Bilingualism has a lot of benefits and positive effects on a person. After decades of research on the effects of bilingualism on children's development, there are things that just prove that. According to Döpke (1994: 1) "bilingual children have been found to learn to read more quickly and more effectively, to be able to use language in a more flexible ways, to be more expressive, and to be able to reflect upon language use at an earlier age than do monolingual children". The diploma thesis

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... ists of two parts. In the theoretical part I described some of the basic parental methods which are used in order to raise a bilingual child. When you are using the "one parent -one language" method the result is always that children switch among languages with such an ease. From that, a code-mixing could appear. Also, you could never be equally exposed to both languages due to various factors and somehow one becomes stronger, the other weaker. In the empirical part I wanted to check the children, who are learning English simultaneously, and monolingual children, who are learning English as a second language sequentially, by giving them a test to write in order to find out who is more proficient in English language and who can apply it better. I was also interviewing the mother of the two boys, who has the most important role in their lives how did she start with the project of the bilingualism that feels so natural and what is the key to the success. KEY WORDS: bilingualism, language proficiency, "one parent -one language" method, language switching Božič, T.: Raising bilingual children POVZETEK Dvojezičnost ima veliko prednosti in vpliva pozitivno na človeka. Več desetletne raziskave vpliva dvojezičnosti na otrokov razvoj so pokazale ravno to. Döpke-jeva pravi (1994: 1) "dvojezični otroci so se pri branju pokazali kot hitrejši in bolj učinkoviti, jezik znajo bolje uporabljati, se znajo bolje izražati in se zavedati jezika samega v zgodnejših letih napram enojezičnim otrokom". Diploma je sestavljena iz dveh delov. V teoretičnem delu so opisane nekatere bistvene starševske metode, ki se uporabljajo pri vzgoji dvojezičnega otroka. Pri metodi "en starš -en jezik" prihaja do zelo lahkih jezikovnih preklapljanj med seboj. Iz tega naslova se lahko zgodi, da pride do "mešanja" jezika. Prav tako zaradi različnih faktorjev nisi nikoli enako izpostavljen poslušanju obeh jezikov, zato je en jezik močnejši od drugega. V empiričnem delu sem s pisanjem testov, ki sem jih dala dvojezičnima in enojezičnima otrokoma, hotela preizkusiti, kateri je bolj vešč v angleškem jeziku in ga zna bolje uporabljati. Prav tako sem z materjo dvojezičnih otrok, ki ima obenem najbolj pomembno vlogo v njunih življenjih, naredila intervju, kako se je lotila tega projekta, ki se sliši in čuti kot zelo naraven proces in kakšen je ključ do uspeha.