How to raise bilingual children in Australia, where English reigns supreme

When Aline Reis speaks Portuguese to her toddler Ollie, he replies in English.

The Brazilian-born, full-time mum often then switches to English — and feels guilty about it.

“I’m like OK, wait a second, I need to go back to Portuguese because I’m only speaking English with him,” Ms Reis said.

“I’m feeling guilty like, ‘It’s all my fault he’s not speaking Portuguese because I’m only speaking English with him.'”

This experience is common where, as is the case in Australia, one language is dominant, said Una Cunningham, the author of Growing Up with Two Languages.

“Children may prefer to speak the majority language around them, even if they understand what is said in the other language,” she told the ABC.

While Australia is home to multicultural communities that speak more than 300 languages, English is central to the education system, workplaces and media.

And that plays out in households: at the 2021 census, 72 per cent of Australians said they spoke only English at home.

Yet the social and cognitive benefits of knowing two or more languages, especially from childhood, are well-established.

So, when many parents want to raise their children with an additional language or languages, how can it be done?

Language ‘the key’ to connecting with family, culture

Speaking languages other than English can provide deeper insights into other cultures and lead to more travel and employment opportunities in adulthood.

And there is evidence that a child speaking their parent or parents’ native languages growing up equips them to learn additional languages.

“Children [and] young adults who speak multiple different languages tend to outperform monolinguals on a number of different tasks,” said Mark Antoniou, an associate professor at Western Sydney University’s MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour, and Development.

“Bilinguals have advantages in creativity, creative thinking, puzzle solving, and there is some evidence that they may have advantages in mathematics and arithmetic.”

For Dr Cunningham, who researches English language education at Stockholm University, acquiring a minority language spoken by one or both of their parents means “they have the key to that culture”.

“[There is] the possibility of a deep relationship with extended family and others they might otherwise not be able to talk to,” she said.

Melbourne-based marketing professional Vyshnavee Wijekumar speaks both English and Tamil to her nine-month-old daughter.

She said this was important to connect with older members of her family and to preserve their Sri Lankan Tamil heritage and identity.

‘Children will learn the languages they need’

Unlike in many other countries, most people in Australia can get by in their lives speaking only the majority language.

Growing up, Ms Wijekumar felt she was being “forced” to speak Tamil by her parents — and did so “begrudgingly”.

“But when you do become a parent those values start to resurface and you as a parent want to actively foster that for your kid,” she said.

Dr Cunningham explained that “children will learn the languages they need”.

“They need to hear the languages used directly with them and hear others speaking the languages, and to feel the urge to communicate in the languages,” she said.

Every day Ms Reis and Ollie video call her parents in Brazil, who only speak Portuguese.

But while she said there were some Brazilians in her area in Barwon Heads, south of Melbourne, she did not have a close connection with them.

Dr Antoniou said it was important for children to have an “ecosystem” of native speakers — ideally extended family, other kids and people in the local community.

“Interacting with native speakers on a daily basis, that’s a very strong predictor of not just how much the child is going to use or be exposed to that given language, but how robust their learning is going to be,” he said.

In the absence of family or community native speakers, some parents enrol their children in multilingual daycare centres or playgroups, or even hire an au pair, Dr Antoniou said.

Creating a positive, encouraging environment

Experts agree that immersion is a key way to accelerate meaningful language learning.

And this is far easier for communities who have a more concentrated presence in a certain area, Dr Antoniou said.

“For some languages — Mandarin Chinese, for instance — [it’s] very easy to interact with a number of native speakers,” he said, speaking about the Australian context.

“For another language with a smaller migrant population, it might be more challenging. You’ve got to travel larger distances.”

Ms Wijekumar has a smaller Sri Lankan Tamil community where she lives in inner Melbourne than she did growing up in western Sydney.

“It’s harder to learn a language when you’re not constantly exposed to it, or immersed in it,” she said.

Ms Reis said she hoped that if the family were to spend six months in Brazil it would encourage Ollie to speak, not just respond to, Portuguese.

Travel and spending extended periods in-country was an ideal approach for those who had the financial means, Dr Antoniou said.

Both experts agreed, however, that simply fostering a positive, encouraging environment around learning other languages was the most important thing.

“In my research, all children who grew up without access to a parent’s language expressed regret,” said Dr Cunningham.

“They may want to explore that side of their identity later in life.”