Why is My Child Not Paying Attention to Books in the Minority Language?

What is children are not paying attention to reading in the minority language?

Many concerned bilingual parents ask: “Why is my child not paying attention to books in the minority language?”

Since reading is one of the most important strategies for raising multilingual children, parents worry when books in Chinese, Korean, or other languages don’t spark interest like English books.

If you’re trying to raise bilingual kids, you might have worried about this, too.

Parents with these concerns are commonly from countries like the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, where English is the dominant language and monolingualism is the norm.

Why is my child not paying attention to books in the minority language?

Even if your home languages differ, bilingual families often struggle similarly. This common bilingual parenting question was recently emailed to me, and I have removed names for privacy. Here is a message from a Chinese Australian mother of a 6-year-old boy:

“I need guidance on how to read Chinese books to my son, as I love reading and would like the same for him and also embrace the idea of a Chinese library at home.

When I’m reading Chinese, he doesn’t listen or engage. He will wait for me to finish the reading so he can finish the duty of hearing. Or he will interrupt me by asking, “What does it mean?” over and over again.

Is this is a normal response from kids when hearing foreign languages and should I stick with it? Since he doesn’t know the content of the books (or only gets the brief idea), he seems to easily lose interest of the Chinese children’s books we read together. 

To give you a bit of background, he just turned 6 this month. I’m a native Chinese speaker and my husband is an Australian who can only speak English, but we are always conscious about teaching him Chinese when the time is right.

Since he started kindergarten this year, I started re-introducing Chinese to him. But very little was achieved. The problem is with me as I’m not consistent or persistent in speaking Chinese to him at home, which is why I found your blog helpful!”

When your child doesn’t pay attention to minority language books

First of all, kudos to all parents taking the leap on speaking and reading in their minority language! I know how difficult it is, especially in the beginning.

Consistency is the hardest part of developing habits, especially when a language is introduced later in life.

When your child is not paying attention to books in the minority language, consider these questions:

  1. What are your child’s speaking skills in the minority language?
  2. Are the books too difficult for your child?
  3. Is the content interesting?
  4. Are the illustrations abstract or realistic?
  5. Are you excited about reading minority language books to your children?
  6. Is the lack of attention due to age or inadequate physical activity?
Young Children Paying Attention While Reading Books in the Minority Language

Chalk Academy is reader-supported. Some of the links are affiliate links. When you buy something through an affiliate link, we may earn a very small commission at no additional cost to you. More details here.

1. How are your child’s speaking skills in the minority language?

Your child’s verbal skills in the minority language are related to their ability to participate in story time.

Differences between my son and daughter

Since my son was exposed to Chinese, Korean, and English at birth, he is excited and attentive during story time in each language.

On the other hand, when my daughter first began to learn Chinese around age 2, she would zone out during my initial attempts at reading Chinese books.

Frequently, she would ask me to stop reading the Chinese book and run to grab an English book instead.

We have since come a long way! As her Chinese speaking skills have become more fluent, she is self-motivated to read Chinese children’s books.

When she’s enthralled in her favorite books, she will even forget to eat breakfast and other important tasks!

However, she now struggles to sit through new Korean stories. As her Korean speaking skills have regressed with decreased immersion in the language, her interest in Korean books has declined as well.

How to improve your child’s verbal skills in the minority language

Since books are 2-dimensional, they can sometimes be abstract for new language learners. Therefore, whenever possible, language learning for beginners should involve something tangible that the child can hold, feel, and explore.

For example, if you are talking about seeds in Chinese, go to the kitchen and cut open fruits and vegetables!

When introducing new Korean words about clothes, explore the closet and supplement with a printable learning activity about clothes.

Let your child use sight and touch to help them understand new vocabulary, like t-shirt (티셔츠) and pants (바지), and describe the shape, materials, and design in detail.

Try this: How to Make the Switch from Dominant to Minority Language

2. Are the books too difficult for your child?

When an older child starts to learn a new language, stories in that language will likely be simpler than those in the dominant language.

Initially, you might have to code-mix the minority language with English as a scaffolding strategy to boost listening comprehension.

Start by focusing on two or three keywords and phrases, and gradually ramp up the minority language in each sentence.

Be consistent, and use familiar vocabulary to boost confidence.

Also, not every word in the book needs to be read initially.

If your child asks, “What does this mean?” this is a great opportunity to discuss the question in the minority language.

To help your child better understand the meaning, you can dwell longer on the topic and use pictures to define new Chinese or Korean words.

I Love Martine in Chinese 玛蒂娜故事书系列 book with realistic images of boats
Realistic images in the I Love Martine Series can help children understand new vocabulary.

