Raising Bilingual Kids — Does foreign language learning promote child development?
Does foreign language learning promote child development?
Recently, as I was dropping my son off at daycare, one of his teachers welcomed him with an enthusiastic “Buongiorno!” to which he replied, “Buongiorno, Pia!” with perfect Italian pronunciation. I joined in as they went back and forth with a few greetings, but there was no doubt that he was able to pull off a much more authentic accent than I could.
At two years old, my son (like all kids his age) is absorbing language at a breakneck pace. Through preschool, children’s brains are malleable enough to take on whatever language surrounds them. They are primed to seek out and code the sounds they hear from family, nannies, and friends.
As a result, many parents attempt to raise their children bi- (or even tri-) lingually, either by speaking a different language at home or having a foreign language spoken by a care provider. It used to be, however, that parents were told not to expose children in to two languages, thinking that it might confuse or slow down their verbal skills.
These days most experts agree that the developing mind can easily handle the double input. And research is beginning to show that, in addition to the linguistic benefits, learning multiple languages might provide valuable mental exercise for kids that could have positive long-term effects.
Two Languages Challenge the Brain – in a Good Way
In fact, there’s reason to think that learning two languages could increase certain critical brain functions. Studies have shown that kids who grow up with two languages are better at certain tests of “executive function” – a crucial skill that allows us to pay attention, focus, plan, and decide. Executive function is one of our most advanced and complex human abilities. It takes a long time to fully crystallize (it’s still a work in progress into our early 20′s, which is why even college grads don’t always seem to have the best judgment).
The preschool years are when we see our children’s budding capacities for executive control (waiting their turn, saying “I don’t like that” instead of smacking someone, persisting in trying to solve a difficult puzzle) – and it’s also when vocabulary skills skyrocket. Scientists think that mastering two languages challenges the brain to selectively pay attention to and produce one set of words, while suppressing the other set. The process is similar to impulse control – in order to communicate, you need to put a lid on one language, or else your speech comes out as a jumbled mess.
It’s unclear exactly how the edge in executive functions could impact a bilingual kids’ lifelong learning. But certainly these skills are getting props from psychologists as being equally important to qualities like IQ when it comes to getting ahead in life. Executive function is arguably one of the most important set of skills we learn – to delay gratification, make a plan, and focus on the task at hand. And as the recent book, NurtureShock, highlighted, preschool and kindergarten programs that teach solid executive functioning are successful at propelling children forward in their learning.
No Longer Any Concerns
So it’s really not a question any more of the possible drawbacks of a bilingual home. In fact, when you consider the impressive feat of a monolingual baby – going from zero words to full conversations within three years – the fact that other children can carry two times the load, coming out doubly fluent, in more or less the same time frame is stunning. It’s also testament to how expert their little brains are for soaking up languages.
If anything, the extra work being asked of the bilingual child might be a valuable exercise. A study released a few years ago actually found that speaking two languages delays the average onset age of dementia by four years, leading researchers to attempt to understand how it sharpens and protects our thinking.
Don’t Worry – There Are Other Ways
But before you consider letting your English-speaking nanny go or ordering French DVDs and projecting them into your pregnant belly, remember that kids learn executive control in many different ways – scientists and educators are still trying to understand the mechanics. The good news is that they do learn, and parents have a lot to do with this process. Stay tuned next week for tips and strategies for giving your child’s tiny mind a boost in this vital skill.
Thank you for a fascinating article! I work for Tulika Books where we’re convinced that bilingual books are a good idea for multi-lingual environments like India:) Here’s a resource that explains why: http://bit.ly/d27qT4
No doubt about this any longer, learning (hearing) more than one language is a huge gain for a child in many ways (aside from eventually being bi- or tri-lingual).
This is not the same, however, as ESL classes later in childhood where a child’s inability to speak English is coddled by teaching them in Spanish (for example, in the US). This is a net negative for children and brings down the entire classes’ progress in all subjects taught.
Teach them multiple languages, but be sure they know the primary one where they live the best and are primarily taught in that language.
This is very interesting for me since me and my husband are raising our three year old trilingual. I am Swedish, my husband is French-Canadian and we live in Montreal which is a bilingual city. W speaks Swedish to me, French to his dad and English at daycare and when we do things together all of us. It’s absolutely fascinating to see how fast he’s picking up on the languages and how well he keeps them separate. He will even translate sometimes. His language of choice though is English and I think that when his new sibling arrives in fall their language will probably be English which is very interesting.
As for Lampreys comment on coddling a child’s ability to speak the main language of the country by teaching them another language in school I can’t agree with. In Sweden where I grew up every child learns English in school from year one and a third language is added by year 7. If a child has a different native tongue from Swedish that child will also have classes in “home language” to ensure that they keep the knowledge of that language alive. I don’t think there is such a thing as too many languages for kids and removing language education from school will only do a disservice to the children.
JustLia – maybe I didn’t express myself well. Our 6 year old son understands English, Romanian and Italian. My wife is Romanian and she speaks to him almost exclusively in her language and he (to her dismay, but eventual acceptance) responds almost entirely in English (which is what he hears daily as we live in the US). So I agree with you, the tri-lingual thing is great for kids.
