Reading Language of Bilingual Children and Its Characteristics

Introduction

When a child is born into a specific cultural and social environment, it has a natural need to integrate into it. In particular, the child wants to fulfill his/her own needs and requirements. Real-life situations give the child incentives to mimic patterns of communicative behavior and speech usage (Lipnická, 2009). A child needs to understand and therefore actively uses the linguistic and communicative habits that are characteristic of a specific socio-cultural community. In line with its own social adaptation, it adapts to the use of a particular language and its means, favored by his/her own surrounding environment. It should be noted that a child can also make contact with the language of his or her surroundings through reading, from an early age. For this very reason, it is quite important what kind of environment surrounds a child. If parents are exemplary also in the area of reading, they can become role models for their children to mimic this activity and form a positive relationship with books.

Reading expresses the visual perception of the text or its repetition aloud (Belešová, 2014a). She considers reading a purpose-oriented activity which always brings some result, whether in the form of knowledge, understanding or clarity. Reading is considered to be a basic communication skill of a person. Reading is an intellectual, very demanding, psychological activity requiring practice (Belešová, Szentesiová, 2016). It is important to remember that reading is closely related to thinking and learning. It is not a superficial process; every reader gives his own thoughts to this activity, a piece of the self. It is remarkable that human beings can learn to read. There is no other being with this capacity.

We also consider reading a tool for achieving various goals that are key to success in social, professional and personal life. Reading is a natural part of the main cultural skills, namely communication. De Certeau (1984) defines reading as a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to produce or derive their meaning. It is a means of learning a language, communicating and sharing various kinds of information. There is an interaction between the text and the reader during reading. The process of reading requires continuous practice and refinement.

The Importance of Reading

Thanks to reading, we can continually gain new information, expand our knowledge and learn something interesting. However, reading is also important from a different point of view – a person needs to relax both mentally and physically from everyday hard work and numerous duties, because permanent stress and a constant burden can adversely affect the human organism. Reading offers relaxation, entertainment, guidance and joy to a person. It can develop a sense of humor and teach how to think logically. For many people, it has become not only a significant asset, but also an indispensable part of their lives. Mistrík (1996), in connection with the importance of reading, states that "reading is educating, art texts reading also creates aesthetic experiences, impacts our feelings, relaxes us".

Belešová (2014b) explains that reading provides children not only with a lot of new, important and up-to-date information, but also with more independence from the people who used to read to them. In addition, thanks to reading, noncognitive processes of the child develop and their needs are emotionally fulfilled.

As Belešová states (2014b), reading is a meaningful activity that fulfills certain functions:

1. educational and upbringing function (reading helps the pupil to acquire new knowledge and develop his abilities, but also teaches him to think critically and to perceive the world around him. By means of heroic acts in stories, children learn to be brave, powerful, good, and moral even in real life, and this must be strengthened); 2. motivational function (a good book creates in the pupil an interest in specific phenomena and/or areas of social life);

3. communication function (reading develops vocabulary and speech because, thanks to various text genres, the child becomes more familiar with the stylistic and linguistic aspects of the language);

4. regulatory function (the text is structured by logical continuity);

5. innovative function (a text can provide the latest scientific and technological knowledge);

6. imaginative function (the book arouses the pupil's imagination and develops his fantasy, allowing him to fully experience individual stories in which there are many supernatural powers and imaginary elements).

A more detailed definition of the meanings of reading is given by several literary sources. We are inclined towards those which are characteristic of several age groups. In summary, indicators of the importance of reading include:

fantasy – children fully immerse themselves in different stories; for a while, they find themselves in another world with imaginary beings and environments;

vocabulary and speech development – this is related to the specific text genre, but overall, it can be said that any contact with a text develops a child’s vocabulary;

capability of critical thinking – creating an overall view of life around them;

imaginative ability – the notion of temporal uncertainty "once upon a time" and spatial uncertainty "beyond seven mountain ranges, beyond seven rivers";

fearlessness – based on various heroic acts (e.g., cutting off the dragon's head, rescuing Sleeping Beauty, bringing the three golden hairs to Grandfather Know-It-All, etc.) in fairy tales, children are not afraid to show their courage even in real life; they are empowered and motivated;

development of intellectual abilities – children learn to recognize new situations, characters, and nature; principles of morality – children learn what (and who) is good and evil in the book, and which acts and deeds are right and wrong. They build their moral values.

