Bilingualism and multilingualism in children

Dear friends, 

Today I will talk about bilingualism and multilingualism in children for the interest showed on this subject by many parents I deal with every day. And I’ve decided to do it in English, a language almost everyone can read.

Is it possible that a 5-year-old child speaks 2, 3, or even 4 languages at the same time?
I strongly believe it. In fact, many of you are greatly surprised by my daughter’s skills in this sense. 

The main requirements for this learning are that the parents speak only their mother tongue to the child; the child has some reason to learn the languages (motivation); and there is reinforcement of some kind for these languages, preferably outside the home.

So, how should you do it and at what age? The brain is ready the first three years of life to setting up the optimal neural pathways to mediate language. This construction of the brain's language chip continues, but at an ever-slowing rate until late childhood. By the early teens, the baby's special abilities are completely gone. Therefore, it should be done in the first years of life when children can learn any language without any effort, just as they learn to walk. 

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Bilingualism or multilingualism in children is so different from learning a second language in adulthood. It is a spontaneous process that takes place if the child has enough opportunities to hear the language and adequate motivation to use it. Indeed, once a child has already mastered - or is actively using one language - adding another language is not the same as learning both languages simultaneously from birth.

Source: hireanillustrator.com

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Regrettably, raising bilingual, trilingual or even quadrilingual children takes quite a bit of effort. It doesn't just happen. Parents need to make a conscious effort to provide an environment that is conducive to learning two, three or four languages well.

It is a commitment and much like piano lessons - you cannot expect your little one to be a virtuoso overnight. This is a long-term investment in your child. It will require extra effort on your part to provide enough “language exposure”, extra encouragement and especially keeping your language rules consistent.

The most common and among the most successful language system is One Person One Language (OPOL). The primary advantage to the OPOL method is that children grow up able to communicate with the extended family of the parent who speaks the minority (non-community-based) language as easily as with the family and community of the majority language speaker.

Despite its popularity, the OPOL method does not work by itself; it often requires some language supplement. It is always good for the child to hear the language from more than one person.

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Source: bilingualkidsrock.com

As in any bilingual learning situation, the kids may on occasion mix the languages, even inventing words based on early confusions. However, over time the languages will sort themselves out.

My personal experience was slightly different. I will give you more details here and tell you how I did it with Norah, my daughter.

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At home, I speak Italian, my husband speaks Spanish, English is the language used at school (following the British curriculum) and French is studied with proper lessons after a very early exposure (from birth) to the language. My husband and I we speak our own native languages when she’s around. I never speak Spanish to him and he never speaks Italian to me, although we both speak the language of the other. This means that I would ask something in Italian both to my daughter and my husband and my daughter would answer to me in Italian but to Daddy in Spanish. This works for us but it is much more complicated when parents need a third language to communicate between them.

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What I would definitely avoid is teaching a child a language that is not the mother tongue of either parent. Unless the parents are completely bilingual themselves, that is, they speak two languages as native languages, then the sounds that are produced for the child to imitate will be tinged with a strong “foreign accent”. Similarly, unless the parent speaks the non-native language exceptionally well, then the child will learn the mistakes that parent makes in that language.

Source: dihunbreizh.com

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I personally belong to the second category of parents and I know my case is quite unusual. Apart from Italian, which is my mother tongue, I introduced English and French to my daughter since her birth until she was 13 months in order to familiarise her with different phonics. When she was 13 months and started to go to nursery, I only kept my mother tongue, my husband his, English was spoken at school and French was studied with a French teacher. As I said before, this shouldn't be followed as a rule. I could apply it myself since I am a linguist who have devoted and still devote all my life to language learning and to pronunciation patterns. Otherwise, this is not advisable.

Anyway, the subject is very complex. If you are interested in reading a bit more on this subject, you can read the following book: Raising Multilingual Children: Foreign Language Acquisition and Children, by Tracey Tokuhama-Espinosa. It is written by a bilingual (English-Spanish) who has taught in international schools in Japan, Ecuador and France, and who gives workshops on raising multilingual children to schools and families in Switzerland and France. She evaluates some of the research in linguistics and education, and reinterprets the findings in her own way. The best part of the book is the case studies, and a list of ten key-factors for raising children to be multilingual.

Moreover, a journal that deals with issues of bilingualism and bilingual education is the International Journal of Bilingualism, a journal that publishes research on the language behaviour of bilinguals and multi-linguals.

In any case, there is no doubt that multilingual children have priceless advantages. Your extra effort definitely gives them a valuable skill they'll use in numerous ways for the rest of their lives. Do not lose this opportunity if you are a bilingual family!

Do you share my views?

Teacher Barbara