How Au Pairs Can Support Bilingualism | Raising Bilingual Children

Are you considering hosting an au pair to support your bilingual parenting aims? Au pairs can be a wonderful source of minority language input for your children (and you). But how can you make the most of your au pair's time with your kids and best support language learning for your children? In this video I'll talk about some of the ways you can make the most of your children's time with your au pair.
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playlists that might interest you:
STARTING YOUR BILINGUAL PARENTING JOURNEY: bit.ly/3q6M3nP
BILINGUAL PARENTING TOOLKIT: bit.ly/2ZM4i6G

[@ms2lovely2hate]

Amazing tips Cousin! Keep up providing this much needed information

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thanks for watching and for your encouragement!

[@thecavsman]

We are in a very similar situation. My native Language is English, my wife's in Spanish, and my mother (who lives with us) speaks only English. I was encouraged to raise my daughter in French by French friends of mine. I speak well , but haven't spoken much French the last 5 or so years - so part of my job is to surround myself more with French so that I'm not just hearing myself. Speaking French to my baby was a hard decision, because language and culture and so intertwined, but when she turned 11 months I began speaking French to my daughter, and reading to her exclusively in French. Two and a half months later, and she understands everything I say. She gets Spanish from her mother and English from my mother. It's amazing seeing her understand so many things in 3 languages. Most of the few words she says, she choses a language to always say them in (usually Spanish, sometimes French) - but she says both "arbre" and "arbol" depending on who she is talking to! One thing, I am a little self-conscious about my accent - which isn't that strong but I hate hearing recordings of myself lol. I know it's baby talk...but, to my ear at least in those clips, your son didn't speak like an anglophone. That's so encouraging. I haven't given my daughter much screen time yet, but how did you supplement with native-level French before the au pair? I'll probably learn the answer in another video before you even get the chance to respond haha, but I'm so glad I found your content!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Thanks so much for this video, Stephanie!

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you for watching!

[@mub9075]

Thanks for the great tips! We have recently gotten a native minority language speaker to play with our children 2 hours a week and at holiday time they have joined us for some day trips too. We are not able to host an au pair but this has been a good alternative for us at the moment.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Hi Leena, I think that's great! I think a lot of this advice will also apply to having any native speaker interact with your children. I'd also love to find an arrangement like this for my kids so I'm glad to hear that this has worked for you and blossomed into longer and more diverse interactions. Thanks for watching and hope you and the family are doing well!

[@Mac_an_Mheiriceanaigh]

Evil Stephanie in Stephanie's mind: "OMG now that the aupair is here I need to make sure to create some emergencies so we can practice that crucial emergency vocab"

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Haha I've never gone that far! But I'd certainly be keeping my notebook handy to jot down some notes so I don't forget for later!

[@Peru-fc3bi]

Hi Stephanie thank you for this very interesting video! I'm just wondering what your opinion is in relation to the '30% rule' - that children must get around 30% wake time of their language exposure to become proficient in the language? I am on summer holidays at the moment (teacher) so my 16 month old is getting lots of minority language exposure. Once I return to work this is going to dip alot. She will be in English-speaking childcare 30 hours a week. My wife speaks English to her. Also do you feel that a frequent native speaker babysitter would be more beneficial when my daughter is a little older? Thank you so much.

[@LiveYourLanguage]

Thank you for watching! I'm glad you asked this question. This stage with your child (early pre-speaking) stage is a great time to establish the use of the minority language with you. I'm not sure if you are using the OPOL method, but it sounds like you might be. In that case, staying consistent and maximizing input and interaction with you is key. If you establish that minority language as "your language" together, then that will maximize the usefulness of having minority language speaking babysitters. It's important to note 2 things: the 30% rule is a rule of thumb and slightly outdated. More realistically the kids will learn to speak a language when there is a communicative need and adequate input. I've read stories about children who stick with the minority language even after going to full-time majority language daycare, however it took lots of consistency and being intentional about language use to reach this point. Bottom line: it's not impossible! But do whatever you can to stack things to you advantage (like babysitters, which I do think are most useful when the child is over 2 ish years old because their language is becoming more complex). Secondly, please don't confuse "proficiency" and "being an active/productive user of the language." Kids can be proficient in passive modes like listening and this too helps with switching to active language use in the future. Don't let the majority language overload discourage you! Even receptive language users are bilingual and parents help them in the future by sticking with their minority language whenever possible. I hope this helps!