Mistrík (1996) emphasizes that for modern man, hardly anything is as important as obtaining information. We obtain this information primarily through reading, and we need to learn how to process it adequately. Nowadays, reading is an important activity and a part of human life, and is one of the basic components of general literacy.

Every child is different and unique. Regardless of their book preferences, whether it is a classic book or they prefer a more modern or electronic version, we need to let them enjoy their choice of book and not criticize them. It is important that children find a way to read even today, and that parents lead their children towards a love of books so that reading becomes a natural part of their lives. It is necessary to realize that when a child reads a book, it becomes a part of their personality and can markedly shape their whole life.

A Child Growing up in a Bilingual Environment

When parents live abroad for any reason, one more, no less serious obligation is added to their parental responsibilities. They have to make the right decision about the language in which they will communicate with their children. They consider whether it is necessary to maintain the mother tongue in communication at home, or whether to prefer the use of the foreign language in the home environment as well, so that the child can have the best possible contact with the second (foreign) language right from the start.

The term mother tongue could be misunderstood as the language that the child learns only from the mother or the father. Pacherová (2013) states that we can identify the mother tongue as the language we learned first, regardless of who in our surroundings taught us. Štefánik (2000) adds that the mother tongue is the stronger of the two (or more) languages the individual knows. It is the language to which the individual has the closest relationship, and it is the most used language.

There are a large number of definitions of bilingualism that differ widely or even contradict each other. One example is the belief that a bilingual is one who perfectly masters two languages (Harding-Esch, Riley, 2008). The opposite statement is that every person is essentially bilingual because he knows at least a few words that are not from his mother tongue but from a foreign language (Edwards, 2006).

We characterize bilingualism as a person's ability to speak two languages. Sovák (1990) explains that it is a process of spontaneous learning of a second language independently of the mother tongue, already at pre-school age. It is the acquisition of the second language in a natural way through a bond with certain persons, while the child gradually creates independent ties to both languages.

The bilingual environment in which the child grows up can be identified in this context as an environment in which the child encounters two different languages within his / her family or the society that surrounds him / her, which are often the mother's mother tongue and the father's different mother tongue, coming from different countries or geographic areas. Štefánik (2000) describes the bilingual environment simply as an environment in which two languages are used in rotation for communication.

Depending on the context in which a child acquires a second language, we distinguish:

natural bilingualism - evolves naturally in a bilingual environment. An individual acquires two languages either simultaneously or gradually in a bilingual community or in a bilingual family, and in everyday contact with native speakers of this or that language;

scholastic (cultural) bilingualism - originates in an artificially created school environment. An individual learns a second language at school, and does not have many opportunities outside of the school environment to communicate in this language.

In a bilingual family, multilingual communication takes place mostly because the parents come from linguistically diverse settings. This occurs, for example, when a Slovak woman marries abroad. After the birth of a child, the mother speaks with her child in Slovak, while the father communicates with the child in his mother tongue and the language of the country in which the family lives.

Research

For research data collection, we have chosen a qualitative research methodology. We also take into account the theoretical basis of many experts in linguistics and bilingual education in Slovakia and abroad, which we mentioned in the previous theoretical part.

The aim of our research is to identify the relationship of children from selected bilingual families to reading. True bilingualism means complete fluency in all aspects of language: understanding, speaking, reading, and writing. The aim is not to determine the methodological process of reading in different languages, nor to identify approaches to bilingual reading. Our aim is to examine what place reading holds in the lives of bilingual children attending primary education (1st – 4th year of elementary school) in foreign countries. We are investigating whether these pupils like to read, and whether or not they have a preference to read in only one of the languages or read without distinction both in Slovak and a foreign language.

