What should parents do? Myth 1: In a bilingual family, parents should implement a “one person, one language” strategy when communicating with their children. One person, one language” means avoiding “one person, multiple languages” or “multiple languages” by exposing children to one language from one parent at a time. Although the “one person, one language” strategy is feasible, there is no evidence that it is the only or best approach; nor is there evidence that it reduces language mixing and transcoding in children [1]. Parents need not be concerned that they are speaking different languages to their children at the same time or that mixing more than two languages in conversation will cause distress to their children [19]; research has shown that children raised in bilingual environments are bound to experience language mixing and transcoding regardless of what parents teach [1], and as we have repeatedly stated before, transcoding is normal, even beneficial, for a bilingual person and is not a concern. . The advice I would like to give on this issue is that parents should try to create a natural, relaxed and comfortable learning atmosphere for their children. Myth 2: If you want your child to be able to speak Mandarin, parents must stop speaking the home language to their children. ”When parents love their children, they plan for them to be far-reaching.” Many parents give up speaking their home language at home early in order to get their children to speak fluent Mandarin (aka the mainstream language), deliberately creating an atmosphere where they are invited to speak cousin poof, even though many times they are not proficient in Mandarin (or other mainstream languages) themselves. First, there is no evidence that frequent use of hometown dialects hinders children from learning Mandarin at school [1]; second, if parents’ own Mandarin (or other mainstream languages) is not spoken in a standard way, it is likely to have a negative impact on children’s later learning of proper pronunciation of Mandarin; third, doing so reluctantly can make parent-child communication unnatural, unpleasant, and even stressful and uncomfortable, which is not only This is not only not conducive to the development of parent-child relationship, but also not half beneficial to language learning. I personally believe that the native language is everyone’s treasure, and it is a pity to lose it. So, what exactly is the right thing to do? Start early, promote interest, guide more, and force less. 1. Follow the preferences and habits of your family members and try to be as natural and comfortable as possible. Don’t try to speak a language that you are not even proficient in with your own child, it won’t do any good. 2.Children growing up in a bilingual environment do not need adults to deliberately teach the language. All parents have to do is to speak and communicate more often, and after having sufficient language input, the brain will do the rest of the work on its own. 3. Don’t worry if your child appears to be mixing multiple languages. Transcoding and mixing are very normal for bilinguals/multilinguals. Parents should provide their children with as many opportunities to communicate, interact and play with others in their home language as possible. 4. If you believe that your child is indeed experiencing a speech delay, seek help from a professional speech-language pathologist, also known as a speech therapist, as soon as possible. Also remember that bilingualism or multilingualism is not the root cause of speech delay, look more for problems in the hearing and articulation organs. 1. Do you have to be fluent to be called bilingual/multilingual? As a communication tool for human beings, language has different levels of development depending on the frequency of use and the context. It is rare to find a multilingual person with equal proficiency in multiple languages [7], and most multilingual people have a “dominant language” that is often influenced by the social context, especially the dominant language used by the dominant social group [9]. In addition, a person’s dominant language is not always the same and may change with age, environment, education, social circle, work environment, and many other influences. This is common knowledge that parents of multilingual children need to know in order to cope with the changes that may occur during the child’s language development [7]. 2. Can a child become bilingual only if he or she acquires a second language before the critical period? No. As an example, every post-80s and 90s person who has received compulsory education is a bilingual, but many of them have gradually become rusty or even “forgotten” because their second language, English, is not often used in our lives. It is true that children are more efficient in acquiring a second language than young people and adults, and are more likely to achieve native proficiency, especially in syntax and pragmatics [1]. However, everything cannot be generalized. Numerous experiments have shown that adults or adolescents learn vocabulary and syntax better than younger children in the early stages of second language acquisition because of advantages in memory, comprehension and reading skills (more advancedcognitive skills and literacy) [1, 7, 10]. This tells us that it is never too late to start learning a second language.