Books on Raising Bilingual Children
7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child by Naomi Steiner and Susan L. Hayes
This book helps parents in both monolingual and multilingual families determine and achieve their bilingual goals for their child, whether those goals are understanding others, the ability to speak a second language, reading and/or writing in two languages, or some combination of all of these. You can find a review of the book here.
Bilingual By Choice: Raising Kids in Two (or More!) Languages by Virginie Raguenaud
This book guides parents on how to introduce a second language to their children. The author provides insights, resources, and activities for raising children that will go on to become bilingual adults. This book addresses bilingualism from the cradle to adolescence using practical strategies and techniques for any family or instructor to ensure that kids stay engaged and active in every language available to them.
Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven (Parents’ and Teachers’ Guides) by Xiao-lei Wang
This book is for parents who live in a foreign country and intend to raise their children in their own heritage language(s). It offers helpful suggestions for this challenging situation and provides useful strategies in the daily interactions between parents and children.
Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism by Colin Baker
The book is a practical introduction for parents and teachers to bilingualism. Straightforward and realistic answers are given to a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions about bilingualism and bilingual education. Areas covered include family, language, culture, identity, reading, writing, schooling and issues.
Raising a Bilingual Child: A Step-by-Step Guide for Parents by Barbara Zurer Pearson
This book provides parents with information, encouragement, and practical advice for creating a positive bilingual environment. It offers both an overview of why parents should raise their children to speak more than one language and detailed steps parents can take to integrate two languages into their child’s daily routine.
Raising Bilingual Children: Parent’s Guide series by Carey Myles
This book provides guidance to parents in evaluating their own language situation in order to identify strengths the family can build on in promoting the children’s bilingualism. Questions and challenges are addressed that can arise when raising children bilingually and learning from the experiences and advice of other parents.
The Bilingual Edge: Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language by Kendall King and Alison Mackey
In The Bilingual Edge, the authors wade through the hype and provide clear insights into what actually works. No matter what your language background is—whether you never passed Spanish in high school or you speak Mandarin fluently—King and Mackey will help you select the language that will give your child the most benefits; find materials and programs that will assist your child in achieving fluency; and identify and use your family’s unique traits to maximize learning.
The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents by Edith Harding-Esch and Philip Riley
Information and advice parents need in order to make informed decisions about what language policy to adopt with their children.