What I meant was that children here who do not speak English (pick any country with any main language and the child doesn’t speak it but lives there) are at a distinct disadvantage compared to the vast majority of their peers who do speak it. For this great majority learning another language is a matter of choice, for the kids who don’t understand English it should not be. I agree they should be supported until they learn to communicate in the nation’s language. HOWEVER, that should not concurrently disadvantage my child who does speak English by having classroom time taken up trying to catch up a non-English speaking student. They need separate classes to catch up and, yes, will have to work harder. That’s part of raising your kid in a country where you (and them) don’t speak the language.
I’m sure that despite my attempt at clarification some will disagree with me. But, that’s fine.
We fortunate to live in a very diverse community. My 1st grade son attends a public elementary school which offers half day immersion in either Spanish or Mandarin Chinese (with the other half in English), and there is also a full-day English class for families who either speak yet another language at home and/or have other reasons for just wanting their kids focusing on learning English at school. The documentary Speaking in Tongues provides great insight into why we should support Spanish programs for Spanish speaking kids, and English speaking kids who want to learn Spanish. Spanish is one of the largest language groups spoken by immigrants in our country. It is in all our best interests to support the best education children from any immigrant non-English speaking community can achieve, and to provide the best support possible in their first years of school. It can take a couple of years for kids speaking another language at home to become proficient in English, and as a society we can’t afford to let such kids fall behind due to lack of English skills. By supporting their learning in Spanish, while also giving English speaking kids the chance to learn Spanish from native speakers, everyone wins. We live in a melting pot country, and too many people lose sight of the fact that most of our ancestors came to this country speaking a different language. The world is getting increasingly smaller and knowing the other major languages of the world is a benefit to all. If the people of other countries can learn multiple languages, then we can too. It’s great that recent research is showing this provides such significant developmental benefits for our kids too. By the way, my son attended preschool in a Spanish immersion setting from ages 2-5, and when told he was going to learn Chinese in kindergarten just took it in stride assuming all kids learn multiple languages. As a result of wiring his brain to accept a 2nd language at such a young age, his adaptability to add a 3rd was increased either psychologically or maybe somehow physically. If you get the chance – go for it!
If you want your kid to grow up learning several languages, make sure every language is assigned to at least one person. No mix up. Everybody I know who violated this rule raised kids who could not master one language properly. If you want your kid to be speaking this language like a native tongue, your kid needs to be talking regularly to the tenth birthday.
If you see your kid is not handling any language right, cut it and focus on one main language. If a kid does not learn one language correctly it will always have problems with learning a new one. Provide without pressure. Bilangual books are a *great* way to learn a new language. So are DVDs with subtitles. And music, songs and rhymes.
BR, N.
(learned ten different languages as a kid/teen but only speaks three fluently as an adult)
Thanks so much for raising more awareness about this topic. One of the biggest and most important tools children need for 21st Century skills is to be able to master more than one language. Fortunately, this is one aspect in their learning that is very much in our control since we can decide how much exposure to give them in different languages in their prime years of 0-7. It’s up to the parents to decide to give their kids the gift of multilingualism and then work hard to engage them in playful and meaningful activities where they are exposed to the minority language(s) we want them to learn.
We’ve created a community of parents raising bilngual and bicultural children where we’ve enlisted some of the top experts to answer our questions so that we stay motivated and focused: http://SpanglishBaby.com
Our 2 boys are fluently bilingual – I’m English, my DH is French-Canadian and we live in a French-speaking community. For some children, it’s simply not an option – this is who their family is and this is how we do things – they speak French with Daddy, in the neighbourhood and at school. They speak English with Mommy. I think it’s great when parents avail themselves of opportunities for 2nd language learning in their community when it is relevant to their life. What bothers me to distraction, is people bombarding their wee beans with an irrelevant (to their family life) language. Case in point, my wingnut sister who plopped her infant son in front of Baby Einstein videos and told me he was learning Japanese. Lord, save us…
We are a bilingual family, English and Turkish, it surprised me how easily my daughter has been able to learn English considering she only hears it from me. (we live in Turkey)
I’m and ESL teacher, and can truely say that the best time for languagues is from the youngest possible age.
my child is 24 months and speaks 2 languages fluently. People often this he is older than he is because he speaks so well.
Being French and my husband being American, both fluent in English, French, German, and add a little Latin and a few words of Russian, we “bathe” in foreign languages and want our children to be bi-/ trilingual.
Learning a foreign language early on is key to develop those pathways in the brain, but it is also important to ensure each parent (and a third caregiver like their au pair – see aupairsalon.com) only speaks their native language to avoid confusion. Thanks for covering this topic!
Great article! I think another way of saying “executive focus” is multitasking. Bilingual kids have been shown to be better multitaskers than monolinguals. We talk a lot at InCultureParent-a magazine for parents raising little global citizens-about raising multi/bilingual kids. Our most recent language article talks about whether OPOL or mixed speech is the best approach: http://www.incultureparent.com/2011/05/bilingual-parenting-opol-or-mixed-language%e2%80%94does-it-matter/
i grew up in the u.s. speaking portuguese at home. my mother is brazilian and my father is american. my mother gew up in brazil speaking japanese at home. so i have been surrounded by different cultures, i speak 4 languages. yes, it is great that i can communicaate with so many different cultures but i refuse to raise my children speaking in any language except for my native tongue. not having that relationship with my parents in my native tongue has prevented us from ever really being close. i have always felt frustrated when communicating with them and if something is too complicated to explain in portuguese i just keep quite. i have seen the same thing happen to my mother and grandmother. so speaking a few languages is geat but not worth the sacrifice of having a close relationship with your children, they will feel discouraged if they can’t communicate with their parents in their native tongue.