Searching for information specifically about raising a trilingual
baby. I find quite a bit about bilingualism, but when it comes to
three languages it seems to be less available information. I am
Swedish, my wife is Taiwanese, and we are speaking English with each
other. To complicate it further, we are living in French-speaking
Belgium....
Our intention is to raise our baby boy understanding Swedish, mandarin
Chinese and English.
Searching for books regarding trilingualism and practical
ideas/experiences from parents in similar situation.

Hello, zingo99-ga!

 
 You are correct in your statement that information regarding "how to
raise trilingual children" is scarce. However, I have managed to find
a variety of different sites that touch on different issues involved
in raising children who can speak three languages.

 The references that follow should provide some interesting
information concerning different methods used by parents, questions
and answers, as well as some research studies. While they do not
provide a perfect "how-to" manual, I believe you will glean some very
useful information that you can practice within your own family!


==

"Home Language Practices of Trilingual Children in French Immersion."
Canadian Modern Language Review - Volume 56, No. 1, September /
septembre 1999
http://www.utpjournals.com/product/cmlr/561/561-Dagenais.html

==

A research study focusing on three families raising children that are trilingual:

"Code-switching and language dominance in the trilingual child," by
Charlotte Hoffmann and Susan Widdicombe, University of Salford, UK.
Published in AILE (Acquisition et Interaction en Langue Étrangère)
Proceedings of 8th EUROSLA Conference Paris. Special Issue 1999,
Volume 1 The Bilingual Person, 51-61
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:_AmmxCwQKicJ:wwwlot.let.uu.nl/zs2001/papersHoffmann/AILEproceedings.doc+trilingual+children&hl=en&start=3&ie=UTF-8

==

"Subject: Re: Raising Trilingual Children." Asian-American Village Dialogue
by Asian-American Villagers, AAV. IM Diversity.
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=15964

==

Some questions about raising trilingual children on Linguistlist:

"Re: trilingual children." Linguistlist.org
http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg00187.html

"Re: raising a trilingual child." Linguistlist.org
http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg07336.html

==

"Issues surrounding trilingual families: Children with simultaneous
exposure to three languages," by Suzanne Barron-Hauwaert (2000)
http://www.spz.tu-darmstadt.de/projekt_ejournal/jg_05_1/beitrag/barron.htm

==

"Bilingual and trilingual competence: Problems of description and
differentiation," by Charlotte Hoffmann. University of Salford
Department of Modern Languages
http://webs.uvigo.es/ssl/eds/Docs/Eds_vol1_1/Eds_1-1_Hoffman.pdf

==

"Helping children break the language barrier," by Nora FitzGerald.
International Herald Tribune. (May 2002)
http://www.iht.com/articles/58882.html

"Many international families, even bilingual ones like the Kubekovs,
are raising their children in a third environment with surprising
success. Yet raising their multilingual, multicultural children is
also complicated."

"The first question every parent asks is, "Who speaks which language,
and when?" Then, "What language should my child be educated in?" The
answers come through research, trial, error and the shared experiences
of globalized families."

"There seem to be two constants: It is frequently harder than it
looks, and every child is different."

Read more...

==

"The language of success." Independent.co.uk. (October 2003)
http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/story.jsp?story=451298 

==

"Can Babies and Toddlers Become Bilingual, or Even Trilingual?" by
Kendeyl Johansen. Toddlers Today.
http://toddlerstoday.com/resources/articles/trilingual.htm

==

"The language of success," by Caroline Haydon. (Oct 2003)
http://www.talendocenten.net/taleninhetnieuws80.htm

"But by 11, she has shown, trilingual children are doing better at
school than their monolingual peers. Taking 36 children, aged three
and a half, seven, and 11, she has demonstrated that, far from being
confused by the different languages surrounding them, the children
were accomplished speakers of English and performed on a test of
reading comprehension at a level higher than children who spoke only
English. Even more interestingly, though boys normally lag behind at
this age, in this group they were certainly keeping up with the
girls."

