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Offers grounded and flexible advice on multilingual parenting, family wellbeing and everyday family life.
This practical guide offers intentional, adaptable strategies for families raising children in multilingual environments, especially those where parents speak different heritage languages. It draws on the latest research and the author’s own experience and provides a blueprint for parents with different heritage languages to support children’s language development, alongside their cognitive, social-emotional, physical and identity growth.
The book addresses the real-life complexities families face when navigating multiple linguistic and cultural legacies and provides a roadmap for making thoughtful choices that honor each family's unique story. The author invites families to reflect on their beliefs and routines, challenge conventional ideas about childrearing and language, and explore creative solutions for fostering multilingualism in daily life.
Ultimately, this is a book about possibility: how families with diverse heritage languages can raise confident, connected, and resilient children in a multilingual world.
As a mother raising two girls in three languages, this book felt like both a guide and a companion. It reminded me that multilingual parenting isn’t about perfection but about connection. Xiao-lei Wang offers a thoughtful, research-informed perspective that affirms the profound interplay between language, identity, and family across generations.
Xiao-lei Wang is Dean and Full Professor at the Ruth S. Ammon College of Education and Health Sciences at Adelphi University in New York, United States. Her research focuses on multilingual language acquisition, nonverbal communication, and parent-child interaction. She has written numerous books, including three books written for parents of multilingual children.
Preface
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Preparing for the Journey: Family Language Planning
Chapter 3. The Formative Years (Birth to Age 5): Building the Multilingual Foundation
Chapter 4. The Multilingual Testing Years (Ages 6-12): Sustaining A Shifting Linguistic Landscape
Chapter 5. The Multilingual Negotiation Years (Ages 13-19): Maintaining Multilingualism
Chapter 6. In Their Own Words: Perspectives from Multilinguals
Chapter 7. All Things Considered: Closing Remarks