Review: 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child by Naomi Steiner

Source: Goodreads

Because our daughter will be raised bilingually by us (Estonian and English) and will get to learn another language, Dutch, at the daycare and the rest of the daily life here, I am interested in bilingual parenting. Already during my pregnancy, I started reading up on strategies and tips on how to start and keep bilingual parenting up. I am most concerned about the Estonian language, as English is abundant in the current world and, as for now, Dutch will be the dominant language in our child's life outside the house.

Steiner's book is built up in chapters focussing on steps of bilingual raising, starting from building the foundation for it (the basic theory about bilingualism and myths debunked) to defining the goals and overcoming obstacles to the last step, adapting to school.

What I like about the book is that many practical tips are included. For example, when the grandparents are babysitting, they can still play a lullaby or an audiobook in the language they might not speak but is used in bilingual parenting. Furthermore, several worksheets are included in the book. They help you to set and write down goals for bilingualism, schedule for doing that weekly, etc. We have started filling in the sheets and I think that with all the hectic days that having a newborn brings, it really works well to have these things written down.

Of course, many bilingualism stories are shared in the book. That can be helpful to have someone to relate to, especially when most people you know are not parenting bilingually. Thankfully, we have several friends who are bringing their children up in two or three languages, so we also find good examples very close by.

I've mentioned many things I liked about the book, but I also found some that I didn't. I think that this can be a good first book or source to read. I had done quite a bit of research before, so a lot of the theory was known for me and I could have probably just skimmed through the first chapter. Also, as it goes for a lot of English-language literature about parenting published in the US, it was a bit too North-America centred. Therefore, some of the examples given work less well when you live in Europe and a part of the chapter about public bilingual education programs doesn't really apply to us.

All things considered, I don't think that this book changed my mind about bilingual parenting, but it did confirm my choice and provided more information. We've chosen to use the (most commonly applied) method of One Parent One Language. Hopefully, I will be able to write more about how it is going for us at the moment.

For now, I've already seen that I do need to be very keen on doing it myself as I'm the parent speaking the less dominant language - my husband speaks English which we both use for our daily conversations in between two of us and with his family. It also seemed a bit strange to talk with a baby who doesn't answer, but now (almost 6 weeks old) she starts to respond more in her own baby language. Also, addressing her in a different language in front of people who I speak Dutch with felt unfamiliar at first, but I found that you get used to that very quickly. We will keep on going!

Disclaimer: I wish this post would have been sponsored, but no, it's a dear Christmas present I received.