32.2459, Review: Applied Linguistics: Crisfield (2021)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-2459. Thu Jul 22 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 32.2459, Review: Applied Linguistics: Crisfield (2021)

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Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2021 17:41:11
From: Yevheniia Hasai [jenyag93 at gmail.com]
Subject: Bilingual Families

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36703037


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/32/32-221.html

AUTHOR: Eowyn  Crisfield
TITLE: Bilingual Families
SUBTITLE: A Practical Language Planning Guide
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2021

REVIEWER: Yevheniia Hasai, University of Hamburg

SUMMARY

This book aims to provide strategies and a language planning guide for parents
trying to raise their children with more than one language. Drawing on her
long experience working with hundreds of families, Crisfield gives practical
advice and useful tools to facilitate language planning and “to share key
information with parents and educators about why bi/multilingualism can be the
right choice for any child, and how best to plan for success” (p. 1). A short
introduction describes the rationale for writing this book, as well as for
giving her seminars “Parents as Language Partners” and working on the blog “On
Raising Bilingual Children”. The author describes the six building blocks for
success with bilingualism “for developing a strong, consistent approach to
each aspect of your language journey with your children” (p. 3). Worksheet 1
at the end of this section helps readers reflect on their decision to raise
their children bilingually, their reasoning, and feelings about this choice.

In Chapter 1, Crisfield gives the most relevant information on the basics of
mono/bilingual language development to help families become more confident and
consistent in their approach to embrace bilingualism. She debunks the most
repeated myths, such as “children are language sponges”, “earlier is always
better”, “being bilingual means being equally good in the two languages”,
“bilingual children start speaking later than monolingual children”, etc. The
author gives short answers to the common questions surrounding bilingualism by
providing findings from academic research and summarizing the most important
information at the end of the section. Worksheet 2 assists in reviewing the
popular myths and the facts, demystifying bilingualism and defining the
questions that need further investigation. 

Crisfield continues in Chapter 2 by moving to the next building blocks for
success in raising children bilingually. She explains the most important
points to consider when setting language goals and making a Family Language
Plan. This chapter describes various scenarios that influence individual
choices and can have an impact on the decision to raise children with more
than one language, like immigration, community bilingualism, adoption, and
parents’ choice to use an additional language. Crisfield highlights the
importance of understanding the goals of using more than one language: “The
next step is deciding how you want your children to be able to use each of the
languages that you have chosen” (p. 29). She briefly describes the difference
between communicative, basic literacy, and academic literacy goals, and
suggests to “consider language priorities in the following order: languages of
the parents, language of school, language of the community, other languages”
(p. 31). Worksheet 3 is provided to set language goals for children. 

Moving on to Family Language Plans, Crisfield talks about their most important
elements, quality and quantity of linguistic input, and activities that are
extremely useful for raising children with more than one language. She
recommends creating a language input map in various circumstances that might
require a shift in plan and/or when it appears that one of the languages is
lagging behind the plan. Chapter 2 discusses the OPOL (one-parent,
one-language), MLaH (minority language at home), and domains of use approaches
for simultaneous bilingualism, and addresses the limitations and complications
of these approaches. The key element in choosing or combining them is that
they should give the best opportunity to achieve the planned results. 

The central challenges of sequential bilingualism and the key elements of
success in the school context are touched upon, too. Based on previous
research, Crisfield emphasizes that obtaining literacy skills in the mother
tongue is beneficial for language maintenance, especially if one is not
surrounded by users of this language. Moreover, “the level of development of
children’s mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language
development” (Cummins 2001: 3, as cited p. 47). The author discourages parents
from following the still-popular advice to stop speaking their heritage
language at home and choosing the majority language instead, as this can be
detrimental to the child’s cognitive development: the child is hardly capable
of accessing the same kind of thinking in the majority as in the heritage
language. Forcing the majority language will result in the lack of
appropriate, age-level input and will deprive the child of the possibility to
develop normally. At the end of Chapter 2, there is a list of further
resources for those who would like to learn more about raising children
bi/multilingually. Worksheets 4 and 5 provide templates which help to move
from choosing to planning how to achieve language goals. Appendices A and B
exemplify how a Family Language Plan and a School Planner could look like,
what leads to meeting the communicative, basic literacy, and academic literacy
goals, and the advantages and disadvantages of choosing certain types of
educational institutions with or without bi/multilingual support.

In Chapter 3, Crisfield describes the strategies that help to support a Family
Language Plan. She emphasizes the importance of explaining to children why
they should use more than one language. Ultimately, children should understand
the rationale for this choice to be able to cooperate. Crisfield explains how
language status and a monolingual environment can influence children’s choices
and what parents can do to encourage bi/multilingual development of their
children. Special attention is given to creating a supportive environment in
childcare, educational, and medical institutions. Parents should talk to
caregivers, educators, psychologists, and medical professionals about their
children’s linguistic journey and be able to advocate for it if needed. “If
you know what research says about bi/multilingualism, and aren’t afraid to
tell them, they will most likely defer to you rather than persist in trying to
advise you” (p. 82). Crisfield talks about the importance of supporting
bi/multilingual language learners and the possible ways of embracing multiple
languages in the school context, such as integrating knowledge about language
into the curriculum, translanguaging (seeing language “as a multilingual,
multisemiotic, multisensory, and multimodal resource” for thinking and for
communicating thought (Li 2018: 26)), and allowing bi/multilinguals to use
their languages for socializing and learning. Worksheet 6 can be used as a
tool for preparing to talk with one’s children about the reasons for raising
them with more than one language and possible motivations unique to them.
Worksheet 7 helps to think up the most important things one might need to
discuss with other key people (family members, friends, caregivers, and
educators). Although “bilingualism does not cause language delays or learning
difficulties” (p. 88), raising children bi/multilingually has all the
challenges that raising children monolingually has. There is an overview of
situations which can indicate that children need professional help and that
getting speech therapy and/or educational support might be a good idea. When
choosing a specialist, it is important to keep in mind that language
professionals need to have sufficient knowledge about bilingual language
development to be able to help bilingual children. Finally, one finds a list
of language assessment and therapy resources for parents and language experts,
as well as links to some free online courses, websites, blogs, and academic
articles.

