How do I help maintain my child’s home language? (II) 如何帮助孩子保持中文第一语言的能力？（二）
Strategy #3: Assign different language roles to different family members. This is different from “no English at home” in that specific people are assigned with speaking a specifc language.
方法三：家里面规定有固定说中文的人。这个方法和“家里不许说中文”不同，因为不同的家庭成员要承担起不同的语言角色。说中文要看是和谁说话。
Pros: This strategy works naturally well for younger kids especially when grandparents who don’t speak English stay with the family. Young kids naturally love to talk and will maintain both if the parents speak English and the grandparents speak only Chinese to them. A lot of kids in this type of families who go to daycare from very young are typically natural native speakers of both English and Chinese.
优势：这个方法对于年龄小的孩子来说很自然，尤其适合家里有不说英语的老人的家庭。小孩子自然是喜欢多讲话，他们会喜欢对父母说英语、对老人说中文。 很多孩子上幼儿园都比较早，有这样的家庭环境，他们会比较自然地同时习得两种语言。
Cons: Unless the kids are really close to their adults and the good relationship can be maintain throughout adolescence, their willness to speak Chinese to grandparents may change. Many teens just go directly into their own room after a quick “hello” when back from school. After homework, they are so involved in their own world of teen chats that they didn’t care for prolonged conversations with parents or grandparents. If the grandparents do not speak Manderin, the standard Chinese, the kids may acquire a dialect that their peers do not understand. If one parent speaks Chinese to the kids and the other, English, it would be difficult to carry out.
不足：除非孩子到了青春期还能和父母及老人保持良好的互动关系，要不然到了十几岁的适合他们就不一定喜欢和长辈多说了。很多青春期的孩子一回家就只打声招呼，然后立刻钻进自己的房间里面，做自己的事情了。作业做完之后，他们也是只喜欢和同龄人在电脑电话上面聊天，并不想和长辈有太多的交流。 如果老人不说普通话，孩子可能会习得到方言，但是无法和其他说普通话的孩子交流。如果家里没有老人，父母当中有一个人说中文，一个人说英语，可能会在操作上很难实现。
How to minimize the cons: Build a good, trusting, and respectful relationship with your kids from early on and maintain this relationship as much as possible. Give them freedom to choose. They may still choose to talk more in Chinese when they are teenagers.
如何弥补：从孩子小时候就开始与他建立良好的关系，互相信任，互相尊重，并努力保持这样的关系。给他们更多的选择权。他们到了十几岁的时候很可能仍然会选择配合家长多说中文。
Strategy #4: Agree on a home language day or a few days every week. For example, English on weekdays and Chinese on weekends.
方法四：规定每周有一天或几天是中文日。比如，平时可以说英语，周末必须说中文。
Pros: It gives everyone more freedom and flexibility. Parents don’t have to speak English only on weekdays, kids will anyways. On weekends all homework is done (supposedly), kids will have to work hard on speaking Chinese. Many kids have weekend Chinese school anyways, so it actually gives them a sense of continuity.
优势：这个方法给每个人更多的自由和弹性。家长不必在平时必须说英语，反正孩子也会说英语。到了周末，所有的作业都（应该）做完了，孩子就必须说中文。很多孩子在周末反正也要去中文学校，正好说中文，加强连续性。
Cons: The whole family has to be committed to abiding this rule. If kids need weekend time to do homework from their regular school, they may still need to discuss academic content in English. If kids have extra-curricular activities other than weekend Chinese school, they will need to speak English to other kids. In these cases, the plan simply won’t work.
不足：每个家庭成员都必须严格遵守周末说中文这个规定。如果孩子作业没写完需要利用周末写，那他们就有可能会在写作业的时候用英语讨论。如果孩子周末有除中文学校以外的其他课外班，他们就必须用英语交流。这些情况多了，周末中文就形同虚设了。
How to minimize the cons: Build a good relationship with your kids so that they enjoy commiting themselves to speaking “weekend Chinese” and see this as an opportunity to bond as a family. Arrange extracurricular activities to avoid weekends. Use weekends only for family fun and Chinese school. Encourage kids to finish homework on Friday, so that they won’t have any more to do on weekends. If your family schedule is different, agree as a family on a couple of different days for speaking Chinese.
