By Neha Navsaria, PhD
“Your child cannot speak his mother tongue? That’s a shame.”
This exchange can cause parents to have a number of reactions:
Failure: “I should have spent more time teaching him our language.” Embarrassment: “I can’t believe I’m the only parent here whose child isn’t fluent.” Anxiety: “If he doesn’t learn his mother tongue, how will he stay connected to his culture?”
Many families struggle with whether or not to teach children multiple languages, out of fear it could lead to confusion. Here we’ve identified some language learning truths and myths:
Children have a limited window of opportunity to learn multiple languages. Researchers talk about the “critical period”, that by six or seven years old, it is too late to acquire a language fully.¹ There is some truth to this. It is harder for you to learn a language once you get older, but not impossible. There are many older children and adults who have not only learned a new language, but end up speaking it fluently.
So what’s the rush to learn a language at a young age? Well, pronunciation is greatly impacted by this critical period.² Young learners are generally better at pronunciation. For example, there are some sounds in South Asian languages that do not exist in the English language. Those who speak a South Asian language fluently from childhood can make these sounds. However those who learned the language later in life will have difficulty with pronunciation and often their accents of origin will be heard.
When children learn more than one language, it improves their academic skills. While there is no direct link between bilingualism and performance in school, there is evidence on how the knowledge of languages has a positive effect on creativity, complex thinking and mental flexibility.³ What this means is bilingual individuals have better problem-solving and quick decision-making skills compared to those who speak one language. This has to do with the connections in your brain; the more you languages you know, the more connections exist!
If children learn multiple languages at the same time, they will be confused in school. Some parents avoid teaching two languages at the same time because they are worried their child might lag behind other children when speaking English in schools. However, there really is not much evidence that bilingual children are confused or learn to speak later. Children will use words they know rather than not say anything at all.4 If a child knows a word in one language and not the other, he will use the word in the language he knows. This does not mean your child is confused. He is just making use of the language he does know!
When you are fluent in a language as a child, but did not continue speaking this language, you will be able to develop fluency again. Yes, it is possible. This is because you have set the foundation in your brain. To explain, I’ll have to give you a quick biology lesson. Within your brain there are two areas, one that focuses on spoken language and the other that focuses on understanding language. These structures develop differently; it all depends on how much you hear and practice a language.
There are many South Asians who can understand another language, but have less speaking fluency. This is simply because their language understanding area is well-developed, but their language speaking area has not been fully developed. For these individuals, there is hope. Already there has been some space created in their brains on how to speak the language, so they are not starting from scratch. The ability to produce a language improves the more you practice speaking it.
The more time children are immersed in a second language, the faster they learn the language. Yes this is true, but it is not the only way to get a child to learn a language. The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) summarizes factors involved in teaching a second language:5 the language spoken in the home, amount of opportunity to practice the second language, motivation of the child and reason the second language is needed. ASHA also highlights different ways to introduce the second language. This can be by setting (language A is spoken in school, language B is spoken in home), by topic (language A is spoken during mealtime, and language B is spoken during school/work activities), by speaker (Mom will speak in language A, and Dad speaks language B).
Teaching a language to your child can be exciting, yet feel overwhelming. The National Literacy Trust in the UK has some great FAQs on promoting bilingualism in your family here.
Notes:
¹Snow, C.E. & Hoefnagel-Hohle, M. (1978). Critical period for language acquisition: Evidence from second language learning. Child Development, 49, 1263-1279.
²Olson, L, and Samuels, S.J. (1973). The relationship between age and accuracy of foreign language pronunciation. Journal of Educational Research, 66, 26-267.
³Multilingual capability has a positive impact on cognitive functions. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.news-medical.net/news/20091020/Multilingual-capability-has-a-positive-impact-on-cognitive-functions.aspx
4Kenner, C. Bilingual FAQs. National Literacy Trust. Retrieved online from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/talk_to_your_baby/resources/308_bilingualism_faq
5American Speech-Language Association. Second Language Acquisition. Retrieved online at http://www.asha.org/public/speech/development/second/
