Cultivating Multilingualism in Your Montessori Home

In our previous post Should Your Montessori Child Be Bilingual?, we examined the potential benefits of your kids speaking more than one language. Now, let’s consider the various ways you can cultivate a multilingual home! 

Be Intentional

Time to make a plan! Learning a language doesn’t happen accidentally. Consider different methods and implement what makes sense for your family. It’s not unusual to apply multiple strategies at once. 

• One Person One Language (OPOL) - Each person uses a single language when interacting with the kids. One parent consistently speaks English, while the other uses Dutch. This allows young kids to create clear associations between language and people. This could work well for families outside the traditional two-parent construct, like multigenerational households or shared custody arrangements. 

• Heritage Language at Home - Your family speaks a language within the home, and with each other, that is not the dominant language of the wider community. For example, everyone speaks Spanish in the home setting, but uses English to interact with friends and neighbors. The use of a heritage language, or “minority language,” is important for your kids to maintain their cultural identity and family connections. 

• Time and Place - Your family decides when and where to speak a language, assigning a specific language to a time or location. For example, when you’re in the car, everyone uses Mandarin words. Or the family speaks English in the morning as everyone prepares to go their separate ways, but dinner conversation is exclusively in Portuguese. This helps kids associate language with a distinct context. 

• Situational Multilingualism - Children learn and use different languages based on specific situations, shifting between them depending on where they are, who they are interacting with, or the topic of conversation. Code-switching, alternating between two or more languages in a single interaction, is an example of situational multilingualism. A child in India may walk into a store speaking Hindi with their sibling, but they know to switch to Bengali when they speak to the clerk. Think of it like how you may use more formal vocabulary at work, but in a more relaxed setting with friends, you use slang terms. 

Be Patient and Supportive

Some parents are concerned that when their kids code-switch between two languages, this means they are confused and are unable to communicate effectively in either language. This is not true! Learning multiple languages at once does not slow a child’s language acquisition. In general, kids who are exposed to multiple languages early benefit developmentally and are more capable of becoming proficient speakers in those languages. 

Do not worry if they drop a Greek word into an otherwise Turkish conversation. Your little ones will make mistakes as they learn. They may use sentence structure from one language but the vocabulary of another. That’s all a part of normal speech development and language acquisition. Their understanding of grammar rules and abstract ideas will grow with more exposure and practice. Continually encourage your children to do their best, and work with them when you can. Practice over perfection!

And what about parents who are not fluent in the language their child is learning? Use the words and phrases you know! Find ways for your kids to interact with native speakers, like going to a camp, joining a club, or enrolling in an immersion program. Focus on creating a language-rich environment by providing resources and encouraging their progress. 

Get creative and have fun! Find multilingual books, and read aloud with your kids. Play simple word games like I Spy, even if all you end up doing is making a list of vocabulary words you need to look up. Listen to podcasts and music in your target language. How many K-pop fans know the word daebak from listening to their favorite songs on repeat? [It means “awesome” or “wow!”] 

Trying different foods is another great way to learn proper pronunciation and inflection when you’re learning another language. Visit a Filipino restaurant and sample the sisig and lumpia. Or look up recipes for Ethiopian food like injera and shiro, and spend an afternoon cooking with unfamiliar ingredients. Engaging in the cultures associated with a learned language enriches the experience exponentially. Also, yum!

Be Consistent and Be Flexible

Try to strike a balance! Like anything with young kids, it’s important to maintain language learning methods so they know what to expect. They need structure and predictability to effectively orient themselves toward a goal. It may be tempting to default to your dominant language out of habit, or just because it’s easier, but remember that consistent use is key to maintaining a learned or secondary language. 

At the same time, as they learn, change, grow, and develop, your kids need space to adapt to changing circumstances. For example, your family uses the Time and Place method and agrees to only speak French on the weekends. This may have worked when your kids were younger and spent more of their time with you, but now that they have extracurricular activities with their peers, you may want to switch to weekday afternoon chats in French to maintain the practice. 

Let's Go! Good Luck!

When you promote bilingualism and multilingualism in your kids, you nurture their cultural awareness and personal identity. By expanding the ways in which they can communicate with different cultures, they gain a deeper understanding of the world and develop a greater sense of respect and empathy for others. Sounds good in any language! 

¡Vamos! Gambatte! 

And don’t forget to listen to Part 2 of the Modern Montessori Podcast, “Discussing the Facts on Learning Two Languages in Early Childhood,” with Toé Karasawa!