The Bilingual Family

The Bilingual Family – Edith Harding

More and more families around the world are raising children with two languages, whether because the parents speak different languages, because they live abroad, or because they want their children to grow up with an extra advantage. But how do you do it successfully?

The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents, by linguists Edith Harding and Philip Riley, offers clear, practical and reassuring guidance for parents considering or already living this experience. Drawing on research in language acquisition and on the real experiences of bilingual families, the authors explain how children learn languages, what being bilingual really means, and what parents can realistically expect at different stages of a child’s development.

The book discusses the choices families face, such as which language each parent should speak, how to balance the home language with the language of school and the wider community, and what to do when a child resists speaking one of the languages. It also addresses common worries, including whether bilingualism can delay speech or cause confusion, and explores the cultural and emotional dimensions of growing up between two languages.

A series of case studies describing families in different situations shows how a range of approaches can work, and a reference section answers frequently asked questions.

Accessible and supportive, The Bilingual Family is a valuable handbook for parents, teachers and anyone who works with multilingual children, and a helpful starting point for families who want to give their children the gift of two languages.