For Parents: April 2007

LANGUAGE & SOCIETY CENTRE, MONASH UNIVERSITY

LASC is part of the Arts Faculty of Monash University, focusing on languages research in the form of projects, papers, conferences and discussions.

One project called Raising Children Bilingually is based on the following premise:

Parents in Australia who speak a LOTE (Language Other Than English) have a resource which their children can acquire. Acquisition of two languages, however, requires some effort both on the part of parents and children. It is important for parents to make a conscious decision regarding the bilingual upbringing of their child, to be clear on the reasons for it and the strategy they are going to follow to achieve their goal.

The project's web page goes on to provide information about seminars and workshops held by the Centre:

The Centre's "Raising Children Bilingually" seminars for parents, care-givers and educators have been very successful regular events since 1990. The Centre started offering these workshops nationally in 1995, including language-specific workshops organised on request.

Although the content of seminars varies according to the target audience, central issues and questions raised and discussed in the workshops include: the effect of bilingualism on the child's intellectual, social and linguistics development as well as on school achievement; attitudes of the community towards bilingualism; and practical strategies to encourage children to maintain a LOTE.

The Centre also makes available some specific resources in print and video that parents can tap into.

While the Centre is based in Melbourne, the Raising Children Bilingually project has a national focus.

For more information, go to the Raising Children Bilingually.

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What You Can Do

This section of the Languages Education in Australia website focuses on parents who want to encourage their children to learn one or more languages other than English.

We aim here to present on a monthly basis a resource that may help to inform and encourage parents to engage languages education.

We fully acknowledge the range of personal reasons for parents wanting to explore languages education, as well as the extent to which they may feel they can be actively involved at a home or school level, and the limitations on their time and energies.

Accordingly, there is no limit to the nature or format of the resources presented, and no warranty given as to how helpful each resource may be to individual parents.

Submissions for inclusion are most welcome.