Childhood Bilingualism
By Savanna Richard
Research on child language acquisition has focused mainly on the development of monolingual children. However, the prevalence of bilingualism is likely higher than monolingualism and therefore will hopefully be the topic of many more studies in the years to come. Both the quantity and quality of language input that bilingual children are receiving varies greatly. This makes it difficult to generalize the development of either language. However, there have been many important findings that we can use to inform the ways we speak to, work with, and understand bilingual children.
As common sense would suggest, a child can only learn a language if they are exposed to it. If parents want their children to become equally competent in both languages, the child should be exposed to each language 50% of the time, or as close to this ratio as can be achieved. (Hoff, 2014). Consider the many environments a child experiences throughout the day that will contribute to this ratio. Children spend the majority of their day at school, surrounded by their peers and teachers. Interestingly, it is the language spoken by the friends of the child that will have the largest impact on their learning (Hoff, 2014). Younger children who are learning a second language at school will make friends with other children who already speak that language, and these interactions will help the child learn. However, an older child learning a second language in school will seek out friends who share the same native language and therefore might not be as immersed in the new language environment. This is an important aspect of a child’s life to assess when working towards a 50/50 balance in language immersion.
The context of exposure as well as the quality of the speaker have a great effect on the child’s success in learning. Studies have shown that TV does not support a child’s acquisition of language (Patterson & Pearson, 2004). Instead, reading books out loud, as well as hearing a language being spoken by a variety of speakers both enhance language learning for the child (Patterson, 2002; Place & Hoff, 2011). An important factor in language exposure comes from whether the adult is a native speaker of that language. A child whose parent is a native Spanish speaker but speaks to them in English will not have stronger skills in English, and their proficiency in Spanish may also suffer (Hammer, Davison, Lawrence, &Miccio, 2009). For that reason, it is beneficial for parents to speak their native language with their child and find a community of native speakers of the second language to immerse the child, as well as themselves, in.
In many families, parents speak two languages and often code switch between the two. Code switching refers to speakers using two languages within the same conversation, and it used to be thought of a sign of confusion and incomplete knowledge of each language. However, current research suggests that this ability is actually a sign of knowledge of the social conventions and emotional context of the conversation (Toribio, 2011). Children also code switch, which may worry parents and educators that the child is using this technique by accident. However, children as young as two years old demonstrate that they are code switching for a contextual purpose (Hoff, 2014). Parents and educators should pay attention to situations when language switching occurs to determine if there is actual confusion in the child’s use of language. If they are making grammar errors when switching between the two languages, such as switching word order in sentence structure, or incorrectly using affixes, there may be cause for concern. However, if they switch to another language and are able to apply the correct grammatical rules for that language, then their code switching is not the result of confusion and likely demonstrates an increased understanding of the social requirements of the situation.
Crazily enough, bilingualism was considered a disability until about 60 years ago when research methods were corrected, and tests of bilingualism were conducted properly (Hoff, 2014). These studies have found that while being bilingual may not influence overall general intelligence, there are specific improvements observed in many bilingual individuals. The largest, most established findings is the increase in executive function abilities. Bilingual children show stronger performance on tasks that require switching behaviour based on changing instructions as well as pattern learning tasks (Hoff, 2014). Research has come a long way in working to understand the challenges, as well as the strengths, of bilingual children and many parents now enroll their children in language immersion programs in hopes of enriching the child’s future. By being aware of the findings of these studies, we as individuals can share this knowledge to help change and clarify the outdated ideas people hold about bilingualism.
References
Hammer, C.S., Davison, M.D., Lawrence, F.R., & Miccio, A.W. (2009). The effect of maternal language on bilingual children’s vocabulary and emergent literacy development during head start and kindergarten. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13, 99-121.
Hoff, E. (2014). Language Development 5th Edition. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.
Patterson, J.L., & Pearson B.Z. (2004). Bilingual lexical development: Influences, contexts, and processes. In B.A. Goldstein (Ed.), Bilingual language development and disorders in Spanish-English speakers (pp. 77-104). Baltimore: Brookes.
Place, S., & Hoff, E. (2011). Properties of dual language exposure that influence two-year-olds’ bilingual proficiency. Child Development, 82, 1834-1849.
Swift, D. (2012). Bilingualism and the better brain [clip art]. Openclipart. https://anglicanjournal.com/bilingualism-and-the-better-brain-11288/
Toribio, A.J. (2011). Code-switching among US Latinos. In M. Diaz-Campos (Ed.), The handbook of Hispanic sociolinguistics (pp. 530-552). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.