There are many parents in the world today who have the opportunity to raise their children in two languages, but who are discouraged or dissuaded from doing so, either because they are not sure how to go about it or because of the often conflicting advice they receive from relatives, friends, acquaintances, health workers, teachers, etc. Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens was written to allay many of the doubts and fears which parents might have about raising their children bilingually. By focusing in detail on the experiences of one particular family, as well as drawing widely on other relevant research into bilingualism, George Saunders shows that although parents may at times encounter difficulties in bringing up their children in two languages, these difficulties are by no means insurmountable, and that it is possible for children to achieve and maintain a reasonable and useful level of bilingualism, even when the circumstances are far from ideal. Children's acquisition of bilingualism is shown to be something normal, something positive, which can be a rewarding and enriching experience for both children and their parents. Since the book was written with the general reader in mind, it is composed in a very readable style and has clear, easily understandable explanations of any technical matters. Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens updates and expands substantially on the information contained in George Saunders's previous book, Bilingual Children: Guidance for the Family, which was published in 1982 and which was very well received not only by general readers but also by specialist readers, e.g.: 'This book represents a remarkable achievement and deserves to be widely known. It goes far beyond a how to book for parents raising their children bilingually. It deserves a wide audience among specialists in childhood bilingualism and among all those generally interested in the psychological, social, and educational consequences of bilingualism.' (Glen G. Gilbert, Department of Linguistics, Southern Illinois University, writing in the journal Language in Society, December 1984). Containing even more useful information and practical advice, Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens should likewise be of interest not only to parents contemplating or actually already raising their children bilingually, but also to educators, researchers, health workers, etc, indeed to anyone having contact with bilingual families and who would benefit from gaining a clear insight into bilingualism in general and bilingual children in particular.
About the Author: George Saunders was born in Waratah, a small mining town in Tasmania, Australia's island state, in 1948. He obtained his PhD from the University of Tasmania in 1975. His doctoral research, which included a year's linguistic field work in Aachen in the Federal Republic of Germany, examined the use and function of modal particles in modern German. He worked first as a full-time teacher of languages at a high school in Tasmania, while at the same time tutoring part-time in German at the University of Tasmania and in French at the Tasmanian College of Advanced Education. In 1977 he moved to mainland Australia, to Melbourne, to join the staff of the German Department at Monash University. In 1980 he moved further north to Sydney to take up a lecturing position at the Macarthur Institute of Higher Education (formerly known as the Milperra College of Advanced Education), where he is now Coordinator of Community Languages and teaches German language and translation courses, as well as linguistics and sociolinguistics. His research interests include the contemporary German language, many aspects of bilingualism, particularly children's bilingual development and the problems facing bilingual children and their parents in predominantly monolingual environments, as well as various other issues in the field of sociolinguistics. He has been the editor of the Bilingual Family Newsletter, a popular international quarterly magazine for parents raising their children bilingually, since its inception in 1984. He is married and has three bilingual children.