Product Description

First published in 1986, The Bilingual Family has provided thousands of parents with the information and advice they need to make informed decisions about what language policy to adopt with their children. This second edition contains updated references and new entries to the alphabetical reference guide.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #249543 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 206 pages

Customer Reviews

Descriptive, not prescriptive
I read this book almost 20 years ago, and I found it very instructive. At that time, I could only find scholarly and theoretical treatments of bilingualism. This descriptive approach was very reassuring for my wife (French) and me (American), since most other books tended to prescribe certain behaviors, or just put forth vague theoretical concepts. If nothing else, we took away from this book the notion that there is no "right way" to approach raising bilingual children. This book, through its various case studies, drove home the idea that each family must adapt to their individual conditions, and do what works, inevitably adjusting along the way. Now, both my children are fluent in both French and English, in addition to also being bicultural, so we're happy with the path it set us on as parents. I also lent this book to many friends with bilingual concerns over the years, and they always had positive reactions.

Very educative book!
I bought this book trying to find some guidance regarding raising a bilingual kid. I was very pleased with the contents of the book and the way information is presented.

Being a bilingual myself, I also enjoy a lot of anecdotes about the "complications" when using my weaker language.

I highly recommend this book.

Nothing Useful or New
I was disappointed with this book. It presents general overview of linguistics and language development that one can find in multiple other sources. There is no practical advise on raising children bilingually. Case studies illustrating possible scenarios are for the most part inapplicable and lack detail to be useful in practice. There are very few books that should go straight into recycling bin - and this is one of them.