Those of you who have been following Daily Italian Words from the very beginning will know that I’m a native English speaker raising my son in my non-native language: Italian. It’s hard to believe, but he turned six a few months ago – yep, he’s almost as old as this website! He is now fully bilingual in Italian and English, and he also navigates his third and fourth languages – French and Welsh – remarkably well.
In a previous blog post, I shared some of the strategies I use to encourage him to use Italian in his everyday life. At the time, creating a fully immersive Italian environment was much easier because, as a young child, he spent most of his days with me. This meant that his exposure to Italian was significantly greater, and as a result, his fluency in Italian surpassed that of his other languages.
What’s more, in the early years, I was very strict about not speaking any English with him. This has changed since he started school, for a number of reasons:
1) I noticed that his English skills were developing more slowly than expected, which meant he was struggling to communicate with his classmates. I would have been less concerned if he were attending an English-language school, but he spends the majority of his school day speaking Welsh. I felt that he needed some additional exposure to English from me in order to reach a level where he felt just as comfortable expressing himself in English as he did in Italian. This has mostly taken the form of alternating between English and Italian books in the evening.
2) Now that our conversations have become more complex, I have to admit that, as a second-language speaker, I sometimes struggle to explain everything in Italian. If I can’t remember a word or expression, I’ll say it in English, look up the Italian equivalent later, and share it with him. This strategy works surprisingly well because we’re able to turn it into a game. For example, we try to see if we can remember the word for something in all four of his languages. The latest example was relitto (“shipwreck”).
3) We attend more playdates these days, too. As his communication skills – and those of his friends – have developed, we have both become more aware of using Italian in front of people who cannot understand what we are saying. As a result, when we are in social situations with other English speakers, we will generally speak to each other in English so that everyone can be included in the conversation.
In short, I would estimate that these days, around 80% of our conversations are in Italian, while the remaining 20% are in English or another language.
So, what exactly have I been doing to keep my son’s Italian language skills on track? Below, you’ll find five actionable strategies that we incorporate into our daily lives – and that you can implement too, whether you have a child at home or not!
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Providing positive feedback
Since my son started his second year at school, he has began engaging in a practice that normally occurs earlier on in multilingual children: code-switching. This is the act of switching between languages within a conversation. When he’s talking to me, it usually takes the form of English words or short phrases being inserted into Italian sentences, or French being inserted into Italian or English sentences with my husband. Here are some recent examples, which I find absolutely adorable:
- Chi else ha la squashy pelle? (ITA, ENG)
- Pour trois jours devi drive a Manchester? (FR, ITA, ENG)
- Don’t metterli nel bagno yet! (ITA, ENG)
I should emphasise that my son is not confused. He knows exactly what he is doing, and will only code-switch in this way with my husband and me because he knows we understand these languages. When speaking with a monolingual English speaker, for example, he will only use another language if he genuinely cannot remember the English word – in which case, he’ll usually turn to me and ask what it is.
While the code-switching itself doesn’t concern me, I do worry that he might start to forget certain Italian expressions if he continues to use the English equivalents every time. What I do to combat this is repeat back what he’s just said, fully in Italian, in the form of a question. So for example, if he says…
Mamma, non voglio brush my teeth adesso.
(Mamma, I don’t want to brush my teeth now.)
…I’ll respond with the following:
Non vuoi lavarti i denti adesso? Va bene, facciamolo fra cinque minuti.
(You don’t want to brush your teeth now? Ok, we’ll do it in five minutes.)
I admit it can be a bit exhausting at times, but I do find it helps keep him on track.
How you can implement this strategy
When you hear or read an interesting English sentence, have a go at trying to translate it into Italian, either out loud or in your head. Doing so well help keep the expressions you know fresh in your brain, and fill in any gaps in your vocabulary.
Watching TV together
As a busy parent, it’s incredibly easy to switch on the television while preparing dinner or squeezing in half an hour of work. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing – older children can benefit from screen time in moderation, and I’ve noticed that it can be a great way for my son to unwind and decompress after a long day at school.
However, an even better option – especially from a language-learning perspective – is to sit down and watch television with your children. This turns passive screen time into a shared opportunity to interact, ask questions, and support their language development.
Usually, I try to choose an educational programme, such as a documentary, or a longer film with a more complex storyline and richer vocabulary. While we watch, I’ll comment on what’s happening, often repeating key phrases from the narrator or characters and explaining any unfamiliar words or expressions.
I might occasionally ask, Sai cosa vuol dire ___? (Do you know what ___ means?) when there’s a term I know he hasn’t come across before, but I try not to overdo it. The aim is to support his learning without interrupting his enjoyment of the programme!
How you can implement this strategy
If you don’t have many opportunities to practise speaking, television can become your greatest language-learning companion. Try watching the dubbed version of a film you already enjoy, or choose a five-minute section from a programme that interests you and shadow the characters by repeating their lines aloud.
