Does the Mother Tongue Matter? | How important is a well-developed mother tongue for a child?

Is the term "mother tongue" still up to date? Do international parents necessarily need to use their mother tongue with their children? How important is a well-developed mother tongue for the overall healthy development of a child? I explore these and other questions in this video.
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Time Stamps
00:00 - Introduction
00:30 - Who I am and what I can do for you
01:05 - OPOL is not for everyone
01:46 - "mother tongue" definition
03:18 - Is the term attached to the "mothers"?
03:38 - Why some can't pass on their mother tongue
05:08 - Common confusion about what language to speak
06:05 - Why is the development of the mother tongue important
09:37 - Summary
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What Resources to Use
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Language Activities & Games (0-3)
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[@MultilingualFamily]

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[@TourdionInstrumental]

I never thought the term ‘mother tongue’. Referred to the language of the mother. I always interpreted it as the first and strongest language a child develops. As a mother would be a the first and strongest personal bond of a child. I understood it more as a transference of the meaning of mother, not literally the language of the mother speaks. That’s very literal.

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Consider two children with Greek parents living in France. Child A's parents speak only Greek at home. Child A speaks Greek easily with all of her family and fits in easily in Greece. When she went to school she was already confident about interacting with other children and expressing herself, and picked up French quickly through the relationships she grew with her peers and teachers. She is proud and happy to be both Greek and French. Child B's parents speak Greek with each other but tried to speak French with their child. Child B can understand some Greek but doesn't speak it, and feels left out whenever family are speaking with each other or when they visit Greece. Child B doesn't really feel confident speaking or expressing himself, because his parents always felt uncomfortable speaking with him in French and were reluctant to let him interact with their friends' children who spoke Greek. When Child B went to school he struggled to make friends, even though he already has a basic knowledge of French, because he lacked confidence. He doesn't know where he belongs because he doesn't feel Greek or French, and struggles to express himself.

[@MultilingualFamily]

Exactly, children need to know where they come from to feel confident and expand from there.

[@NKvetinka]

This is a very easy case. Also only 2 languages is no problem in most families.

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

@@NKvetinka Yes, very simple and exaggerated case. Most cases are not like this!!

[@MarieMuller-qe1np]

Dear Andrea, thank you for your videos and really helpful advice. I was wondering if you have any suggestions to our following situation: I am a native Luxembourgish person and I feel the need to pass this language on to our child, so that this part of my culture passes on and that it will be able to speak to his aunt, uncle and grandparents. My husband is French and he does not understand nor speaks Luxembourgish. So he will be speaking French to our child. As we live in the German speaking part of Switzerland our kid will be exposed to Swiss German in day care and school later one. I speak high German but never managed to speak Swiss German even though I understand 99% of conversations. Our concept will be me speaking Luxmbourgish, my husband French and the common language between me and my husband French. Would you agree that for me it is possible to read books and stories in high German to our kid or would you suggest sticking with the kid beeing exposed exclusively to high German in school or audio books so that he will not be more confused? Or am I allowed to introduce the third language at special occasions to emphazise it? I would be very grateful to your opinion on this. Cheers Marie

[@MultilingualFamily]

What you have in mind sounds good. Make sure your child is in a Kita or Spielgruppe around 2 days so that your child starts learning German and Swiss German before school starts. You can read German books to your child but your main focus should be on Luxenb. if you want your child to speak it. German and S German can be easely outsourced. 😊

[@artugert]

My wife is a native Chinese speaker and I’m an advanced level Chinese learner. We live in the US (where I am from). We have a son who is almost 2 now, and we have been speaking to him in only Chinese. I could have chosen to speak to him in only English (OPOL), but I wanted to give him a strong foundation in Chinese, for fear that he might lose interest and forget it when he grows up. Recently some people told me that if he doesn’t know any English by the time he starts school, it will be hard for him to socialize with other kids, and he will be behind others in learning. So I decided to switch to speaking to him in English. It was challenging, as he can already understand and speak a decent amount in Chinese, and now suddenly communication became more difficult. But his listening ability quickly improved, and over time he started to repeat some words sometimes. But after a while, I started speaking Chinese again, just because it’s easier to communicate. But now I’m wondering what I should do. You were saying that children can have two first languages, but the quality and quantity of input must be accordingly high. I do hope his Chinese and English can one day both be at a high level. Living in the US, the dominant language is English, so I thought more attention should be placed on the non-dominant language. But at this point, his Chinese is much better than his English. So I’m wondering how to balance things. Maybe I can speak to him in English one day a week? Or just always speak to him in English, but if his English is starting to get as strong as his Chinese, I can switch back?

[@MultilingualFamily]

Hi, I understand that you are worried, you shouldn't be. Your child does need English to have a smooth transition into school, however, don't make the mistake of trying to teach your child English yourself. You can read books if you like, but keep your relationship language Chinese. Once your child is in school EN will become stronger and stronger and it will become a challenge to keep up with Chinese, if your child gets used to using also EN with you. So keep on doing what you are doing, it's perfect like that. Just find a person that can interact with your child on a regular basis in EN from now on. Maybe one or two days a week. It could be a day care, a nanny a social group. That way, he will learn EN and have a good level when starting to read and write. Here are other helpful links. Stick around so I can keep on supporting your family :0): Webpage: www.multilingual.family Subscribe for free tools: www.multilingual.family/sign-up Consultation: www.multilingual.family/coaching-call-60-min Other Services: www.multilingual.family/services KZbin Videos: kzbin.info

[@artugert]

@@MultilingualFamily So you think it would be a mistake for me to sometimes teach him some English?

[@MultilingualFamily]

focus on the minority language @@artugert