Family Language Learning - (Parents' and Teachers' Guides) by Christine Jernigan (Paperback)

About the Book

Family Language Learning is a practical guide designed to support, advise and encourage any parents who are hoping to raise their children bilingually. It is unique in that it focuses on parents who are not native speakers of a foreign language.

Book Synopsis

Family Language Learning is a practical guide designed to support, advise and encourage any parents who are hoping to raise their children bilingually. It is unique in that it focuses on parents who are not native speakers of a foreign language. It gives parents the tools they need to cultivate and nurture their own language skills while giving their children an opportunity to learn another language. The book combines cutting-edge research on language exposure with honest and often humorous stories from personal interviews with families speaking a foreign language at home. By dispelling long-held myths about how language is learned, it provides hope to parents who want to give their children bilingual childhoods, but feel they don't know where to start with learning a foreign language.

Review Quotes

A very inspiring testimonial which will undoubtedly help those trying to raise bilingual children and also parents who have not considered that possibility due to lack of information.

--José Célio da Silva, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil and Managing Director, CELIL Imm

Christine Jernigan strikes the right tone with her readers and keeps it straightforward, sharing a wealth of well-researched information in a lighthearted way. Family Language Learning is loaded with practical tips which add up to a complete game plan before you know it. An easy, enjoyable read that will make you feel like picking up a language and sharing it with your child.

--Stéphanie Pellet, Wake Forest University, USA

Family Language Learning is a delight! It demystifies language learning through a mixture of family experiences, good common sense, and clearly reported second language acquisition research. In addition to supporting parents who want to bring up their children bilingually, it offers excellent language learning advice to anyone who wants to improve their own proficiency in a new language.

--Elaine K. Horwitz, Director, Graduate Program in Foreign Language Education, The University of Texas

About the Author

Christine Jernigan instructs foreign language teachers at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC and is a language coach for parents who want to raise bilingual children. She holds a PhD in foreign language education, and her main research interests include motivation, expectation and authenticity in the language classroom. She has contributed to the book Raising Children Bilingually in the US and to The Bilingual Family Newsletter. Her own children speak English and Portuguese. Visit her YouTube channel for videos on several of the chapter topics: www.youtube.com/user/getbilingual..