This technique is simple to practise with an app like LingoPie, which offers interactive subtitles, a vocabulary-saving feature, and easy rewind and replay controls so you can revisit important dialogue and build confidence with the phrases you hear.
Reading chapter books aloud
Over the past few months, we have gradually started moving away from picture books and introducing more complex chapter books, which often contain only a few illustrations – or sometimes none at all. To say that this transition has been challenging would be an understatement. My son still relies heavily on visual cues and doesn’t yet have the concentration to follow more than a page or two at a time.
Still, the change has been incredibly valuable for his language development. Without pictures to guide him, he has to use his imagination and build a picture of what is happening from the words he hears. The language and range of expressions in these books are also much richer, exposing him to a wider variety of vocabulary and sentence structures.
When he isn’t too tired, he even tries to read some of the sentences himself, which is a lovely sign of progress. I’m sure it’s simply a matter of time before this new style of reading starts to feel more natural for him!
How you can implement this strategy
Reading is another excellent way to increase your exposure to language that you may not encounter in everyday conversations. When choosing the right reading material, I often come back to Stephen Krashen’s Input Hypothesis, or i+1, which suggests that language learners make the greatest progress when they engage with material that is just slightly beyond their current level. If the content is too difficult, learners can become overwhelmed; if it is too easy, they are unlikely to make meaningful progress.
One effective way to find material at the right level is to use graded readers, such as those created by my friend Serena Capilli. She has published a wide range of storybooks set in Italy, designed for different proficiency levels, from A1 (complete beginner) to B2 (upper intermediate). Once you reach around B2, you can usually begin to read authentic material created for native Italian speakers, such as news articles, with much greater confidence.
Oh, and don’t underestimate the power of reading aloud, even if your dog or cat is your only audience! Reading out loud gives you the chance to practise pronunciation, improve fluency, and become more comfortable producing the language. A win-win situation, right?
Engaging in imaginative play
Imaginative play has been a key part of my language strategy from the very beginning. After all, if you can’t visit an authentic Italian pizzeria at that particular moment, the next best thing is to create your own, perhaps with your child’s stuffed animals hosting a party there!
I’ll admit that I need to be in the right frame of mind for this approach, especially after a long day of work when my energy levels are low. However, when the moment is right, I find imaginative play to be a wonderful way of bringing the outside world – and all the language that comes with it – into the home. What’s more, children rarely tire of the one-on-one attention and creativity that this kind of play provides.
I’ve also noticed that when the scene we are acting out is set in Italian, my son is much more likely to stay in Italian rather than switch back and forth between languages. Creating a clear context for the language seems to make it feel more natural and meaningful for him.
How you can implement this strategy
Right, I’m not suggesting that you need to dig out your child’s or grandchild’s stuffed animals and start putting on puppet shows! However, there are definite benefits to playing games in your target language, whether that’s the Italian version of Wordle, Scrabble, word searches, or Memory.
Games provide a fun, low-pressure way to practise vocabulary, reinforce patterns, and interact with the language naturally. A great resource is the website Play Italian, where you can find a wide variety of activities designed for language learners.
After all, who ever said language learning had to be serious all the time?
Organising meet-ups with other Italian children
This has been one of the more challenging strategies to put into practice recently, mainly because we live in a rural part of Wales where there aren’t many opportunities to meet Italian-speaking families. We used to travel to Chester a couple of times a year to meet up with a group of Italian parents, but the group has since become inactive. Given that it was a two-hour journey, it was never the most practical solution anyway.
Occasionally, we still meet up with another family, but their children speak far less Italian than my son, which means they naturally tend to switch to English when they play together.
That said, I haven’t given up! Once my son is a little older, I will likely enrol him in an online school for bilingual children. The school is based in Liverpool, so alongside the online classes, there would also be opportunities to travel up occasionally and meet the other children in his class. I’m also considering bringing in the support of a native Italian speaker to play with him once a week – something we are already doing for French, and which has been working extremely well.
How you can implement this strategy
If you live in or near a large city, there are likely to be plenty of opportunities to meet other language learners and native speakers. One of the most valuable things I did while studying Japanese at university was attend a weekly conversation group, which gave me the chance to put my learning into practice in a relaxed, social setting. It’s something I still do today to continue improving my Welsh.
If, like us, you don’t live anywhere near a community of Italian speakers, the next best option is to use a platform such as italki, which connects you with native Italian speakers and teachers from around the world. Lessons are often much more affordable than those offered by formal language institutions, particularly if you choose a community tutor rather than a professionally qualified teacher.
Heather Broster is a graduate with honours in linguistics from the University of Western Ontario. She is an aspiring polyglot, proficient in English and Italian, as well as Japanese, Welsh, and French to varying degrees of fluency. Originally from Toronto, Heather has resided in various countries, notably Italy for a period of six years. Her primary focus lies in the fields of language acquisition, education, and bilingual instruction.
