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LINKS AND RESOURCES
There are many websites, with materials and tips available on the internet. Some of them are research-based, others reflect the authors’ own experiences. They follow a variety of aims. While they all promote multilingualism, some might focus on the maintenance of minority languages, while others put the children’s well-being at the centre and others aim to support families in raising balanced bilingual children.
On this website, we offer a selection of mostly research-based resources that support multilingual families to foster the family members’ multilingual repertoires. From the wide range of offers, we prefer websites that keep in mind that language policies and strategies need to be adapted over time as circumstances in life change.
Recommended Websites
HabilNet: Harmonious Bilingualism Network | https://www.habilnet.org/for-families/ | The HabilNet website offers a wide range of podcasts, videos and articles on early multilingualism. Moreover, consultations in different languages are available. |
PEaCH: Preserving and promoting Europe’s cultural and linguistic heritage through the empowerment of bilingual children and families | https://bilingualfamily.eu | The PEaCH website offers rich resources for multilingual families in Europe. Material and information with a focus on maintaining home language(s) in children up to the age of 12 is available in 24 EU languages. |
ICIS Baby Blog | https://infantstudies.org/supporting-bilingual-families-around-the-world | This entry on bilingual families on the Baby Blog offers well-researched information on multilingual upbringing. |
Multilingual Families Clubs | http://www.multilingual-families.eu/home | This website was developed in an Erasmus+ project and offers rich background information for multilingual families in Europe and a collection of video testimonials from parents. The manual is available in 15 languages. |
National Literacy Trust UK | https://literacytrust.org.uk/resources/time-together-multilingual-families | The National Literacy Trust offers, among many other resources, a booklet with the title “Time together”. This booklet is available in 23 languages and offers a wide range of activities to foster language and literacy skills in children. For access, free sign-up is necessary. |
Trinity College Dublin: Home Languages and Home Learning | https://www.tcd.ie/education/research/research-seminars/multilingual-families/ | This website offers a selection of short videos on how families can support young children with their literacy, numeracy and creativity in 6 languages (Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, English, Polish, Romanian and Spanish). |
Supporting bilingual families at home (Devon County Council) | https://www.devon.gov.uk/support-schools-settings/inclusion/ethnic-minority-and-traveller-support/supporting-bilingual-families-at-home/ | This website by the Devon County Council offers a rich fundus of material for both teachers and parents. The material aims to support home language learning and offers materials for different subject areas in various languages, such as learning about money in Bengali and phonics in Malayalam. |
African Storybook | https://africanstorybook.org/ | This website offers storybooks in many different African languages and offers video tutorials on how to use them and support literacy activities. |
Storybooks Canada | https://storybookscanada.ca/ | Storybooks Canada is a free open resource promoting literacy and language learning. It is based on the African Storybook and makes 40 stories available in English, French and other languages. |
Recommended Website in German
Fachzentrum Mehrsprachigkeit | https://www.verband-binationaler.de/projekte/fachzentrum-mehrsprachigkeit | The Fachzentrum Mehrsprachigkeit offers information and free (online) consultations for parents, young people and children in Germany in different languages. The website is in German. |
Further resources
Multilingual parenting | https://multilingualparenting.com/ | This website offers videos and articles on multilingual parenting along with other services such as coaching. |
Colorín Colorado | https://www.colorincolorado.org/ | This website provides parents with many tips on bilingual upbringing. The website has been developed for the US context, focuses on families with two languages and has a focus on the aim of language proficiency. |
Bilingual Monkeys | https://bilingualmonkeys.com/ | This is one of the most extensive websites on bilingual parenting with a strong focus on bilingualism. The perspectives might be particularly interesting for parents with two languages in the family who prefer to clear patterns they can follow such as One Person-One Language. |
The Bilingual Kid Spot | https://bilingualkidspot.com/ | This website offers a wide range of information and resources. It does not always seem to be research-based but parents with only two languages in the families and environment and a preference for monolingual approaches in multilingualism might find this website helpful. |