Crisfield concludes with a summary of the “building blocks for success” (p.
95) for parents who want their children to grow up with more than one
language. The Glossary of Terms and the Index will be useful for
non-specialists who read this book. It is worth noting that the use of
terminology is overall consistent and clear in the text; however, the terms
“translanguaging” and “code-switching” are used as synonyms on p.18. Normally,
they are not used interchangeably in the literature (e.g., Coronel-Molina &
Samuelson 2017, García & Li 2014; Li 2018, to name a few). For instance, Li
(2018: 27) states: “Translanguaging has never intended to replace
code-switching or any other term, although it challenges the code view of
language. It does not deny the existence of named languages, but stresses that
languages are historically, politically, and ideologically defined entities”.

EVALUATION

Crisfield does a very good job of communicating the factors involved in
bi/multilingual language acquisition to families that have little prior
knowledge on raising children bi/multilingually. The book is well-organized to
help families understand why it could be beneficial for children to learn
additional languages, what obstacles and challenges they might expect, and
what support they need in their language journey. The author provides examples
from her personal and professional experience to illustrate the most common
situations of bi/multilingual language development and to prevent making
common mistakes. 

This is a reader-friendly guide for parents who would like to raise their
children with more than one language. The book is not excessively scientific,
although the prevailing myths surrounding bi/multilingualism are debunked by
references to well-known research. The Bibliography presents a list of both
older and more recent studies which investigate (bi/multilingual) language
development. It could have been beneficial to provide a short list of further
references at the end of the section “Moving from Fiction to Fact” for those
parents who would like to deepen their knowledge on the research surrounding
the stereotypes of language acquisition and learning. This scientific evidence
would not only support the author’s claims, but also would come in handy in
situations when parents need to advocate for their language choice (see
Chapter 3 “Supporting Your Family Language Plan”). 

It would also have been valuable to give some advice on handling situations
when the environment—in particular caregivers, educators, psychologists, and
medical professionals—do not allow bi/multilinguals to use their languages for
socializing and for learning. This can be due to their lack of understanding
of language acquisition, little knowledge of the additional languages, lack of
confidence, the absence of specific examples, attitudes, etc. (e.g. Bailey and
Marsden 2017; Bonnet and Siemund 2018; Hobbs 2016; Üstunel 2016; Woll 2020;
Zhu 2008). Furthermore, the question of handling (linguistic) identity crisis
is hardly touched upon in this guide. It would have been extremely helpful to
provide some recommendations for families facing such a crisis and for those
who would like to avoid it, as language has been demonstrated to be one of the
most influential identity factors (Burck 2007; Lin 2007; Rozanov 2016).
Overall, Crisfield’s guide meets its goal—providing valuable information and
practical tools in a suitable format for parents who are interested in raising
their children with more than one language.

REFERENCES

Bailey, E. G., Marsden, E. J. (2017). Teachers’ views on recognising and using
home languages in predominantly monolingual primary schools. Language and
Education. 283–306.

Bonnet, T., Siemund, P. (2018). Foreign Language Education in Multilingual
Classrooms. Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity 7. 1–29.

Burck, C. (2007). Multilingual living. Explorations of language and
subjectivity. Basingstoke, England and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Coronel-Molina, S., Samuelson, B. (2017). Language contact and translingual
literacies, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 38(5).
379–389.

Cummins, J. (2001). Bilingual children's mother tongue: Why is it important
for education? Sprogforum 7 (19). 15–20.

García, O., Li, W. (2014). Translanguaging. Palgrave Macmillan. 

Hobbs, R. D. (2016). The Global Child: How Experts Would Change Education:
Research-Based Acquisition of Languages. LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing.

Li, W. (2018). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied
Linguistics 39(1). 9–30. 

Lin, A. (2007). Problematizing identity: Everyday struggles in language,
culture, and education. Lawrence Erlbaum.

Rozanov, T. (2016). Language and Identity Explored. Journal of Arts and
Humanities 5(6). 1–8.

Üstunel, E. (2016). EFL classroom code-switching. Turkey: Palgrave Macmillan. 

Woll, N. (2020). Towards crosslinguistic pedagogy: Demystifying pre-service
teachers’ beliefs regarding the target-language-only rule. System 92. 1–11.

Zhu, H. (2008). Dueling language, dueling values: Codeswitching in bilingual
intergenerational conflict talk in diasporic families. Journal of Pragmatics
40(10). 1799–1816.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Yevheniia Hasai is a PhD student and a research associate at the Institute for
English and American Studies, Hamburg University (Germany). Her research
interests include language acquisition, multilingual development,
psycholinguistics, bilingualism, multilingualism, learner corpus, lexical
transfer, and language education.





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