LANGUAGE STRATEGIES IN BILINGUAL FAMILIES

Abstract

Due to the increase in multinational marriages and immigrant families, there is a rise in the number of parents and children who are facing the challenges of bilingualism. Thus, some authors stress the need for bilingual family language strategies to be further explored. The aim of this article was to tackle some of the issues in early education of bilingual children by presenting different approaches to Family Language Policy (FLP) in bilingual families. After looking at all the language strategy approaches to raising a child in a bilingual environment, we can conclude that in the end it is mostly up to the parents and the children themselves how they will cope with the challenges posed by bilingualism. However, experts can agree on one thing, consistency in the rules of use of any of the language strategies is advised. But also, those rules should be natural and suitable for parents and consistent with their living situation.