Bilingual balancing act

Aside from being a relatively easy way to decorate, the alphabet wall is also part of Eden and Ninet Brough's strategy to help their children get to grips with both Thai and English. With Jimmy attending a Thai kindergarten and Awika enrolled in a local Thai school, their parents try to make sure the kids get as much English as possible while at home.

Other English learning devices used in the Brough household include graded storybooks, easy-to-use computer programmes and karaoke VCDs _ though parents should really think of their ears before encouraging their children to scream along to ``Crocodile Rock''.

Going on past experience, Eden and Ninet, from England and Thailand, respectively, are approaching things a little differently with Jimmy than they did with Awika. ``When Awika was very young, I used to speak a lot of Thai with her,'' says Eden. ``It seemed natural _ [Ninet] speaks Thai and we are living in Thailand. We just felt that Thai was the language of the house.''

Then, when Awika was about two, Eden started to think that as a native speaker it was his responsibility to help Awika learn English. ``We started to do a lot of reading together and talking together in English,'' he says. ``At first, she would speak back to me in Thai, but it was clear she understood what I was saying.''

As her English improved, Awika started to fall behind in Thai. So, she started having a few extra Thai classes on Saturday mornings. After a few months, she caught up with the other kids at kindergarten and things were on an even keel.

When Jimmy came along, Eden and Ninet, mindful of Awika's experience, started speaking to him in English straight away. Now, aged three and attending kindergarten, Jimmy's Thai and English are more or less at the same level.

Bilingual schools

While the Broughs' decision to take responsibility for their children's language development is to be applauded, many families find it much tougher. Busy work schedules, limited financial means or a simple lack of confidence often preclude parents from being as hands-on as they'd like. Unfortunately, the Thai education system is not really equipped to provide much of an alternative.

Dr Jamie Wallin, Faculty of Education, Rangsit University

``Bilingual education in Thailand makes sense as there's a great need for it,'' says Dr Jamie Wallin of Rangsit University's Faculty of Education.

``Wealthy families may send their children abroad, or to expensive international schools, but that leaves a huge proportion of Thai families _ families who may not be so wealthy _ with no options.''

Genuine bilingual schools are practically non-existent in Thailand, says Dr Wallin. International schools operate almost exclusively in English (with lip service paid to mandatory Thai classes) and are viable only for those who can afford the typically exorbitant fees. Meanwhile, the jury is still out on a government scheme to establish English programmes in schools around the country.

``If the environment a student operates in is not bilingual, then you've got no chance,'' says Dr Wallin. ``You've got to give equal weight to both languages _ have lessons in both languages, have announcements, signs and information in both languages.''

Dr Wallin and his colleagues at Rangsit are offering an MA in Bilingual Education that should help produce graduates with the necessary know-how to fill this gap in the educational landscape.

``We are training students in what they need to know about bilingual education,'' he says. ``The idea is that they then go out and establish bilingual schools or act as consultants for schools.''

That, of course, is all in the future. The success of projects such as Rangsit's master's programme is unlikely to affect the average family in Thailand for several years yet. The onus, at least in the short term, is still very much on parents.

One parent, one language

Dr Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin, a language acquisition expert at Chulalongkorn

The advantages of being bilingual in today's society are manifold. Aside from being able to communicate effectively with your Chinese grandmother and French father, for example, proficiency in more than one language is a benefit when it comes to employment.

Phrases like ``the world is getting smaller'' and ``knowledge-based society'' may seem little more than faddish rhetoric, but they do reflect a marked change in the way the world works.

Opportunities now abound for people to study and work overseas and the internationalisation of business automatically gives an advantage to multilingual jobseekers. Put simply, being bilingual opens a lot of doors.

Many feel that the sooner a child starts learning another language the better, and that children seem to learn languages better than adults. Linguistics heavyweight Noam Chomsky, for example, claims that children are born with an innate ability to break down all language into recognisable patterns. These patterns then help formulate parameters for how language can and can't work. Over time, these structures become less flexible, making it harder to grasp newly introduced linguistic concepts _ something any English speaker struggling with Thai tones would probably agree with.

Educational psychologist Catherine Snow, on the other hand, argues that children do not have any discernible advantage over adult learners. Snow says that children's conceptualisation of language is rooted in the basic and repetitive manner in which parents typically speak to their children. This ``baby talk'' provides a model that children first mimic and then adopt as their own.

Where most experts do agree is that there has to be motivation behind learning a language. That motivation may come from the learning being fun _ as with Awika and Jimmy's karaoke sessions _ or from a desire to communicate.

Dr Pavinee Thirakhupt of Chulalongkorn's Language Institute

Dr Sudaporn Luksaneeyanawin, a language acquisition expert from Chulalongkorn University's Department of Linguistics, and Dr Pavinee Thirakhupt, from Chula's Language Institute, point to a child's environment as a key factor in language development.

``In the early stages of a child's language development, children may well be truly bilingual,'' says Dr Sudaporn of situations where two languages are afforded equal value in the home. ``But as soon as they go to school, a dominant language emerges.''

In other words, if a child goes to a Thai school and hangs out with Thai friends, then it is natural that Thai will become the dominant language. The usual result, Dr Sudaporn says, is that the ``minority'' language will then start to be processed though the dominant language. An example is somebody thinking in Thai before speaking in English.

Therefore, if the minority language is to be developed, it must be afforded significant value outside school.

Two ways to go about doing this are the One Parent, One Language (Opol) approach and the Home Language method.

With Opol, parents speak to their children in their own, different, native tongues. For example, a Thai father would speak to his child in Thai, while the Japanese mother would speak in Japanese. This method gives the child exposure to both the dominant and minority languages and reinforces the concept that different people may speak different languages.

Home language method

The Home Language method, whereby the minority language is used among the family and dominant language development takes place away from home, has the benefit of immersing the child in each language. Again the child learns that, for example, not everybody speaks Thai, and that language and culture are inextricably linked.

But isn't all this chopping and changing confusing for children? If dad speaks English but mum speaks Thai, and everybody at school speaks Thai, but the SpongeBob SquarePants show is in English, how is a three-year-old supposed to work it all out?

``Processing two languages instead of one has very little effect on how a child's language skills develop,'' says Dr Pavinee. ``A child's brain is very robust, very elastic. In fact, there are no known limits for how many languages a child can acquire. Some children learn three or four languages at the same time.''

It is clear that if parents want their child to become proficient in the minority language, then it takes a little bit of planning and commitment to the long haul.