Ep9: What It Takes to Raise Bilingual Children

Title: Languaging in Hampton Roads

Episode 9 : What It Takes to Raise Bilingual Children

Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue Salasky

Date: Oct. 2, 2024

Length: 38.08 min

Publication Frequency: Fourth Friday (approx)  of each month

 

Co-hosts Jill Winkowski and Prue Salaskyexplore the topic of how best to raise bilingual children. It’s an endlessly complex topic with multiple angles. First, they share some of the changes in research that show the benefits of bilingualism and the study of languages on the physical structure of the brain. They also touch on the changes in attitude toward English variations fueled by demographics and a global economy and the subsequent status accorded to those proficient in more than one language.

 

To determine what it takes to raise children bilingual – and what fuels the drive on the part of parents – they talk to several foreign-born residents of Hampton Roads. These include university professor of language and art history, Rosa Motta, a native bilingual speaker of Italian and Sicilian; Silvina Bocca, a Spanish speaker from Argentina, an MD/PhD, an expert in infertility and in-vitro fertilization; Brenda Musto, a Spanish speaker from Argentina whose parents were native Italian speakers. She now runs a medical residency program at Eastern Virginia Medical School. They also talk to her daughter Bernie, a high school senior and dual bilingual in Spanish and English; to Yuliya Dobrydneva, who works in biomedical sciences, and her husband Boris Dobrydnev from Moscow, a physicist; and to Russian speakers Elena Chambers from Belarus and Natalya Peretyatko of Kazakhstan, founders of the Russian school in Newport News.

We learned how years of English study in their home countries prepared these parents to become bilingual but it wasn’t until they came to the U.S. and were immersed in an English-speaking environment that they reached fluency. They talk about their backgrounds and the intense efforts they put into raising their children as heritage speakers – and how success isn’t guaranteed. There’s ‘no recipe’ for success. The parents talk about the challenges and rewards of passing on their culture through language.

 

We end the show with reference to the hugegrowth of formal bilingual/foreign language education in Hampton Roads in the past decade: These include a Russian daycare in Virginia Beach; multiplepreschools with  Spanish language options; dual immersion Spanish/English programs in the public schools in Virginia Beach and Newport News (the latter serves 600 students and has a waiting list);  weekend language enrichment programs in multiple languages; and the featured Russian school in Newport News. We also learned about the Seal of Biliteracy that high schoolstudents in Virginia can now earn as part of their high school diplomas for proficiency in a foreign language.

 

Send your questions and feedback to languaginghr@gmail com.