==

A Three-Part Series:

On Raising Bilingual and Multilingual Children - Part 1 of 3: Laying
the Basic Foundation," by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang. IM Diversity.
http://www.imdiversity.com/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=2404

"On Raising Bilingual and Multilingual Children - Part 2 of 2:
Teaching in a Multicultural Context," by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang. IM
Diversity
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=2405

On Raising Bilingual & Multilingual Children - Part 3 of 3: Language
Technology," by Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, IM Diversity.
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=10643


==

"Milind Pandit's FAQ About Raising Multilingual Children." 

(To access this weblog, please go to the following page and click on
the link for the above title:
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=209



BOOKS
=====

You might be interested in ordering a copy of the following books
written by a woman who is raising her three children to speak four
languages:

"The Multilingual Mind: Issues Discussed by, for, and about People
Living with Many Languages," by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. Greenwood
Publishing
http://www.greenwood.com/books/BookDetail_pf.asp?pf=1&dept_id=1&sku=H918 

==

"Raising Multilingual Children," by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa.
http://www.multi-faceta.com/raising.html

"The purpose of this book is to guide parents on the path towards a
multilingual household, and to reinterpret the often technical
information about how foreign languages are learned into a format
agreeable to both laymen and academicians alike. This informative, yet
humorous book identifies choices parents and teachers need to make in
order to guide the children around them in foreign language
acquisition. One hundred and twenty studies illustrate the many ways
families combine the key factors in raising multilingual children, and
are used to inspire parents towards developing this intelligence
within their own children. Using an interactive format, this book
challenges the reader to reflect on their personal situations and to
act."

==


 Again, I hope these references provide you with some helpful
information. Your son will certainly have a wonderful advantage over
those of us who can speak only one (or even two) languages!


Best of luck!

umiat
 
 
Google Search Strategy
trilingual children
Raising Bilingual and Trilingual Children
raising a trilingual child
raising multilingual children
raising multilingual child OR children OR baby
raising a child with three languages

---

Clarification of Answer by umiat-ga on 29 Mar 2004 15:43 PST

I noticed that the link for "Code-switching and language dominance in
the trilingual child," did not transfer correctly.

Please go to http://www.trilingualism.org/ and click on the link for
that article. You might also want to read "Trilingual Firsts Language
Acquisition: exploration of a linguistic <miracle> (Jean-Marc Dewaele)

Thanks for your quick and comprehensive answer. Have been able to
review some of the sites and information, and looks like a lot of
useful information. Thanks for helping on this fascinating journey
with our newborn child.

Hi zingo99,

I'm not sure about the third language, but here is what I believe is
an excellent way to raise a bilingual child.

The person who is speaking to the child ALWAYS speaks in their native
language. In other words, you would speak in Swedish and your wife
would speak in Taiwanese when you are addressing the child. It is a
committment that should last until at least the child starts school,
preferably longer. This method helps the child sort out the two
languages, and gives him two mother tongues if started from birth.
Everyone associated with the child must adher to the same rule, for
example, the grandparents.

Can't help with the third language, but just remember that it is
important for the child to be well grounded in at least one language.

Regards,
hummer

Hey Zingo99,

Your answered question is really helping me out.  I'm in a similiar
situation as you, as my wife is Shanghainese (from Shangahi, China)
and I'm American.  We tend to speak both languages to each other. 
Moreover, she lived in Japan for 4 years and is completely fluent in
that also.  We are expecting a child this spring and would like to
[try to] teach him/her 4 languages.  The 4th language you ask?  As you
may or may not know (because of your knowledge of Chinese)
Shanghainese people usually speak "Shanghainese".  This is especially
true of the older generation, particularly my wife's parents.  Their
Mandarin Chinese is not the greatest, so I am guessing that they will
be speaking to the child using Shanghainese.  So, there you have it --
4 languages.

This situation would be hard enough WITH good resources, but to find
out that the resources seem to be limited is a little scary.  I'm a
little relieved to stumble upon your question and have copied down all
the links.  It's reassuring knowing that I'm not alone in this
situation!