Researcher turned mum to quadrilingual children
I used to be a researcher in linguistics. You can read more about my own professional credentials here.
We are also a multilingual family and language is very important to us. On a daily basis, we use and hear four languages: French, English, Portuguese and German. You can read more about us and how it works for us here.
Research-based articles
As I used to be a linguistics researcher, I love writing about language and multilingualism in particular. But I have come to realise that the theory is very different to putting it in practice with your own children. You can read some articles based on actual language research here. I like to base my articles on scientific facts!
You can also visit my non-exhaustive list of research findings showing the advantages of being multilingual.
However, as I became aware when becoming a mum, raising multilingual children is not a one-size-fits-all kind of affair. We love reading about other families' experiences with multilingualism. Here is a little collection we have gathered along the way. The varied situations and language set-up show us that there is NOT one best method to raise multilingual kids.
Read more about language and multilingualism in the archives of this blog:
A few years back, a lovely group of bloggers and I got together to organise a blogging carnival on raising multilingual children. Our monthly appointment on the topic got so many amazing submissions and ideas for raising bilingual children. You can find out more here.
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{ multilingual language development in children }
Are 3 languages too many?
My child does not talk - what to do
How much time does my child need to be exposed to his minority language?
Should my child say "baby" at 2?
{ living in a multilingual family }
Bilingualism does not (necessarily) mean sacrifices
Emotions and language in multilinguals
5 tips for the grandparents of your multilingual child
{ multilingual education }
The school issue: sacrificing learning for language?
Bilingual story time
What to expect from a bilingual kindergarten
{ linguistics research }
Why bilinguals may be mistaken as language delayed
From linguist to mum: looking back
Do bilingual children know fewer words than monolinguals?
Is earlier really better for second language acquisition?
Why is music good for language learning?