bilingual children

[Susanne.Dopke at arts.monash.edu.au]

Dear Sneha,
Being a parent who is bringing up her children bilingually and a
researcher in this area with lots of contact with bilingual families
I strongly recommend to start at birth. In many ways, our
social relationships are defined through the language we are using
with others. This is also true when talking to our children, both for
ourselves and for our children. Thus while birth marks the
starting point of our relationship with our natural children, other
first-contact points are just as suitable, for example a newly
developing step-parent relationship or the first contact with grand
children, the new nanny, etc.
It is very difficult for an adult to change the language later on and
nearly impossible to get children to do so (although I do know of a
few successful cases, and I am encouraging parents with a range of
strategies if they want to give it a go). For the later starts, the
same pricipal rule applies, the least obsticles.  The biggest problem with
children not acquiring the parent's language in spite of all good
intentions is parents' inconsistent language choice.
For more detailed deliberations of this topic you might want to
have a look at a recent paper of mine:
Susanne Dopke (1998) "Can the principle of 'one parent-one language'
be disregarded as unrealistically elitist? Applied Linguistic Review
of Australia 21(1): 41-59

Susanne Dopke
=====================
Susanne Dopke
Linguistics
Monash University
Clayton Vic 3168
Australia
Ph +61-3-99052298
Fax +61-3-99052294
home e-mail: sdrw at ozemail.com.au