On behalf of the Jagiellonian University Polish Research Centre, we cordially invite you to the workshops for parents bringing children up in immigration – “Are bilingual children worth having?”, which will be held on December 7th and 8th, 2013.
The decision regarding the change of the family’s country of residence involves, among others, the issue of the children growing up in a different culture from that of their parents. It means, for instance, that they will talk different language in kindergarten or school from their parents’ mother tongue. What language should the parents use when talking to them? The one the child uses in the kindergarten / school? Or maybe the language the parents know the best and with which they feel emotionally connected?
During the workshops you will consider cognitive, social (within and beyond a family) consequences of such decisions. You will reflect whether it is worth it for the child to be bilingual if that means that he or she will be different from most of his/ her school friends. Will it facilitate his/her functioning at school, or make it more difficult? Does bilingualism bring about more advantages or drawbacks? How can a child’s or a family’s bilingualism be supported? How to deal with difficulties? Together with parents and children lecturers will attempt to answer this question, drawing on the knowledge that stems from research over bilingualism, including their own project entitled “Cognitive and linguistic development of bilingual Polish children at the brink of school education: chances and risks” (carried out by a team of scholars from the Warsaw University and the Jagiellonian University, funded by the Ministry for Science and Higher Education / NCN).
Workshops conducted by: Zofia Wodniecka, PhD, Ewa Haman, PhD
For registration please send an email to pon@uj.edu.pl or call +44 777 664 66 81
More information: the Jagiellonian University Polish Research Centre in London