June 23, 2021

Knowing our mother tongue allows us to make valuable connections to our extended family, personal history, and culture. However, raising multilingual children can be challenging for many families. Growing up, children tend to gravitate towards the language of their peers and larger community. In Singapore, that language is English, which is not only the dominant language in primary schools but also the language of popular culture and entertainment choices. Further, mother tongue learning has been associated with homework, exams, and ultimately academic success. In children, these associations bring about stress and negative perceptions of their mother tongue.

The disinterest children have towards their mother tongue can cause family strain and disharmony around bilingualism. In ‘Raising bilingual children is challenging but immensely rewarding’, Associate Professor Leher Singh (NUS Department of Psychology) emphasises the importance of cultivating positivity around mother tongue, and particularly the importance of enabling children to see mother tongue as useful and relevant in their own eyes. Rather that reinforcing bilingualism from a parental viewpoint, she points out that parents should contextualise mother tongue learning as relevant to the personal goals of their children.

Children can resonate more with mother tongue learning when they view it as relevant to opportunities they value and fear missing out on, should they not know their mother tongue. Examples of these opportunities are a special bond with a grandparent who speaks the mother tongue and the appreciation of songs and games associated with the child’s culture and language. Since children have different touchpoints with their mother tongue, it is important for parents to learn about their child’s subjective interests and leverage these openings to build a greater connection with the language.

Despite efforts to mitigate family strain and disharmony around bilingualism, children may stop talking in their mother tongue if they associate it with academic stress or feel disinclined towards learning an additional language. To tackle the resistance of children, A/P Singh suggests that families should provide their children with continued exposure to their mother tongue at a gradual pace. Such continued exposure will enable children to develop a better personal connection with their mother tongue, as languages spoken early in life hold special and dedicated places in our minds. Furthermore, families can set up goals in order to direct efforts and resources towards the outcomes of bilingualism they envision, such as whether they want their child to get a high PSLE score, live in the country where the mother tongue is dominant, or pass the language onto their children. To realize their larger goals, families can develop strategies accordingly to foster their children’s personal interests in mother tongue.

Read the full article here.