ABSTRACT

The lives of many families involve contact with more than one language and culture on a daily basis. Growing Up with Two Languages is aimed at the many parents and professionals who feel uncertain about the best way to go about helping children gain maximum benefit from the multilingual situation.

This best-selling guide is illustrated by glimpses of life from interviews with fifty families from all around the world. The trials and rewards of life with two languages and cultures are discussed in detail, and followed by practical advice on how to support the child’s linguistic development.

Features of this third edition include:

  • a dedicated website with new and updated Internet resources
  • a new chapter giving the perspective of adults who have themselves grown up with more than one language
  • a new chapter presenting research into bilingual language acquisition with information about further reading
  • new and updated first-hand advice and examples throughout.

Una Cunningham is an Associate Professor in Modern Languages at Stockholm University, Sweden. She and her husband, Staffan Andersson, have raised their four children to speak English and Swedish in Sweden.

chapter 1|11 pages

Families with two languages

chapter 2|19 pages

Expecting a child in a bilingual home

chapter 3|20 pages

The family language system

chapter 4|14 pages

Language development

chapter 5|13 pages

The child with two languages

chapter 6|15 pages

Practical parenting in a bilingual home

chapter 7|17 pages

Competence in two cultures

chapter 8|14 pages

Problems you may encounter

chapter 9|11 pages

Keeping it up

chapter 10|30 pages

Looking back on a bilingual childhood

chapter 11|9 pages

Research and further reading