School – Family Partnership in Raising Multilingual Children
Dr. Elena Pirovano, Faculty of Education, The University of Melbourne
Over the years, I have had the opportunity to network with many multilingual families, both personally (as a mother in a multilingual family) and professionally (as a teacher of languages and language teacher educator). According to the 2021 census, in Australia, 27.6% of the population was born overseas and 22% reported using a language other than English at home. This data suggests that multilingual families are not uncommon in our communities. Nevertheless, in these families not all children are raised multilingually. Despite current research arguing that multilingualism is the norm in the world (e.g., Grosjean, 2022) and that learning multiple languages has more benefits than shortcomings (State Government of Victoria, 2026), families may still feel unsure if and how to raise their children in their family or home languages.
In informal conversations and through webinars and workshops offered to multilingual families, I have collected a series of questions and doubts families report about passing on their family language(s) to their children. In this post, I will address four of these questions. In doing so, I aim to raise awareness of research evidence to support families in making informed decisions, and to provide tools and resources for teachers to encourage and help parents in these decisions. Partnerships between school and family are often at the heart of successfully maintaining family languages.
1. Are we confusing our children?
Many parents report concern that using one or more home languages may confuse children. They are worried because they observe that children mix languages and interpret it as a problem.
For example, children may move between languages in the same sentence, using the grammar and the sentence structure of one language but the words of another. Below are some examples from my own children when mixing Italian and English:
Moving between languages | Posso avere water? | Using terms from different languages within a sentence |
Verb conjugation | jumpare | Root in English: jump ending in Italian: verbs in -are |
Sentence structure | Questo cosa è fatto per? | Preposition at the end of the question, following the English structure but incorrect in Italian |
The reality is that multilingual speakers use all they languages to make sense of their world and to interact and communicate. By using all their languages and by mixing them, children demonstrate their resourcefulness, which is the ability to purposefully combine or draw on their repertoire of languages to communicate meaning. Their languages constitute a unique repertoire that speakers leverage to communicate and produce meaning (García & Li, 2014).
Teachers can support families by reassuring them that children gradually learn to judiciously use (and mix) their languages according to their interlocutors and the purpose of their communication. For example, they learn to stick to one language only when speaking to their grandparents, to use another one with their school friends, and when they can mix according to their audience.
2. Are we putting our children at a disadvantage when they start school?
Some parents are concerned that, by using their home language(s) with their young children, they may hinder their future academic success. However, there is no evidence that using home languages may put children at disadvantage. On the contrary, there is evidence that maintaining and supporting use of family/ home languages helps with the learning of even more languages.
The interdependence hypothesis (Cummins, 2000), for example, argues that multiple languages in the repertoire of multilingual speakers may differ on the surface level (for example in terms of phonology, the sounds of the language; vocabulary, the words of the language; or grammar, the rules of the language), but there is an underlying common proficiency that runs across linguistic systems. Using home languages regularly and developing the children’s ability to speak, watch movies, read books and write can help to supporting development, across all their languages.
Teachers can support learners who speak other languages at home by making their languages visible in the classroom and encouraging parents to use their home languages with their children (for example, encouraging them to speak their home language when helping with homework or when checking what children have done at school). In addition, they can reassure parents that it is valuable for their children to learn to read and write in home languages to support their overall academic success.
For further explanation, families and teachers can check the brochure “More languages, more benefits” developed by the RUMACCC, at the University of Melbourne.
3. Can multilingualism cause delays in speaking?
A serious concern for some families is that speaking multiple languages may cause delays in language development. Multilingual children, as well as monolinguals, may be diagnosed with a language disorder but there is no evidence that multilingual children are more likely to have language problems or delays (Byers-Heinlein & Lew-Williams, 2013). The perception of language issues in children exposed to multiple languages may be caused by the observation that multilinguals may have a smaller vocabulary in one language compared to monolinguals in that language. Multilinguals build their vocabulary across multiple languages, and the linguistic development of multilingual children broadly follows the same patterns as monolingual children. This reflects the nature of multilingualism which is not perfectly balanced across languages – we are not multiple monolinguals in one person – but we use our languages for different purposes, with different people and in different contexts (Grosjean, 2022).
Teachers need to be aware of how multilinguals build their vocabulary and speaking skills compared with monolinguals and provide evidence-based information to parents. When a difficulty or a delay in language development is detected, further investigations should be suggested (for monolingual as well as multilingual children) rather than blaming multilingualism or suggesting that parents and carers should not use a home language.
4. How many languages are too many languages?
Some families wonder how many languages are appropriate for their child to learn. Are two family languages too many? They are also concerned about the status of these languages. Is it worth teaching a dialect? Or a language spoken only by a small community?
There is no evidence of harm in learning multiple languages. The brain does not have a limited capacity. In some areas of the world, especially in Asian and African geographical contexts, it is not unusual for children to grow up with three or four (at times more!) different languages or dialects. There are two aspects to consider when making a decision around languages that we want our children to learn: the exposure to the language that we can provide, and the affective value, beyond the recognised prestige or global use.
In fact, two key factors in the success of raising multilingual children are children's exposure to home/family languages and whether or not they choose to speak them. A language that the family considers essential for communicating across generations and with loved ones is likely to be more motivational than one with prestige or global recognition.
The State of Victoria has developed a much-needed campaign to support parents to speak to their child in the language they know best, using languages that represent their roots, identity, relationships and emotions. Teachers can share this information with parents by displaying posters or sharing the link to this website:
Let’s work together, families, teachers, researchers to give our children the gift of multilingualism!
Brochures (free downloadable resources for teachers, schools and families)
References
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2022). 2021 Census: Nearly half of Australians have a parent born overseas. https://www.abs.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/2021-census-nearly-half-australians-have-parent-born-overseas
Byers-Heinlein, K., & Lew-Williams, C. (2013). Bilingualism in the early years: What
the science says. Lear Landsc., 7(1), 95-112.
Cummins, J. (2000). The threshold and interdependence hypothesis revisited. In J. Cummins (Ed.), Language, power and pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire (pp.173–200). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781853596773-008
García, O., & Li W. (2014). Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism and education. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137385765_4
Grosjean, F. (2022). The mysteries of bilingualism. Unresolved issues. Wiley.
Muszyńska, K. et al. (2025). Bilingual children reach early language milestones at the same age as monolingual peers. Journal of Child Language, 53(2), 365-388. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000924000
State Government of Victoria (2026). Speak to your child in the language you know best. https://www.vic.gov.au/speak-your-child-language-you-know-best