Research questions In this research, we want to focus on questions that reveal the relationship of selected bilingual children to reading. The questions are designed in accordance with our research aims so that their answers cover the questions asked:

Are pupils interested in reading books?

Do they prefer books in their mother tongue or in another language?

Do they know books by Slovak authors as well, or only foreign books written in another language?

Do these pupils have a favorite heroine from a children's book?

Do they talk with their parents about what they have read? If so, in what language?

Methodological Process

For our research needs, we approached 4 bilingual families living abroad. The condition was for their children to be bilingually educated and to communicate fluently in at least two languages. Specific families were recommended to us by our mutual acquaintances, so it was an accessible sample of people for our research. Since these families lived outside Slovakia for most of the year, we had to coordinate schedules and adapt to their availability. We waited until they returned to Slovakia and visited them. We used their familiar environment (within the families of these children) so that the pupils involved in our research felt comfortable, thus eliminating fear, stress, and other negative circumstances that could affect the objectivity of the investigation. We interviewed the children in their familiar environment. We agreed on interview dates individually with the children’s parents. Each interview evolved individually, depending on the child's communication abilities. The average duration of the semi-structured interview was approximately 15 minutes. As we found that the children were not very convincing and did not express themselves clearly, we decided to ask the parents a few additional questions. By doing this, we determined the agreement (or divergence) of all participants' responses. This was because it sometimes happened that the child replied that he/she did not read books in the mother tongue, but the parent claimed something quite different.

We characterize our overall research strategy and process as qualitative methodology followed by an open coding technique. To collect the data, we used a semi-structured interview that contained a pre-prepared set of questions for children coming from a bilingual environment. We adapted the additional questions to the ongoing interview. We recorded their testimonies using audiovisual technology to prevent the loss of important data. We then transcribed the acquired information verbatim into the computer. It should be noted that the families of our friends and acquaintances mentioned in this paper live abroad. They visit Slovak relatives only once or twice a year - during the summer holidays and at Christmas.

Of the 4 children in the research sample, one was eight and one was nine years old, and two children were 10 years old, of whom 3 were girls and one was a boy.

Brian (an 8-year-old boy) was born in Paris; his father is French and his mother is from Slovakia. He currently lives in Paris. His mother said she "realizes she should talk more with her son in Slovak, because they communicate mostly in French during the day."

Dalma (9 years old girl) was born in Oxford, her father is an Englishman, mother of Slovakia. He speaks Slovak only when he is visiting her grandparents in Slovakia, in other cases he speaks exclusively in English, although he understands Slovak well and almost everything. Mother and her daughter communicate daily in English in particular. She said in the interview that "parents should try harder if they want to raise their child also as a bilingual reader, because the child will not become as one on its own". She also stated that "her own lack of systematics and patience in bilingual education and the unwanted outcome is the fact that her daughter understands in Slovak, but in their mutual communication she answers exclusively in English."

Frida (a 10-year-old girl) was born in Brussels; her mother is Belgian and her father is Slovak. She speaks Slovak only when she visits her grandparents in Slovakia; in most cases, she speaks exclusively in French, although she understands almost everything in Slovak. Her father stated that "from the very beginning, he tried very hard to keep his children as good in Slovak language as in French, but since they were also in contact with Flemish and German, the Slovak had come to a halt."

Helen (10 years old) was born in Slovakia. When she was of preschool age, her family moved to Norway; her parents work there, and she and her brother attend a Norwegian primary school. Both her mother and grandmother make sure that both children are raised bilingually. They continue in Norwegian and in Slovak, and they also take commission tests at a primary school in Slovakia every year to obtain the education certified by the Slovak Republic. Her mother said she "tries to bilingualized her children, so she speaks with them at home in Slovak, and her husband in Norwegian".

Research Findings Interpretation

At the beginning of our interview, we inquired whether the pupils read books, because reading books among children nowadays is not as popular as it used to be. And this is true regardless of whether the children grow up in a monolingual or bilingual family.