3. Is the content interesting?

Are the books in the minority language about topics your child likes and can relate to? When I first bought Chinese books for my daughter, I found stories about traditional Chinese festivals. Unfortunately, neither my daughter nor my American self felt connected to the content.

At that time, the concept of Chinese festivals was over our heads because we had not experienced a Lion Dance, Chinese firecrackers, or moon cakes in real life.

She also quickly outgrew boring vocabulary books like “100 First Korean Words”. Similarly, Chinese baby board books were cute but not stimulating after the 8th read!

Once I found relatable stories about everyday life, such as books about the human body, she could connect and understand more Chinese. And since she is fascinated by science, we have started collecting Chinese science books!

4. Are the illustrations abstract or realistic?

Whenever possible, try to find books with realistic illustrations. Life-like pictures are important visual cues for explaining and retaining new Chinese vocabulary.

Even though Chinese cartoons are popular, an abstract image can be confusing because kids might not even know what it represents in English.

Recently, I was reading a cute animal book with my 2-year-old son. We debated whether the green animal was a hippo or an alligator, and my son had trouble believing me!

Although the book named the green animal 河马 (hémǎ / hippopotamus), my son insisted that the green animal must be an alligator because those animals – not hippos – are green!

Explore this: Luka Reading Robot is a Game Changer for Bilingual Families

Chinese book with colorful cartoon animals

Since there were many random colors on the other animals, we switched to realistic books about animals. As a result, he could focus on learning animal names and descriptions in Chinese.

Alternatively, you can use real-life examples or realistic models to support abstract illustrations. While reading a Chinese book about brushing teeth, the cartoon bugs can be visually distracting from discussions about teeth. To enhance understanding, we read the book with a tooth model.

Chinese book from Health Guides 影响孩子一生的健康书 and realistic dental model
Chinese human body picture book

Explore this: The Best Human Body Science Toys for Kids

5. Are you excited about reading minority language books to your children?

Our mood often sets the stage for our children. When we appear confident, positive, and excited about reading minority language books, our kids will be more receptive to storytime.

I tell my kids that books are the best gift for any special occasion, and they see me gifting books to other friends.

They know I’m passionate about finding new Chinese and Korean children’s books for our family!

On the other hand, negativity can be easily sensed and contagious. Our children easily pick up those vibes if we show frustration or nervousness.

Truth be told, when my husband occasionally reads Korean books to our children, he makes comments like, “That book is way too long!”

However, he will then pick an equally long English book with sincere enthusiasm. I also prefer to read English books, because it’s my native language.

Therefore, non-fluent parents like myself may need to practice reading stories in the minority language to be ready to engage our children.

If read-aloud is not your forte, watch how other teachers and parents bring stories to life on Chinese storytelling channels on YouTube.

Give yourself grace and time to practice implementing dynamic narration strategies with your children!

Try this: 有道 Youdao Chinese Dictionary Pen

6. Is the lack of attention due to age or inadequate physical activity?

Movement for children is as essential as breathing.

As with any sedentary activity, attention will suffer if they have been sitting too long.

As Scholastic points out:

“We don’t want to force our kids to sit and spend what should be reading time instead redirecting or disciplining them for doing what comes naturally. What message are we sending them about reading?”

Every child needs to play and run around outside. After getting their energy out, story time is more likely to be successful.

However, many children need to keep moving during story time. This is perfectly normal, especially for young children!

You can read to them while they play with Legos, eat a snack, or bathe.

In addition, you can play reading games outdoors (eg, Sight Word Soccer, sidewalk chalk literacy activities).

If they are required to sit for prolonged periods, such as in the car or plane, you can try listening to multilingual audiobooks for kids.

What if my child’s attention is short with activities in all languages?

If you have further concerns about your attention span during reading or other activities, please consult your pediatrician or family doctor for further evaluation and advice.

Tips for boosting minority language skills

Have you struggled with your child not paying attention to books?

Please let me know if these suggestions and questions help in any way. I hope my answers can help you find solutions, and I’d love to hear if you have other advice for parents in similar situations.

2 Comments

  1. For us Chinese was the majority language and German was the minority language. We still had a lot of refusing to read Chinese, whereas storybooks in the minority language were cherished. I had the feeling that written Chinese differs a lot from spoken Chinese. It is too literary and often western educated kids don‘t accept the morals of Chinese books and stories. I found it was easier with western books translated to Chinese, but then often my husband would refuse to read because the language was too basic or the translation plain wrong. It is a complex subject.

    1. Hi Edna, thank you for taking the time to comment and share your experience! I agree that the message from traditional Chinese folktales are not very relatable for my children as well. Over the years, I have found a number of great, reality-based Chinese children’s stories that I hope your family can enjoy. Many of these are translated Japanese stories, and some are translated Western stories.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *