How should I ensure that my child’s first language does not fall behind?

Continue to use and honour your home language(s), while encouraging the immersion language(s), such as by providing reading material and other support in the home language. Language games can be played in the supermarket, restaurant, zoo. Books, magazines, CD-ROMs should be organised by language. Monolingual dictionaries in both languages are essential as they provide usage examples and more in the way of nuances and options, whereas bilingual dictionaries simply encourage translation rather than thinking in each language.

If two or more languages are used at home, they should be kept separate, for example the parent who principally speaks German should only speak in German, or family members agree to speak exclusively in one language on a particular day of the week (eg Japanese on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; English on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday).

Let your child(ren) know that you value his/her/their efforts in learning more than one language, and encourage them to take risks in their use of the languages they are learning rather than insist on accuracy. Accuracy comes after fluency, and fluency comes after confidence.