Harmonious bilingual development: The concept, the significance, and the implications

Abstract

Harmonious Bilingual Development refers to “the experience of well-being in a language contact situation involving young children and their families” (De Houwer, The International Journal of Bilingualism 19(2): 169, 2015). This notion has attracted increasing attention in recent years, but the application of this concept within the Singaporean context remains unknown. The current chapter begins by introducing Harmonious Bilingual Development and stresses the significance of language and literacy exposure within the home and school settings alongside evidence of how this promotes local children’s dual language acquisition and social-emotional development. Children’s mother tongue language learning is crucial for their Harmonious Bilingual Development in Singapore and may influence kindergarteners’ social-emotional and behavioral skills. Cost-effective teaching methods such as codeswitching and shared book reading are discussed in detail at the end of the chapter given their potential contribution to Singaporean children’s Harmonious Bilingual Development. It is suggested that these approaches be implemented with the child bilinguals’ characteristics in mind.