The Author

The author, Ashinsa Bopearachchi, was born in Sri Lanka and initially spoke Sinhalese, her mother tongue. She learned French in France at the age of three and English in the USA at the age of ten, diving straight into the bath of each language.

She is an IT senior manager and runs major international programs. She is also Chairperson of the humanitarian non-profit organization Renaissance Sri Lanka (www.renasl.org), where she works in French, English and Sinhalese.

She drew on an intuition developed during her special childhood, as well as her knowledge of educational science and psychoanalysis, to create a language-learning method for her child, necessary in the context of life in France, a country where French is the dominant language.

Today, in this book, she shares the methodology she has devised, which she has named Bop! to inspire other parents who wish to pass on a minority language or one that does not exist in their country of residence, to their kindergarten and primary school children. The methodology is specially adapted to children of this age, and uses play almost exclusively as a means of learning. It involves building up the first knots of language knitting with basic meaningful words, then continuing the knitting of language by adding words and expressions with increasingly complex meanings, and this happens first through oral work. The harmonious knitting of language takes shape first orally, then in writing, which ultimately translates into the child's fluency in the transmitted language, equivalent to that of a native speaker.

This method is very different in its approach from existing methods. It is highly effective in transmitting bilingualism to children aged three to ten, with the added advantage of accompanying children in their development.

This book is complemented by a comprehensive pedagogical content for learning American English.