Raising bilingual children: When school speaks a different language: Expat life, #2

By Clarissa Gosling

Does your child speak a different language at school and home?

In this book Clarissa draws on her experience of sending her British children to a Dutch school to help you support your child through their education abroad. 

It covers:
- Systems for separating when and where you use multiple languages;
- Things to look for in different school systems;
- How to work with your school to best support your child;
Possible issues specific to children of different ages, from babies to teenagers.

This book is suitable for families with children of all ages, whether they have just moved to a foreign language school or have been there for some time.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Prinsenhof Publications
• Release date: Jun 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393017240

Clarissa Gosling

Clarissa has always lived more in the world of daydream and fiction than in reality. In her writing she explores purpose and belonging across worlds. Having never found an actual portal to faeryland, she creates her own fantastical worlds where dragons, fae and other magical creatures rule. She now lives in the Netherlands with her family, where she writes as much as they will let her. When not reading or writing, she drinks too much tea and has a burgeoning obsession with Bundt cakes. Clarissa is the author of the "Dragons of Kaitstud" and "Lost Princess of Starlight" YA fantasy series, and the "Expat Life" series of non-fiction guides for families moving, and living, abroad. She is an admin for the 365 Writing Challenge, an international group that supports people to build the habit of writing. And she is one of the co-hosts of the Reading Queens podcast, which discusses mainly young adult fantasy books and their major tropes. Find out more about her at clarissagosling.com

Book preview

What this book isn't

This book isn’t an academic study of the benefits of bilingualism, as there are so many of those already. I’m assuming that you are already clear on what those are, as otherwise you wouldn’t be trying to raise your children bilingually. I’m also not going to go into detail about the different methods and benefits of those. While I will summarise them, it is purely my understanding of how each works and only provided as a guide. If you want to research them more yourself, then please go ahead.

There is also a whole literature on Third Culture Kids and the benefits and issues they often have in common. A third culture kid is a child brought up in a different culture to that of their parents, and so will likely include most of the core target group of this book. Again, this isn’t a subject I will dwell on here, as my aim is for this to be a more practical guide to what to do in this situation. Feel free to research this more if you’re interested.

I’m also not going to cover any websites, apps or tools you could use to help learn any language. In part because there would be so many, and it would be a full-time job to find out what’s available for every language, most of which wouldn’t apply to your situation. But also because that would likely go out of date quickly and be difficult to keep updated. If you are interested in finding out what there is available, then search for the specific language you want to