Help your child learn Ukrainian

Learning another language is part of a child's holistic development. More than two-thirds of the world's children speak two or three languages. Opportunities to learn another language exist within the home or within the society, where speaking another language is accepted as quite normal. A language is just one of the many things that a child is busy finding out about and learning. The advantages of being bi- or trilingual are gradually being recognized and appreciated by schools and families. There is a steady growth of trans-national communication and business and an increase in global travel. As a result more and more frequently staff are being expected to work in mare than one language and culture. Advertisements for bilingual staff, rare in late 1980's, are today current and are likely to multiply.

Bilinguals have a positive, confident attitude towards the learning of other languages. The very fact that they have mastered two languages makes them feel that there is no reason why they should not succeed in learning a third or fourth one. Learning languages makes you good - at learning languages.

Their bilungualism gives children an interest in and an insight into languages in general which provides them with a head start when they tackle a new language. The bilingual child already knows unconsciously many of the things about language which present problems to the monolingual child e.g.

Languages are different and it's no good asking "why?" all the time in regards to vocabulary, rules of grammar, idioms and sounds.
Depending on the languages in question, he may find he has a large amount of vocabulary "for free"…
Accents come easier, partly this is a question of attitude, partly it is a matter of having two repertoires to choose from.

READING

Reading to or with your child in the target language provides opportunities to learn about the culture and puts the language in context. It develops linguistic as well as cognitive skills and it reinforces the language learnt and helps to maintain it.

REFUSING TO SPEAK A LANGUAGE

If a child is refusng to speak the target language, don't despair and don't give up. Compare it to the child who is refusing to eat hteir food… Consider possible reasons for his/her refusal:

Is it simply a temporary whim?
Are you breaking the rules in regards to language use?
Are non-speakers present?
Is the child "showing off"?
Is the child still at the receptive-bilingual stage?
Is there competition with a sibling or is the child asserting his/her own identity?

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION…

Try your local library as often there are a variety of books on bilingualism with valuable information and tips. For example some of the ideas above are from the following books:

Dunn, Opal, Help your child with a foreign language, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1994.
Harding, Edith & Riley, Philip, The Bilingual Family, Cambridge University Press, 1986

If you have any useful tips and ideas that may help other parents with raising a bilingual (or trilingual) child or if you come across any good literature on the subject, please email us at mailto:ukrainian.ed@mail.com and we would be happy to include that on this website.