Transcript of the Interview with Kendall King and Alison Mackey, authors of THE BILINGUAL EDGE

looks interesting!

Dr.s King and Mackey,
I am working in a school district that has approximately 65% of a migrant population and an 80% poverty level. The two languages spoken here are Spanish and English. I have done some study myself on bilingual education and I understand our district does not operate a true bilingual model. We have Native Language Literacy programs that run K-3. In our case the Spanish speaking population is seperated from the main population and receives reading/literacy instruction in Spanish and a double dose of the same curriculum in English. The students are slowly weaned from Spanish as the primary language until they pass the third grade. This is not a true bilingual model because our English speaking population does not receive Spanish instruction. However this is the best we can do with limited budgets and the availability of quality teachers that are bilingual. How do you propose that we approach slowly changing our program to a true bilingual model and broach the subject with parents that may not want their children to become bilingual?

Welcome to Gather Kendall and Alison! We look forward to spending the next hour with you as you answer Gather member questions about your book "The Bilingual Edge--Why, When, and How to Teach Your Child a Second Language."

Can you talk a little bit about the experience of collaborating on a writing project together? What were the challenges? Advantages?

Oops. Forgot to say welcome to Gather!

Hi Everyone, Thanks for having us. We are very happpy to be here. Alison and Kendall.

Faith S. sent in this question: Our three year old twin daughters are learning Spanish as their second language. They also have a made up language that they use as well. Should we be doing anything to stress English and Spanish over the other? Will they grow out of it?

It was a fun and rewarding experience working together. We have known each other since we were students at the University of Pennsylvania but this was the first project we took on together. We have complementary working styles, so really almost everything was very easy for us. For example, we both love to do things speedily and use email a lot. We also have different family situations which we were able to draw on for the book. For example, Kendall is bilingual English - Spanish and Alison is monolingual with a smattering of a few other languages. In addition, we each have two children, both one boy and one girl, and each "pair" of children just a couple of months apart in age. Alison.

I wouldn't interfere with their made-up languages as this is something personal between them and probably a phase (although there isn't much research on this that we know about). Rather, it seems important to be positive and consistent with the English and Spanish, giving them lots of opportunities to interact in both languages. Kendall

Susan T. sent in this question: My three year old is resisting learning a second language. What can I do to make the learning process more appealing?

How long does it take a child to become fully fluent in a language? Does introducing a second language slow them down?

Dear Susan,
Thanks for your question. This is a very common issue that many parents face and we discuss this in detail in the book as well. As your question suggests, it's very important to make the language learning process as fun and as interactive as possible. We know very well that it is impossible to make a three year old do what she doesn't want to do! We suggest exploring ways to make the language more appealing and fun for her, e.g., playdates, positive associations with the language, and even possibly some sorts of games, toys, or books in the language as incentives. Many more ideas from other parents are in our book. Kendall

Do you mean a child's first language for the full fluency? It's somewhat dependent on the child, and the definition of fluency. But, introducing a second language will not slow down the process of learning the first language, at least that's what research tells us. We go into this in the book, in the "when" chapter. Alison.

Thanks for answering my question. Very informative. On another note, I'm always curious what authors read. Although summer is almost over, I'm wondering what each of you had on your reading list?

Lori F. sent in this question: I'm curious as to what some common misconceptions are made about teaching your children a second language. One that my husband and I get is that we are pushy, snooty parents for wanting them to be bilingual. Sigh.

Aside from academic articles, I tend to read a lot of fiction. Most recently I've been reading (and re-reading) some of Ian McEwan's books. Alison and I both enjoyed _Chesil Beach_.

thankyou for coming! i have a question about multiple languages. our 5 yr old daughter, lillie, is interested in smatterings of languages, as many as she can stuff into her brain. she loves to learn the words, uses them in daily conversation, but isn't interested in engaging more fully in any of the languages. is this normal? neither my husband or i are bilingual enough to be speaking it in the home at the moment. what else should i be doing? we love the bilingual baby videos, read a lot of international/bilingual books, watch movies in other languages, etc.

This was a very well done and informative book. I plan on including it in gift baskets for my friends who are pregnant. From conception to press, how long did it take this book to come to fruition and what was the impetus behind it? Did it take less time or more time since there are two authors?

One of our first chapters in the book is about common myths and misconceptions involved with second language learning. What you talk about in terms of being perceived as pushy or snooty is something we discuss in relation to one of our case studies, where the person describes feeling self-conscious in the grocery store for being an obviously Anglo woman speaking to her child in Spanish. It's a feeling that's not uncommon, but can be recognized and dealt with, we hope, by realizing the tremendous benefit children have from knowing more than one language.

Hi Jessie!
It sounds like you have a very creative and engaging daughter. That's great she takes such an interest in other languages. If she only has limited exposure to new words/languages, it's quite normal for her to play with bits and pieces as she is doing now. There is a lot you can do to expand on her interests and increase her proficiency levels. We talk about these different strategies in detail in the book, but they include classes and programs, bilingual playdates and babysitters, as well as how to use books, toys, etc. efficiently and effectively. Every family situation is unique of course and how you use these will depend on your circumstances. Good luck! Kendall

Thanks for your nice comment and we love the idea of the book being included in gift baskets for pregnant friends. We wrote this book in part for our own pregnant friends and new mother friends, who asked us so many of the same questions and asked us to recommend books. When we realized there wasn't an existing book, we decided to write one. From conception to press, about three years, this is from the very first kernal of the idea, involving lots of literature searching and so on, to the publication date of July 07. With two of us, it probably cut down the writing time, and we believe improved the quality, since there were two of us checking everything, and we are both inclined to be perfectionists and to want to know everything about the points we are making. We've both written and edited a number of other books, these others are for an academic audience, and so this one took a bit longer because we also had to learn about how to write for a popular audience. Best, Alison.

