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CONSULTANCY Raising Children in More Than One Language Melbourne VIC November 20th, 2016 Summaries of presentations: Issues in raising children bilingually Susanne Dopke will offer information on how bilingualism influences a child's development and what parents and other carers can do help the child speak both languages. In this session she will discuss general principles of raising children bilingually like: how does bilingualism affect the child's development? when should we start speaking the community languages to a young child? who should speak the community language? how frequently does the community language need to be spoken? how can we maximise the language input in the community language? what is the role of the English speaking parent and other relatives? how can we deal with criticism from outside? The session will be of interest to parents just starting out as well as those who are wondering if they are doing the right thing or who have to defend themselves against criticism. It will also support professionals who are dealing with bilingual families. back to program overview back to top Practical suggestions for helping your child learn your language Susanne Dopke will discuss the pivotal role of the parent in creating a language environment in which the development of the community language can flourish during the pre-school years. The focus will be on practical strategies for enriching the language input qualitatively as well as quantitatively. This will include: motivating the child to enjoy the parent's language; helping the child to access their knowledge in the parent's language for their own use; the role of books in the early development of the community language; dealing with a child's refusal of the parent's language; and exploiting the child's switches to English for the benefit of the community language. Participants' own concerns will be welcomed as practical examples of what can go wrong and how it can be turned around. This session will be of interest to parents of toddlers and pre-school children as well as professionals advising parents. back to program overview back to top Understanding and achieving early literacy: Practical tips In this session, Sarah Pavy will focus on the development of early literacy skills amongst bilingual children in the home setting. There will be discussion of a range of factors, including books, toys, day-to-day activities and technology, with a focus on practical tips that can be immediately implemented. The emphasis of the session will be on the ways in which parents think about and approach this crucial stage of linguistic development, including simple but important strategies to encourage successful development of early literacy skills back to program overview back to top Bilingual programs at work - Lessons from 3 schools in Melbourne This panel of education leaders (Janet Gale, Sheryl Hall, Averil Grieve) will discuss the nature and structure of bilingual education in their schools, as well as the opportunities and challenges. back to program overview back to top Community in action: Why multilingualism is good for everyone We discuss how Melbourneπs language landscape is changing and why multilingualism is good for our families and for Melbourne. We also show how families and communities can come together to support language learning in the family. Led by Prof John Hajek. back to program overview back to top last updated: November 1st, 2016