Raising Bilingual-Biliterate Children in Monolingual Cultures

Stephen J Caldas

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Year: 2006
• Print ISBN: 9781853598753
• eBook ISBN: 9781853598777
• Topic: Sprachen & Linguistik
• Subtopic: Sprachwissenschaft

This book is a case study carefully detailing the French/English bilingual and biliterate development of three children in one family beginning with their births and ending in late adolescence. The author and researcher is the children's French/English bilingual American father, who was aided by his bilingual French Canadian wife (also the children's mother). We reared our three children in two different cultures— essentially monolingual English-speaking Louisiana, and totally monolingual French-speaking Québec. The family spent academic years in Louisiana, and the summer months in Québec. Our strategy was to speak only French to our son and our identical twin daughters. We artificially orchestrated and manipulated both the strategies, and to the extent possible, even the children's environments to ensure the success of our project. Additionally, I carefully documented our progress using a variety of research tools, including audio and videotape recordings, teacher and child surveys, interviews with teachers, fieldnotes, psychological and diagnostic testing, and standardized assessment instruments.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Introduction and Focus of the Book
• Chapter 2 Bilingualism in America
• Chapter 3 Methodology: Taking the Measure of the Project
• Chapter 4 Bilingual Antecedents
• Chapter 5 Home and Community
• Chapter 6 The School
• Chapter 7 Reading, Media, Hobbies and Games
• Chapter 8 The Psychology of Pre- and Early Adolescent Bilingualism
• Chapter 9 The Psychology of Middle Adolescent Bilingualism
• Chapter 10 Emerging Bilinguistic Identities
• Chapter 11 Taking the Measure of Bilingualism
• Chapter 12 Lessons Learned, Broader Implications and Guidelines for Parents
• Bibliography
• Appendices
• Index