Brian and Frida said they rarely read books. Helen also does not read books; she said, "I rather watch TV." Dalma said she reads books, "especially when I'm bored, or when I lie in bed in the evening and I am trying to fall sleep, then I read books to make myself tired more easily." Based on the answers we received, we can say that reading is not one of the most popular hobbies of the children we surveyed. All parents, however, said their children like to read books.

In the case of monolingual children, we know that language skills, such as vocabulary knowledge and the ability to manipulate phonological awareness, support their reading development. The phonological awareness and vocabulary of a young child largely predict their future reading ability. For bilingual children, there was no problem with reading or confusing languages. According to Jasinska and Petitova (2018), bilingual children are good readers and even have some advantages over their monolingual peers. In addition, children who were exposed for the first time to English at school caught up with their peers in linguistic knowledge and showed no reading disadvantages by the time they reached the fourth year.

"Do you think that you need to read books and devote time to reading?" This was our second question, examining the general opinion of the bilingual children.

Brian, Frida and Helen answered positively. In addition, Dalma stated that "it is important to start reading books while I am only a child, because it is necessary for my future life when I grow up. But also to read my books to my children. " Children are aware of the importance of reading, especially in order to gain information and further their education. But they also have a variety of other interests that were mentioned to us prior to each interview. They had probably not thought much about the meaning of reading; therefore, it is important to encourage them to reflect on reading and to ask them questions that direct their thinking toward the meaning of reading in their lives.

The children we have addressed, can speak in multiple languages, so it is likely that their language will not only be used for oral communication but will also be used for reading. All parents have mentioned how much they want to communicate with their children in the Slovak language, even though they live abroad. In this case, it is more than necessary for them to provide and read the Slovakian books with their children, devoting their time and learning to read them practically in a foreign language. Parents, as they told us, try to read with children, but the time spent is not enough for children to start longing or desiring to read Slovak books, let alone foreign ones. This task very rarely belongs to grandmother, who comes to visit or vice versa, when the children come to vacation to her.

In the next part of the interview, we asked the children whether they read and knew Slovak books as well, and where in particular they saw differences or similarities compared with foreign-language books.

Brian could not answer because he does not read Slovakian books often enough. Frida reads Slovak books rarely as well. Helen argues that "Norwegian books are easier. I sometimes do not understand the text in Slovak books." Dalma states "that Slovak books are similar to each other. English books are different, you have more to choose from.“

Many families choose to focus only on the mother tongue when they teach their children to read. They feel that if they start with this language, their children will feel comfortable with it before they learn to read the language of the environment in which they live.

Therefore, we directed another question to the children, asking who their favorite book hero from a Slovak or foreign book was and why.

Dalma claims that for her it is "Harry Potter because he has the magic skills that he did not know before. And he has to fight evil." And also "the girl Vanina, because she helped the older lady, she was well-educated, daring, and took care of everything at home." Frida said that her favorite fairy-tale character is "Cinderella because she's a very brave girl. Despite the fact that it is difficult in life, she can manage." We see that children identify with and select book heroes from foreign literature.

The following interpretation addresses the responses of parents living abroad who are developing the bilingual reading skills of their children. We asked them on what basis they think their child chooses a book. Do parents perceive in some way that their children naturally tend towards Slovak or foreign texts?

Brian’s mother replied that her son "chooses the book alone and prefers French books. He now reads himself." Dalma’s mother claims that "her daughter chooses on her own her books, and reads from early childhood, and she is attending summer readings festivals organized by the local library. He naturally reads in a language in which he feels more at home (English). On the other hand, we monitor the selection of her books and try to direct her to choose the right literature appropriate to her age and abilities. For a reward, we often go to the bookstore to choose a book of her choice. Also, from every visit to Slovakia they will bring a book, stories, fairy tales, cookbooks, an encyclopedia, etc."

