Posted by Anna Stevanato on November 21, 2010
 
Anna Stevanato founded the association D’Une Langue à l’Autre at the beginning of 2009, in Paris. Her objective : help multilingual families pass on their language and culture to their children, along with an education in french.

workshops in mother tongues for bilingual children

In France, one in four children lives in a bilingual context. Migrant families, mixed couples, expatriates, adoptive families : these are just so many types of families of foreign origin living in France. If you look carefully, you will certainly find some in your surroundings.

Parents often wish to transmit their language and their culture of origin to their child. And it’s just as well they do, as much research shows that bilingualism is a considerable asset for the child’s cognitive development, identity development and career path.

However, this transmission of a second language to children is not without difficulty, as when for example it is spoken at home by one parent only, or when it is undervalued, or when the child enters school. “My child understands everything but answers me in French, I feel that he’s mixing the two languages, and I am afraid speaking to him in my language will be detrimental to his integration in school…”. These are questions in front of which parents find themselves helpless.

The association D’Une Langue A l’Autre has been created in order to answer them, and provide support to multilingual families and their children for the early development of bilingualism.

She holds workshops in mother tongues for bilingual children supervised by expert coordinators. All languages have their place, Arabic as well as English, Tamil, Italian or Creole…

D’Une Langue A L’Autre also organizes discussion groups and conferences on themes of bilingualism and intercultural relations for families and professionals working with children in multicultural settings.
Through these innovative actions, the non-profit association D’Une Langue A L’Autre works for the recognition of bilingualism in all children and especially the invisible bilingualism in children from immigrant families.

Read more : www.dunelanguealautre.org
Press Contact : Anna Stevanato, +33 6 18 36 13 14 anna@dunelanguealautre.org