Book a talk
Mother Tongues offers training and support in developing inclusive linguistic and cultural strategies in the areas of families, education and the arts. We regularly deliver talks for groups and for public and private organisations. Our talks focus on parenting bilingual children, working in multilingual classrooms and breaking language barriers and other areas related to multilingualism and interculturalism in education.
If you would like to book a talk with us, fill in the form below or contact soraya@mothertongues.ie
Topics:
Target audience: Parents who are raising bilingual or multilingual children
Why do some bilingual children prefer one language over the other? Is it true that bilingual children start speaking late? How can I help my child to develop two languages at the same time? How long will it take for my child to start speaking the school language? Is it too late to start speaking my mother tongue to my child?
These and other questions will be addressed in this informative talk. Parents will learn about bilingual language development and about some of the most common strategies to support their child’s linguistic development throughout childhood.
They will also find out more about the cognitive, social and educational benefits of bilingualism across the lifespan.
Target audience: This talk is designed for parents/carers of children between the ages of 0 and 5.
In this talk we will discuss some of the key tips to successfully raise bilingual children, learn about methodologies to boost children’s language skills in each language, with practical examples.
This talk will address parents’ doubts, concerns and curiosities in a lively Q&A.
Target audience: parents of children aged 7-10
This talk offers useful tips and techniques for cultivating cultural connections and using different languages in the home. For non-Irish families who are considering sending their child to an Irish medium school, we will touch on the ways parents can pass on a language that may not be their native language.
In this talk parents will learn about:
- How children develop two languages from birth;
- How to introduce a new language to a young child;
- Which family language strategies are used and how they can be implemented;
- How English develops alongside another language;
- How parents can support the development of the minority language.
About the speaker
Dr Francesca La Morgia is a linguist with more than 10 years of experience delivering training in the area of bilingual language development and bilingual education. Francesca has an MPhil in Applied Linguistics from Trinity College Dublin and a PhD in bilingual language acquisition from DCU. Francesca has lectured in this area at the University of Reading, Trinity College Dublin, Ulster University and Maynooth University. Francesca has delivered training to mainstream teachers, EAL teachers and teacher trainers in Ireland, Belgium the UK, Germany and Switzerland.
In 2019, together with Prof. Pádraig O’Duibhir and Dr Bozena Dubiel, Francesca delivered a webinar on childhood bilingualism hosted by the Teaching Council. She recently contributed to the toolkit that formed part of the Primary Language Curriculum and she produced a toolkit for using the first language in English medium instruction for Oxford University Press.
Francesca’s publications include articles in international peer-review journals and books.
Testimonials
Some of our previous talks
Microsoft
Parents at LinkedIn
