Are monolingual parents less able to raise bilingual children?
January 31, 2018
In an article for Channel NewsAsia, Dr Leher Singh (Associate Professor, NUS Department of Psychology) discusses the different factors that contribute to an effective bilingual education for children. Dr Singh emphasizes that monolingual parents can still develop bilingual skills in their children by relying on external sources of education.
Dr Singh elaborates on several factors that make second language education more effective; children should have prolonged exposure to the language, and exposure should be interactive in nature with speakers who are fluent in the language. Another important factor is ensuring that children are motivated to learn the language; while parents may see value in their child learning a second language for their future career, children need to be given motivations that appeal to them. Finally, family support is crucial – children adopt the attitudes their parents have towards learning new languages, and thus a supportive environment is important in fostering interest.
Thus, Dr Singh highlights that what is important in fostering bilingualism in children is not whether their parents are bilingual or monolingual, but the quality of education their children receive for their second language, as well as the environment that their families provide for learning.
Read Dr Singh’s article here.