ABSTRACT
Speaking heritage languages in homes of many immigrant families in the US is gradually vanishing. Evidently, second-generation children of immigrant families speak English only at the expense of their heritage languages. This trend poses obstacles for multilingual education which progressive educators and policy makers strive to reverse. The chapter extrapolates data to demonstrate that preserving heritage languages and providing multilingual education to emergent bilinguals in schools are special assets for children, families, and the nation. For example, they boost student cognitive ability, linguistic skills, academic success, identity, cultural literacy, and socioeconomic advancement. The author’s success story of raising two US-born children to attain proficiency in their heritage language Ewe and English provides further validation of such research claims. It highlights the family repertoire of arts activities, strategies, and resources from successful case studies supporting emergent bilingual children to learn both languages through fun and engaging ways. Teachers and families are encouraged to adapt them to promote multilingualism of second-generation children.
