speak

Japanese outside and English at home. They think they will have a problem if they moved to England or Canada because the children will lose the chance to speak and use Japanese there.

They think they should get a Japanese tutor or send them to a

Japanese school. They are worried about Emily’s English because even if they speak to her in English, she replies in

Japanese so they hope she studies English harder.

The parents believe to bring up children bilingually it is important for the parents to try and expose them to English and encourage chances to speak English as much as possible so they insist on English at home.

Case Study 8 – Chris and Kazuko Balderston

Chris and Kazuko are an American/Japanese couple who live in Tokyo, Japan. When Chris graduated from university, he came to Japan and became an editor. He has lived in Japan in for 10

- 26 - - years. He is currently trying to study for a master’s degree in Japan but is too busy at work. His job is an editor.

Kazuko is a housewife and she is currently bringing up their two children. Their children are Mitch (aged 4) and Jack

(aged 2).

Chris’s Japanese language skills are fluent with daily conversation and Kazuko’s English is about Senior high school level. Mitch’s Japanese is the same as a Japanese native child of the same age. However when Mitch went to America he started speaking English with perfect pronunciation. Jack’s Japanese is the same as a native speaker although his English is too early to determine at the moment.

The father and mother mostly converse in Japanese in front of the children. Usually the father speaks to Mitch in

English and Japanese and he usually talks to Jack almost always in Japanese. Mitch always speaks to the father in

Japanese (sometimes English). Jack often speaks to his father usually in Japanese but he imitates his father’s English, at the moment it is too early to tell much about his development.

The mother speaks to the children mostly in Japanese but when she gets angry she speaks English. Both children always speak to the mother in Japanese and the children always speak

Japanese outside the home environment.

The communication pattern within the family is as follows:

- 27 - - The children have got their English input from conversation with their father, TV, videos, English picture books and when they go to America. The father reads English picture books every night so the children (especially Mitch) can read the alphabet naturally. The parents try not to use

Japanese and English at the same time because their children are not bilingual and they don’t want to become confused.

When Mitch was first born, Kazuko tried to speak English to her new child but her husband’s mother told her that she should only speak Japanese to her child because she is

Japanese. Also her English pronunciation would not be as good as a native speaker, therefore she should not speak English to her children. However the father’s mother wants them to become bilingual too.

After this comment the mother noticed the difference in foreign and Japanese approaches to raising a bilingual child.

- 28 - - The American approach appears to be that the native parent should teach the native language where as in Japan, both family members teach both languages.

The family is planning to move to America in the near future, so their children will not use Japanese so they believe that they should use Japanese as much as possible in

Japan while they are here. Both parents want the children to acquire Japanese now.

Summary

Each family is different and represents a unique aspect of bilingualism. It is important that we now look at this information and see what it can tell us about bilingualism.

In chapter three we will examine the main patterns within each group and any patterns between families. We will also look at how this is affected by language use and general beliefs about bilingualism within each family.

By studying any patterns that appear we can make conclusions about any potential “golden rules” for establishing bilingualism within children.

- 29 - - Chapter Three Analysis Introduction

In Chapter One we discussed “Who is bilingual?” “What is bilingualism? In Chapter Two we looked at some data collected from eight bilingual families. These data tended to show the most successful families (in encouraging a bilingual state) were those in which there was a system where there was little confusion about which language the child should speak in each situation.

In this chapter we will consider what would be an “ideal” environment in order to encourage “bilingualism” in a child.

This list of ‘Golden Rules’ will be a guide for parents and educators. This list of ‘Golden Rules’ will be based on the data collected in Chapter Two

Some Golden Rules for bilingualism

The data from Chapter Two will be used to find out if there are any common Golden Rules held by the eight families.

It is important to stress that the Golden Rules will only be general and are dependent only on the data collected from these families. However, the Golden Rules should be useful for educators and parents. The Golden Rules we will find

- 30 - - will of course be subjective not objective because the data were collected in a questionnaire.

There are too many variables to consider when raising a child to make anything certain from the data we have collected, however, it is possible to state a few guiding principles to increase the chances of developing a bilingual state in a young child. It is also worth noting that this study is very small (only eight families) and for anything more compelling to be stated, many more families would have to be studied with follow up studies over a number of years.

Clearly that is beyond the scope of what we wish to cover here.

The guidelines that I believe are essential for increasing the chances of encouraging a bilingual state in a child are as follows:

1) The child should be exposed to both languages “consistently”

and from birth, but it should remember that there are many

ways of being consistent. For example, the child could be

exposed to one language in the home environment, and one in

the outside world.

This can be seen in Case Study 7, Jeff and Samantha

Romonko, an English/Canadian couple living in Japan. Both

of the parents don’t speak Japanese in the home environment,

- 31 - - so their children speak English at home and speak Japanese

at school with their friends. Both children haven’t been

taught any spoken Japanese by their parents but their

Japanese seems fluent and they feel more comfortable

speaking Japanese rather than English even though they can

both speak English well. The only reason could be because

they live in Japan and their friends are Japanese, so their

community language is Japanese at the moment.

Another way to be consistent with both languages is

reported in Case Study 1 (Mitch/Izuru) and Case Study 5

(Robert/Tomoko). The only house rule these families have is

that if the father is there, they speak only English in the

house and if the father is not there, then they only speak

Japanese.

Also “one parent, one language” can be possible. You

can see this in Case Study 4, Craig and Mitsuko Sower, an

American/Japanese couple who have two children aged nine and

seven. The father speaks to his children in English and the

mother speaks to her children in Japanese. A holiday

language and a round-the-year language, a weekday language

and a Sunday language, and so on are possible ways to do

this. It depends on the family. It is very important for

the children that the exposure be constant and as much as

possible, however it requires a long-term commitment.

- 32 - - 2) The children should be provided with the richest possible

linguistic environment as much as possible in both

languages. All of the eight families have used several ways

to educate their children in both languages: reading books

in English and in Japanese; talking in Japanese and in

English; listening to English songs in the car; watching

foreign movies and T.V in English and watching TV in

Japanese. The following ideas could also be tried:

 Make a playgroup of children who speak foreign language.

 Go overseas during holidays.

 Do games that use foreign language.

 Invite visitors who are from foreign countries.

Bilingualism should be encouraged through many sources,

not just through conversation with the parents. Providing

many kinds of input in the target language will provide

additional chances to become accustomed to the language being

acquired. Also we have learned from research that children

learn better from many, different, interesting media and not

just from one source.

Also, learning a language should be enjoyable for

children, using games for example. If the parents are very

strict with their child on language use, his creative ability

and motivation may go down and he may come to reject the

language. In Case study 6, Andrew and Tin Tin Barfield, the

- 33 - - English/Mynamar couple, the mother’s English approach doesn’t

seem to be positive because the mother uses English only when

she gets angry with her children. The child is only one year

old at the moment so it many not matter too much just yet,

however, if this continues, the child may become accustomed

to thinking that English is the language that is used when

people (or more importantly their mother) get angry, or at

least, they may not have a good impression of English.

If the mother usually speaks Japanese and speaks English

only in a specified time, it might be better to use English

when she praises her children rather than when she gets

angry. As we know the parents’ attitudes can influence their

child’s motivation. Therefore, parents and educators should

consider this point carefully.

3) The approach to the acquisition of two languages within a

child should be, of course, positive and with the aim of not

directly teaching a language, but by allowing it to grow

naturally. However the most important and common idea is

that “the child’s feelings come first”. A child should

never be made to feel bad about speaking a language and

never forced to choose, it must be natural for the child to

use both languages in their daily lives and to different

people and there should no associated feelings of confusion

in either instance.

- 34 - - All of families whom I had interviewed had same idea.

Even if parents try to teach two languages to their child in

the most “ideal” way, it will not work well when he or she

is not interested in the language and doesn’t want to speak

the language to anybody.

This can be seen in Case Study 7 with child number

two, Emily (aged 3). She used to speak Japanese to her

parents and her older sister and friends, anyone. She was

obviously comfortable with speaking Japanese, but this

summer holiday in Canada, her attitude changed toward

English. She spoke to her grandparents and friends in

English in Canada without really realizing that she was

speaking English. Now she has started speaking to her

parents and sister in English too. This is still continuing

in Japan even now. It is ideal for children to be inspired

so that they want to communicate with people in their common

language. Exactly the same thing happened to Kouhei (Case

study 2, Laurance and Misako Dante), the child, who is a

similar age to Emily went on a trip to the States in the

summer and exactly the same thing happened, the child

started to speak English without realizing the switch when

immersed in an English only environment, something which has

continued when the child returned to Japan. The fact that

this has happened to two children within the course of this

study is an unprecedented trend which gives weighty evidence

- 35 - - to the importance of the child’s perception of language.

4) The parents should not try and confuse the child with the

idea of learning culture through language. You cannot learn

culture through a language; it should be kept purely as a

method of expression and communication. Culture is an adult

concept. Children do not have an idea of culture. Some of

the parents whom I had interviewed have been trying to teach

their cultures to their children at home. However, children

will not be able to learn the culture as their own one

without going overseas and living there. Therefore, parents

should make chances to go overseas and let their children

have contact with a different culture.

5) There should only be one extra language acquired. Anything

more would be confusing and thus retard the development of

the other languages. The key word is "confusion", which we

must avoid as much as possible. This is necessary because

there is no evidence to suggest that a child can easily

acquire three or more languages. In fact there is evidence

to suggest that trying to focus upon more than one extra

language can have retarding effects in the development of

other languages. Where as there is plenty of evidence that

a child can successfully acquire one extra language.

You can see this by comparing Case Study 6

- 36 - - (Andrew/Tintin) and Case Study 7 (Jeffrey/Samantha). In

Case Study 6 the child is being raised in a trilingual

environment and although it is too early to say at the

moment, it would appear that the child’s development in all

three languages is slower than a child of similar age raised

in a bilingual environment. However, with Case Study 7, it

would be possible for both parents to raise their child in a

trilingual environment but they have not and the children’s

development compared with Case Study 6 at the same was far

more advanced.

However, it is worth noting that if the languages are

very similar, or are from the same family of languages, for

example Spanish and Italian there would be fewer problems

than a Spanish person learning Chinese, which is obviously

very different.

6) The acquisition of the second language should be backed up

with trips to the native country to immerse the child in an

environment where the other language is used, in order to

exercise and develop the none community language and provide

a point to being able to speak two languages. This is very

important, especially because as children develop mentally

they develop analytical skills and they begin to question

things and thus they need to meet both their cultures at

that time. as the child’s analytical skills develop and they

- 37 - - begin to question things.

Moreover, being exposed to two languages does not necessarily imply the children will learn two cultures. For example, children playing games in Japan will decide teams by playing ‘janken’ but boys playing soccer in the UK will choose a captain and the captains will select players one by one, which many Japanese see as very unfair. Therefore children need to understand both ways of thinking to accept them into their own culture.

Conclusion

In this chapter we considered what would be an “ideal”

environment in order to encourage “bilingualism” in a child.

The Golden Rules that are suggested above should be useful

for educators and parents.

Even if parents neglect their children by leaving them

in front of an English TV program in the hope they will pick

up English, the child will not come to speak English and

will not even understand it too. This passive contact with

a foreign language may be able to stimulate the child and

increase his or her language acquisition ability later when

he or she learns the language or another language or another

language formally. However, a child needs to use the

language in an “interactive” way and the language should be

used not only one-way but to help the child communicate with

- 38 - - people interactively. The more the child uses the language

in the interactive way, the more the child will acquire the

language. Therefore, parents and educators should find

creative learning ways as much as possible to have the child

use the language in the interactive way. For example, when

a mother reads a book, which is written in a foreign

language to her child, she can ask the content of the story

in that language. Also, she can ask some questions in the

language to urge him or her to answer his or her feelings,

opinions, and interests.

Although we cannot define the best way to bring up

children bilingually, we will be able to do well by

considering it and then making efforts to bring it about.

There is no evidence that bilinguals are bad for our society. In fact Bilinguals can be a great social benefit.

Imagine that how wonderful it will be if we come to communicate with people who are from all over the world without being worried about language barriers. Bringing up our children bilingually should be the first step to the future.

- 39 - - References

Harding Edith/Riley Philip, The Bilingual Family: A handbook for parents (Cambridge University Press, 1986) ISBN 0-521- 31194-2

Saunders George, Bilingual children: From Birth to Teens (Multilingual Matters Limited, 1988) ISBN 1-85359-009-6

http://www.kokukei.com/harbin/sub7.htm

- 40 - - i Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens, George Saunders, P1 ii http://www.kokutei.com/harbin/sub.7.htm iii Encyclopedia Britannica, 1965 iv L. Broomfield, 1933 v W.F Mackey, 1962 vi E. Haugen, 1953 vii Van Overbeke, 1972 viii