Abstract
Worldwide, there has been a number of researchers studying how children acquire two or more languages since bilingualism or multilingualism were increasingly prevalent. China, a monolingual culture is a late participant engaged in the field of bilingualism studies. Recent years witnessed a growing number of Chinese parents who attempted to raise their children bilingual by speaking English to them at home, however, relevant research on bilingualism acquisition in China lagged behind. This article reviews existing studies on early child bilingualism acquisition and bilingual parenting, displays language context in China, and explores solutions to difficulties Chinese parents face. Different from their counterparts in culturally diverse context, these Chinese parents were confronted with unique and more challenges: the quality of English they speak to children; the quantity of English input; the monolingual environment in China; and resistance to English by children. Solutions are proposed to tackle these issues respectively.