From these testimonies, we can see that parents care that their child chooses a suitable book. They do not view books as something ordinary, but rather as a gift or a reward that a child deserves. Dalma chooses mostly English books, because this language is more natural to her and she has a better command of it. However, she always brings a Slovak book with her after a visit to Slovakia. Although Dalma said that she reads more English books, it is very likely that she sometimes reaches for Slovak ones, as they are available to her in several genres now. Frida’s father says that his children choose their own books and that they "prefer French-language books, they have a lot of them at home." He initially argued in the interview how important it is for his children not to reject speaking in Slovak, but he himself is proof that they have given up on reading Slovak books and have allowed the children to read books in a language they choose themselves. Helen’s mother makes sure that her child comes into contact with Slovak books: "In Norwegian she chooses for herself, I choose rather in Slovak for her. She is more found of Slovak stories because they are more fun." This answer is practically the only one (from the parents’ testimonies) reflecting an attempt to keep their child engaged with books in their mother tongue. When children are given books in different languages, they will be able to compare and choose those that impress and attract them more.

Parents try to guide their children towards reading in such a way that they give them enough space to choose books at their discretion. We think it is beneficial when parents can, if necessary, adequately and gently guide their child to choose suitable literature that supports the child’s interests. We would add that each family approaches bilingual education, and thus also bilingual reading, individually. Ellen Royuer, in an electronic communication, stated that his children in Taiwan grew up trilingual. They never actively tried to teach them how to read in any language. He read to them in bed as much as possible in French, and sometimes in English. However, the children learned to read when they attended first grade (in both Chinese and English). He gave them many books and read to them for a long time before bedtime, and then, when they were about 8–9 years of age, they could read in Chinese and English, and spontaneously began to read in French.

Also very important are the parents’ responses to the way their children read. Parents are directly present while their children read, also because children in primary school need adult supervision to help them read and to explain unclear words or text they do not understand. We asked them if they observed any differences in the child's reactions to Slovak and foreign-language texts.

Brian’s mom very briefly responded that Brian had "less vocabulary in Slovak. Related to that we have to more often explain a meaning of the words." Similarly thinks Dalma’s mother saying that „the text in Slovak is more demanding than English one. It is more or less a foreign text for her, both in language and culturally. When reading the English text, the perception is immediate, in the case of the Slovak text we often stop by the vocabulary, the meaning of the words, but also the whole cultural context, I have to make parallels between what she already knows about Slovakia or her life in England, or supplement my text with my own experiences and memories of Slovakia." I think that Dalma's mother captured the very essence of the reading in a language other than the Slovak one. Each language has its cultural specifics, each language has its origins in a certain historical context and these differences are also reflected in books. It is difficult for parents to explain to children words they do not understand. It takes their time, patience and perseverance in the explanation. Frida's father expresses it with similar words "When I used to read them when they were small, there were differences in the texts. Often, I had to stop to explain to them the either realities or the meaning of some words. When my daughters read in Slovak, they had a basic reading problem. They were able to read the text, but they had to focus very much on the letters č, ž, š, ch. When I asked them if they understood, they admitted they did not. We had to break the text off and explain it." Helen’s mother sometimes use to read to her kids out loud. "When I have time, I read her Slovak books. Norwegian she can read herself and I feel she no longer needs it. I do not feel the differences. Every book is original in its own way."

We can say that books written in Slovak have created more difficulties for children in understanding the meaning of some words, especially those related to facts and history; on the other hand, children have difficulty reading the words correctly because they first learned to read in a language other than Slovak, so certain letters and letter groups required more time and training for children to practice reading correctly. We note that the Slovak language is demanding because it uses various other linguistic forms (e.g., vowels, w, dz, ia, ä, ó, etc.). According to Pekarovičová (2013), the acquisition of the Slovak language against the background of Slavic languages is facilitated in particular by:

• identical representation of grammatical categories, as well as a similar set of forms;
• the same number of grammatical cases, and similar or even identical principles of substantive inflection;
• related processes of adjectival and adverbial comparison;
• an identical set of conjugation.

The problems with the acquisition of the Slovak language are mainly:

• different case suffixes; • different application of the category of animacy, which is not specifically expressed in some languages (South Slavic languages) or is expressed differently than in Slovak (Russian, Polish);
• a different prepositional system and frequency of use; • differences in the formation of aspectual forms and their application in speech practice, and so on.

