Ivana Brasileiro 
- Who are you and what is your function at the University of Utrecht?
My name is Ivana Brasileiro and I am an Education and Internationalisation staff member at the Economy Department. I got my PhD at the Utrecht Institute for Linguistics OTS and, afterwards, have worked here for a few years. At the time when Sharon, Manuela and I started working on this project I was also a teacher for the Department of Modern Languages. Although my current function isn’t directly related to multilingualism, I still find it a fascinating subject.
- Can you say a few words about the content of your research?
I have done research on multilingual children learning sound, specifically how multilingualism can influence the way in which they learn the sounds of each of the languages. It is often claimed that bilingual children acquire certain structures of their languages sooner or later than monolingual children. Both patterns emerged in my research. It remains very difficult though to determine what causes these differences, since there is so much variation among bilinguals, for instance with respect to the quantity and quality of input that they receive in each of their languages.
- Can you explain your interest in bilingualism?
Bilingualism is a fascinating subject, especially when it is a part of your daily life. I started learning a second language for the first time when I was 11 years old (English), which is a bit later than the European standard. Initially it was just a school course, but the more I improved and the more I used it for communicative reasons, the more I became fascinated by it. And for the first time I realised that there is no 1 to 1 relationship between languages; Makes sense if you’re multilingual but it’s not at all obvious for a monolingual. This personal interest has definitely played a role in the choice of my promotion topic. For several years I mainly focussed on the scientific aspects of multilingualism. Fortunately, during my promotion I came into contact with parents of multilingual children who shifted my focus with questions such as ‘What can I DO to support my child in her weak language?’. This was a reason for me to start the workshop and subsequently the website, together with Sharon and Manuela. I now have a young daughter myself who I am raising bilingually. It is even more wonderful than I could have imagined.
- You were born in Brasil and moved to the Netherlands when you were twenty one. How did you experience the contact with a new language?
Dutch was my second language. When I came to the Netherlands I couldn’t say more than a clumsy ‘dankuwel’. I communicated primarily in English and I got by that way in the big cities, where I could be found most of the time. Got by. But nothing more than that. I couldn’t follow informal conversations among Dutch people, didn’t understand the news, and couldn’t read posters on the street or ads in the supermarket. An entire world was closed off for me. But this world started to slowly but surely open up for me. And I loved it! At first I only spoke English with my husband, then English with a few Dutch words in between (‘Are we having stampot tonight? Lekker!’), then Dutch with a few English words mixed in and eventually we completely switched to speaking Dutch at all times. Very smoothly and naturally.
Manuela Pinto
- Who are you and what is your function at the University of Utrecht?
I am Manuela Pinto, assistant professor Italian linguistics at the Department of Modern Languages. As a researcher I am affiliated with the research institution UiL-OTS.
- Can you say a few words about the content of your research?
I am fascinated by the way young children learn one or multiple languages, by the speed of this process and the ease with which children between two and three years of age learn terribly complex constructions, constructions that us adults can have great difficulty with. More specifically, I am interested in the way children learn pronouns and how they interchange these with nouns when, for instance, they tell a story.
- Can you explain your interest in bilingualism?
I come from a family of migrants. In our home we spoke a combination of Italian, French and two dialects. Completely normal. Intuitively, my grandma knew that children can easily pick up a language, so she often spoke to me in French when I was a toddler. Later in life, when I went abroad, I discovered to my great astonishment that not everybody considered bilingualism to be something positive. I met a lot of people who chose not to raise their children bilingually, because that would have negative consequences for their linguistic and intellectual development. Meanwhile, what my study Linguistics taught me was the complete opposite of that. When I started working at the UU I decided to get into this subject more, out of scientific interest, but also in the hopes of eventually being able to contribute in presenting a more clear and correct image of bilingualism.
- What has triggered you to start providing information to parents about bilingualism?
A couple of years ago I spoke to an Italian mother. She, her Dutch husband and their ten-year-old child had moved to the Netherlands a few years earlier. Up to that moment this woman had always spoken Italian with her child. The father, on the other hand, used both languages. During her first visit to the ‘consultatiebureau’ (consultancy) this women was told that she was to stop speaking Italian to her child immediately, because otherwise her child would never learn Dutch and never integrate. The woman herself spoke very little Dutch, but she followed the advice because she trusted the competencies of the employees at the consultancy. The child experienced this change in communication as very traumatizing. A few years later, when I first met them, the boy refused to speak Italian. “I am Dutch,”, he said, “I don’t speak that stupid language”.
Sharon Unsworth
- Who are you and what is your function at the University of Utrecht?
My name is Sharon Unsworth. I’m Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern Languages and the Utrecht institute of Linguistics.
- Can you say a few words about the content of your research?
My research focuses on how bilingual and second language children learn their two languages and which factors affect their language development. In particular, I’m interested in the role of starting age as well as the effect that different amounts and different kinds of language exposure may have on bilingual children’s language development.
- Can you explain your interest in bilingualism?
I started learning French at primary school and I’ve been pretty much fascinated by languages ever since. I went on to study French and German at university and actually ended up teaching French as foreign language at a local primary school as a part-time job throughout my studies. As the mother of a bilingual toddler, my interest is now personal as well as professional. There are so many different factors that shape bilingual language development and I believe each of these perspectives – the child’s, the teacher’s and the parent’s – can offer valuable insights into this process.
- You are yourself mother to a daughter who is growing up bilingually. What are the best and worse moments that you have experiences as a bilingual mum?
My daughter, Scarlett, is only 16 months old so she can’t say much but she’s understanding more and more each day it seems. At home we all speak English and she hears Dutch at nursery and from her grandparents and other family members. The best moment so far was when her first word, which was in English, was quickly followed by a second, in Dutch. It really made me realise that she’s a little bilingual! (For those who are interested her first word was “hiya”, which is what we say in northern England for “hello”, and her second word was “dag”, which she used for “goodbye”.) The worst moment so far, if you can really call it that, was when I realised the other day that she understands “diaper” better than “nappy”! We’re in the US for 3 months at the moment and before we came, I joked about Scarlett coming back talking American English instead of British English, not honestly expecting that it would happen. It’s not a problem of course — and it’s to be expected given that she’s at an American “daycare” — but it’s quite ironic because I’m quite particular about us using British and not Amercian English at home … !