Submitted by Rich (not verified) on May 1, 2008 - 6:11pm.
I just want to "second" the comment about English being pervasive if you live in an English environment. Both of our kiddos are bi-lingual (english/spanish) and we've found that with SO much English everywhere (TV, school, kids at the church, at the store, etc) the only way we can keep the spanish on par with the english is if both my wife and I speak it at home. There is support for this in the literature as well - the language that is predominant in the child's culture will have the inherent advantage, so you have to 'super-load' the other language. I have several friends who took the one parent speaking the language approach -- in every case the child understands the second language, but only produces English. That's my 2¢.
Bi-lingual Kiddos
I just want to "second" the comment about English being pervasive if you live in an English environment. Both of our kiddos are bi-lingual (english/spanish) and we've found that with SO much English everywhere (TV, school, kids at the church, at the store, etc) the only way we can keep the spanish on par with the english is if both my wife and I speak it at home. There is support for this in the literature as well - the language that is predominant in the child's culture will have the inherent advantage, so you have to 'super-load' the other language. I have several friends who took the one parent speaking the language approach -- in every case the child understands the second language, but only produces English. That's my 2¢.