如何弥补：与孩子建立良好的关系，这样他们就会更喜欢“周末中文”并且把它看成一个与父母亲子互动的好机会。安排其他课外班的时候尽量绕开周末。把周末用作家庭高质陪伴和中文学校时间。鼓励孩子在星期五写完所有的作业，这样周末就可以腾出来了。如果您家里的日程安排完全不同，也可以制定一个不同的全家说中文的时间。
Strategy #5: Send your child to an immersion school with academic content taught in both English and the home language. Immersion schools also teach content in English. A typical schedule involves morning teachings in English on new content and afternoon practices using Chinese (or any other target language). Immersion schools are usually private schools.
方法五：把孩子送到全日制“沉浸式学校”里学习，同时用中英文两种语言学习课业内容。典型的沉浸式学校一般都是上午用英语教新的课业内容，下午用中文（或其他语言）复习上午教的内容。沉浸式学校大多是私立学校。
Pros: Kids have plenty of opportunities to get enough language input and also produce output. Besides daily and functional Chinese, they also naturally acquire academic Chinese. With good immersion schools, parents can feel relatively secure about their kids maintaining a higher level of proficiency for both languages.
优势：孩子会有充分的机会在听说读写各方面得到训练。除了日常用语和社会功能用语，还会习得到相应年龄的学术中文。有了好的沉浸式学校，家长可以不必再有过多担心，孩子会在这样的环境中保持很好的中文和英文水平。
Cons: These schools are expensive. Not everyone can afford to go. There may be big differences among different immersion schools. Most Chinese kids actually do not go to immersion schools even when their parents can afford to sent them there. Most kids in immersion schools may be mainstraim Americans whose parents would like them to learn Chinese. If your 1st grader is already a fluent native speaker of Chinese, you might not want her to start from scratch with the rest of the class.
不足：私立学校都比较昂贵，不是所有的人都有条件去。每一所沉浸式学校都可能很不同。沉浸式学校的孩子大多数都不是华人，虽然很多华人有能力承担学费，也不一定送孩子去沉浸式学校。大多数学生可能是想学习中文的主流美国孩子，所以低年级的孩子可能是从没有任何中文基础开始的。如果您的孩子中文已经流利了，您可能会不希望孩子和其他学生一起从头开始。
How to minimize the cons: Before choosing an immersion school, investigate, investigate, investigate. Does the school have a good physical environment? Are people friendly? Is it competitive academically? Does it have good reputation? What are the qualifications of the teachers? Who goes to this school? Does the students’ language proficiency match your child’s? What are the strengths and weakness of this school? If your child has special needs, can the school accommodate? When your questions are answered, you will find it easier to reach a decision.
如何弥补：在选择沉浸式学校之前，先做足功课。学校的硬件设施如何？教职员工和学生都友好吗？学校的整体排名和学习成绩如何？学校名声如何？课业内容教师和中文教师的学历如何？学生是什么样子的？同龄学生的整体中文水平跟您孩子的中文水平匹配吗？学校的优势与不足在哪里？如果孩子有特殊需求，学校能提供支持吗？当您所有的问题都有了答案，您就会感觉容易多了。
Strategy #6: A naturalist way based on practical eclecticism and age-appropriate cultural realism. This is actually an informed and selective use of all or some of the previous strategies while keeping a balance between mainstream culture and home culture.
方法六：建立在实用的折衷主义和适合年龄的文化现实主义基础上的顺其自然。这其实是一个全面知情、根据自己与孩子的情况认真选择的方法，同时在主流文化与中华文化之间保持一个平衡。
Pros: Nobody is too stressed out about having to speak Chinese or English. Kids don’t feel pressurized into being Chinese at home, which makes them feel out of place at school. It’s a most relexible strategy that kids like better because they feel better about themselves. Conturary to popular belief, this actually sparks more interest in learning Chinese and help them feel more attracted to the Chinese culture. They feel like they have choices, and so interestingly, they choose speaking and being Chinese.
优势：用这个方法，没有人为了必须说中文或者不能说英语而感到压力山大。很多必须在家严格说中文否则就会受到责备的孩子，在学校里会感到难以融入，孩子就会感到更大的压力。而这个自然折衷法则是最有弹性的，当孩子对自己感觉好的时候，他们反而更愿意学习中文。当家长鼓励孩子积极参与到主流文化当中去的时候，孩子反而会更欢迎和接纳自己的中华文化。当他们可以选择，他们反而会选择更努力地说中文，对自己的华裔身份也会更加认同。
Cons: It may take a lot of learning and effort, even crafted planning, on the part of the parents. A lot of old, dearly helped beliefs may be challenged. Parents may be worried and in doubt if this is going to work.
