Raising Bilingual-Biliterate Children in Monolingual Cultures (review)

This book recounts the author's and his wife's methods and strategies for raising their three children bilingually in Louisiana and Québec (specifically the area around Québec City) - the two monolingual cultures, English and French respectively, referred to in the title. This is an exhaustive account of a family's language behaviours and attitudes, from the children's birth to their late adolescence. The author clearly discusses the major issues in bilingual development, all in relation to real-world examples from his children's development. For example, the debate over one versus two language systems is illustrated via the author's and his wife's debates over their children's early perceptions of their languages. What it means to be a true bilingual is illustrated through the children's worries about their accents; code-mixing and loan words are discussed in terms of Québécois slang. Although the main focus is on the sociolinguistic aspects of bilingualism and bilingual development, such as peer and societal influence on language choice, the book also touches on some psycholinguistic topics in bilingual research, such as the possible cognitive advantages of bilinguals. There is even a discussion on the neuroscience of bilingualism. Often these divergent topics are clearly outlined, with relevant research in the field. However, one problem in the author's review is that more recent research (i.e., from the past 10 years) is sometimes missing in the discussion of bilingual topics. Caldas can also be somewhat repetitive with respect to examples, using the same example several times to reiterate a point. However, and importantly, he writes in an engaging manner, giving readers a glimpse into a family's triumphs and struggles with respect to bilingualism and bilingual identity, leading them to invest emotionally in an academic exercise.

Methodologically, this book falls in the long tradition of diary studies in psychology and linguistics, in which the author records and notes his children's speech and literacy. The main advantage of such an approach is the rich set of data arising from the intense study of a small sample (three children), and therein lies the strength of this book. Data came from field notes, 248 recorded conversations, measures of bilingualism, self-reports, and reports from professionals (e.g., teachers) - an expansive data set, to be sure. Further, Caldas uses data from audiotapes (i.e., word counts in each language) and questionnaires to add quantification to the predominantly qualitative information presented in the book. The data are presented in graphs and tables in chapter 11, but these graphs and tables are sometimes unclear. The main weakness of the data is that they are extremely limited with respect to generalizability, as they are essentially derived from three case studies, all in the same middle- to high-SES family. An additional major problem relates to bias, as all the data were recorded and provided by people close to the participants, including the participants themselves. In fairness, these limitations are clearly stated and discussed in the book. As Caldas points out, different families will have different strategies that can lead to fluently bilingual children, and the strategies and techniques he discusses are not a strict guide for proficient bilingual development but merely suggestions. In fact, the individual differences among Caldas's three children even led to differing strategies, approaches, and effects within the same family. The focus on the individual, rather than on aggregate data, also contributes to the richness of the information provided. However, this book's main contribution to the field of bilingual research does not necessarily lie in the strength of its data, which can be questioned; rather, its main contribution for theorists and researchers in the field is in its potential to inspire future well-designed research studies arising from the rich qualitative information provided. The family's observations and thoughts about their bilingualism can form the basis for future research on, for example, accent choice and formation or how...