For a child who does not learn this language when starting school, it can be difficult to master it. We tried to find out from parents whether they think that their child should first learn to read fluently in Slovak and then in another language, and which approach they would prefer.

Brian’s mom said that her son, "since he goes to school in France, learned to read only in French, I did not force him to read in Slovak, but we tried it and he is quite well in it." It is natural that a child learns to read in that language, in which country he lives in. Dalma’s mother states that "since in the UK they start to read at the age of three, she naturally learned to read in English first, and later tried the Slovak language, though not very systematically, only here and there while family visits either here or in Slovakia." Frida's father shares a similar opinion. "When a child starts attending a French speaking school, she has to learn to read French first, so we did." Also, Helens mother says as well as other parents. "We learned Norwegian, and therefor also to read in Norwegian, and today she can read in both languages without any difficulties."

At the beginning of compulsory schooling, great attention is paid to the development of reading. As Harding-Esch and Riley (2003) report, if a child refuses to read in a second language, it is better not to force him, but to give him his favorite stories to read at home when possible. He needs more time to adapt to this new situation. Morgenstern, Šulová and Schöll (2011) report that most bilingual children learn to read only in the language they have at school. This was also the result of interviews with parents. At the same time, acquiring the ability to read and write in a weak (non-dominant, secondary) language leads to the consolidation of this language in a child. Many experts do not recommend starting to teach children to read and write at the same time in both languages, but rather starting first with the language that is stronger for the child (communicating with their surroundings). Only about two years later, when the ability of a child to read and write in that language is already established, should they start with the weaker language. If both languages are started simultaneously, it can be very complicated for the child. It is preferable that the child first becomes fully acquainted with one language system altogether before becoming aware that in another language it may be completely different.

With regard to linguistic dominance, it is important to find out whether children actually decide which language will be dominant for them, or rather whether it is their parents who decide, because they determine how often their child comes into contact with each language. Parents who choose to raise their children in a language other than their mother tongue should have solid linguistic and cultural abilities and constantly seek further education. Stagnation in the language education of parents could have a very counterproductive impact on the language development of the child. Another condition of bilingual education is constant communication with the child, especially if he or she grows up in a different monolingual environment. The child must be motivated to use the language (and hence read it), and this need is created only by the parent (Jiménez, 2010).

Conclusion

The aim of this study is to point out the facts that emerge from bilingual education in relation to multicultural reading. The research was conceived as a mapping study of the actual functioning of bilingual children in acquiring their reading habits. We focused on their attitudes towards reading and their need to read. We also found out which language they prefer when reading books and how they evaluate books written in Slovak and in the other language in which they usually communicate.

Belešová and Szentesiová (2017) also carried out research with the same focus. The study included children attending elementary school and coming from a Slovak-Italian family, a Slovak-Albanian family and a Slovak family who lived in Spain for a decade. Data obtained from children from a multicultural environment indicated that reading generally belongs among their favorite activities. None of the children said that they did not like to read or that they would refuse to read at all in one of the languages. Children read different genres of books, not just fairy tales. Books are chosen according to their interests, such as sports, mysteries or other themes. They devote their reading time mainly to acquiring information, improving their vocabulary, spelling and grammar in the Slovak language. All the selected children grew up in a foreign country and considered the Slovak language demanding. Despite the fact that all of them live in Slovakia today, they are more likely to read books in a foreign language. These data are also significant for our research findings as they have a major impact on the reading of bilingual children. The environment in which the children lived and currently live has greatly influenced and continues to influence them. We consider this aspect to be the most important in terms of the data we obtained, because the environment in which the child grows up contributes to this fact to the greatest extent. It is not always the ambition of the parent to develop the child’s Slovak language skills. Also significant is the children’s attendance at a pre-school facility in a foreign country. The child communicates with his parents and adapts to the environment in which he grows up. The reality of a particular place affects him; he sees the letters and is directly confronted with foreign text, which becomes a natural part of his life. Therefore, the interpretation of our research findings suggests that children do not incline towards Slovak language usage, but rather towards the language they use directly in their present life.

References