Larry R. sent in this question: My college Spanish was epochs ago and mediocre at best. I'm sure the accent is even worse. Am I going to screw up my son's Spanish if I try to communicate with him in that language? Or should I just stick to English?

Thanks for such a thorough answer. Are you thinking about collaborating on another project like this one?

Hi Larry,
It depends. Is your son getting any other input in Spanish? Obviously, if you are the only source of input you're going to want to try and supplement that so he hears accents that are more native like. But in general, interacting with him in Spanish is good, even if you are not a native speaker (or even a near native speaker!) Alison

Jen O. sent in this question: Our nanny speaks only Spanish to our 18 month old daughter. Her father and I speak only English with her. We have noticed that she is mixing the languages to communicate. Is this something we should be worried about?

I have read about a recent controversy about "Baby Einstein" and similar learning programs. Are they not as good as normally thought? I often babysit for my nieces and nephews and they make me play it in English, then Spanish, and finally French.

Hi EK, Thanks for your question. We are considering another book expanding one section in the current book, about language learning for the older child. We find that parents ask us a lot about their older children, and there's not much out there focused on the older child. So, that might be our next project. Thanks for asking, Alison.

Hi Jen O,
Thanks for your question. This can be a great way to promote bilingualism. Switching in and of itself is not a bad thing EXCEPT that it means that your daughter is not getting as much Spanish input as she might. Given that she's probably English dominant, it would be ideal for her to hear only Spanish with your nanny. This would give her the best chance to acquire Spanish as there is a good chance that your daughter will start introducing English into the mix as well. The more the nanny can keep things in Spanish the better. We discuss details in the book on this exact point. Suerte! Kendall

Hi Robin,
In the book, we talk about what you can expect from so-called "edutainment" like Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby, Muzzy and other talking toys etc, in terms of what benefits and what ages. You probably read about the recent study associating more TV (and DVD) watching with less vocabulary. It's a complicated story but basically, the younger the child, the less they learn from things like this. Human babies mostly learn language through interacting with real, live, humans, not from watching things on TV, no matter the quality or content. Older children, however, can benefit from some motivational aspects of edutainment. Alison.

Hi Kendall and Alison, I'm wondering if you came across any findings in your research for this book that really surprised you?

Unfortunately, there are only fifteen minutes left in the chat. Kendall and Alison will try to answer as many questions as time permits.

Margaret T. sent in this question: My husband and I are about to have our first child and have been tossing around the idea of having a nanny whose native language is not English. The dilemma is we are not sure what second language to choose. I would hate to choose Spanish and have my child come back later and lament the fact that it wasn't Chinese.

Hi Jeffrey,
Interesting question. We were a bit surprised (and disappointed) to learn about the findings concerning television. We too hoped that our kids would learn a foreign language from TV!
Kendall

Hi Margaret,
In the book we have a chapter called "which language?" where we talk about this issue in terms of what's available in the community and family (including nannies and babysitters) as well as which languages are spoken in the world, and where, and which are growing/declining/languages of economic success and so on. It's certainly a question worthwhile investigating carefully.
Good luck. Alison.

Joe F. sent in this question: We are teaching both of our children French. Although both children are bright and curious, the second child seems to be picking up the language at a faster rate than his older brother. Neither child has been tested as having a learning disability. Is this something we should be worried about? I don't want the older child to feel frustrated or left behind.

This is from Gather Editorial: What would people be surprised to know about you? In a recent interview we did with author Dean Koontz, he revealed to us that he is a competent home contractor and likes to collect radios from the Art Deco period. Actor Tim Guinee told us that he is a bee keeper and volunteer firefighter when not on set. How about two professors from Georgetown? Any unusual hobbies?

Besides languages lessons, what are some other fun things to do with the kids that pertain to the second language they are learning?

Hi Joe,
We'd like to preface this by saying we're not speech pathologists or clinicians. Research does suggest that children can learn at different rates, and that doesn't necessarily indicate any problem. This is the case for children at different ages also. Something else to consider is that they might be learning different things, remember language is complicated, accent, grammar, vocab, different things so what seems slower (vocab?) for one might be balanced by something else going quicker, something the child/you can't detect as easily (accent? complex understanding of grammar?). The key to success is keeping it enjoyable for both children, as you indicate is your concern. In the book we talk about speed of learning and learning at different ages, particularly in our when? chapter. We also have a chapter on challenges. Good luck.

Dear Gather Editorial...This is a hard one! We are pretty much busy 24/7 being full-time academics and mothers of two small children. We wish we had the time to collect radios, and we have no DIY skills whatsoever I'm afraid. When we have a few spare minutes, we do like experimenting with new recipes! Kendall

Kendall and Alison, thank you for joining us this afternoon. We appreciate you taking the time to answer our questions.

And thank you to all the Gather members who participated. Until next time!

Thank you -- it has been really fun. Best wishes to all, Kendall and Alison

Good review. Thanks for bringing the book and the topic to Gather. I'm a firm believer in providing the opportunity for every child to truly learn a second language whenever possible. In this world, it is almost essential for any degree of comfort, or success. Our daughter chose to learn Spanish and is glad she did. Our son chose Japanese. He lives in Japan and works as a broadcast journalist for NHK---the public broadcasting corporation of Japan---and as a translator for the gaming industry, and as a translator/sports journalist. All because he came to me at about ten years of age and said: Momma, I want to live and work in Japan!

Thanks for writing the book. I learned a lot!

thank you! i can't wait to get this book. i appreciate your answers. it is difficult here, where we live, because there is so little diversity. i am always trying to work with lillie on intercultural education. thanks!

sigh...