不足：使用这个方法的家长必须自己愿意学习和付出努力，甚至是精心地策划。您会发现，您原有的很多根深蒂固的观念会受到挑战。家长有可能因为从未涉及过而感到不安，甚至怀疑这样会不会有好结果。
What parents can do: Form a good relationship with your child. Trust professionals in the field of language teaching, get informed in how your local Chinese community functions, set a good example by doing volunteer work or providing other forms of service, learn a bit of child development and psychology, learn a bit of how language acquisition and learning works, and understand how sociocultural issues influence your child in reality.
如何行动：和孩子建立良好的亲子关系。相信语言教学领域专业人士的建议，了解当地华人组织的活动，以身作则为当地华人志愿服务或者提供其他形式的服务，学习点儿童心理学，学习点语言习得和语言学习理论，了解在现实中社会文化问题如何影响自己孩子的语言文化抉择。
A personal experience: I have personally been using this strategy. Being a realistic person, I chose to honor my daughter’s needs and feelings above all else. When she was little and refused to speak English, I didn’t push her to speak English. When she was catching up on English and rejecting Chinese, I didn’t force her to speak Chinese. As a language teacher I understand child development, feelings of security, sociolinguistic needs and trust that children have their own inner curriculum when it comes to language acquisition and learning. Instead, I helped her achieve native speaker status in English as much as possible when she needed it the most. She was really happy about what I did for her. When she felt confident about her English, she started to voluntarily come back to pick up Chinese. So, I signed her up for Chinese school when she was 4. At first her comeback seemed slow but steady. I found her conjugating sentence patterns in Chinese on her own without being prompted a semester after starting Chinese school PreK. To her it was a game. To me, I knew her Chinese would be fine. During her 3rd year of learning Chinese and 2nd year with me (I teach at the same Chinese school, too), her Chinese is making leaps and bounds. I naturally speak more English with her and her dad, more Chinese. But mostly, we just speak whatever feels right at the moment. She listens, speaks, reads, and writes with expected bilingual proficiency and initiates conversations in Chinese without being asked. She is proud of herself as an individual and even more so of her cultural heritage, although I never had the “no English” rule and never imposed Chinese culture on her. We go to as many events in her regular school and in her Chinese school as possible to have fun. Her dad volunteers in the dragon dance team, which she is especially proud of. I believe in helping kids enjoy both languages and both cultures. The rest will fall in place with reasonable amount of effort on the part of the child.
个人实例：我自己就一直在使用方法六。作为一个在语言学习上比较现实主义的人，我选择首先尊重我女儿的需求和感受。她小的时候在幼儿园拒绝说英语，坚持说中文到了其他孩子也开始说“中文”，我没有强迫她说英语。几个月后她自己自觉自愿猛补英语暂时不愿说中文的时候，我没有强迫她说中文。作为一个教语言的老师，我理解儿童发展规律、对安全感的需求、和社会语言学规律，我相信孩子自己有自己内置的“语言课程设置”。相反，在她最需要的时候，我帮她尽快达到了英语母语水平。她对此非常开心。当她对自己的英语自信满满的时候，就开始自觉自愿地回归中文。她当时正好四岁了，我给她报了PreK的中文课。一开始她想起来的比较慢，但是进步还是蛮稳定的。我发现她一边洗澡一边用各种词用中文替换同一个句型（给PreK的中文老师点个大大的赞！）。对她来说，这是一个自创的小游戏。对我来说，我就知道她的中文会恢复起来的。她在中文学校的第三年也是跟着我上课的第二年（我也在同一个中文学校教中文），她的中文进步越来越快。我平时会自然而然对她多说一些英语，她爸爸会自然而然对她多说一些中文。但是我们都是比较随性的，谁什么时候都可以说中文或者英文。她在听说读写各方面都达到了我的期望值，并且会在家里甚至在外面都主动说中文。虽然我从来没有规定过在家不许说英语，也没有强迫她接受中华文化，她对自己作为一个个体、一个华人、和华人群体的一员都有惊人的自豪感。我们以开心享受为宗旨，积极参与她的全日制学校的各种活动，同时也积极参与中文学校和华人群体的各种活动。她爸爸参加了舞龙队，她对此感到特别骄傲。我深信孩子需要在享受两种语言和文化的氛围中学习进步，这样孩子只要做出适度的努力，就能达到预期的目标。