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As an expat family in Barcelona, your children will most likely be
exposed to 2-3 languages on a daily basis. You may have wondered how
your child will cope with this language load and what exact process
language development takes. Many parents are also concerned that their
bilingual children will be at a disadvantage for speech language
development or at school. Barcelona-based Speech Therapist, Judith
Mctaggart Surralles, explains why you need not worry about the effect
of bilingualism on your child. In fact, they may even become brighter
because of it....
In children, speech and language development follows a consistent
pattern. A child achieves language milestones in a particular order
and at particular stages in life. First single-word utterances occur
typically around the one year mark. An explosion of one word
utterances then follows at around 18 months of age.
Usually when the child arrives at around 50 different words, at about
two years of age, two-word combinations start to occur. These are
followed by short phrases and simple grammatical markers. In the
bilingual child, language development happens in exactly the same
sequence.
Bilingualism has more than one definition. It can either be equal
ability to communicate in two languages, or the ability to communicate
in two languages but with greater skills in one dominant language.
Most research agrees that children, exposed to two languages at an
early age, will naturally learn to use both. In fact, your child may
even become brighter due to this exposure. When two languages have
equal status, bilingualism enhances rather than diminishes cognitive
and educational achievement.
This is because the ability to know two symbols for one object or
action promotes meta-linguistic awareness (an understanding of how
language is constructed). It can increase reading comprehension and
it can promote lateral thinking and problem solving. It can also
increase a child´s self-esteem. Apart from anything else, they gain the
ability to speak to people in different cultural contexts, using the
right language and knowing the social codes.
 There are distinct types of bilingualism depending on the age at which
a language is learnt. “Simultaneous bilingualism” is where two
languages are learnt before the age of three. “Successive bilingualism”
is where one language is developed initially, and a second one later -
usually in the community or at school.
With “Simultaneous bilingualism”, the child begins with a single
lexical system that contains words from both languages. Vocabulary
rarely overlaps.
At the second stage of development, after the age of 2, the child
maintains two distinct vocabulary bases but applies the same
grammatical rules to both. In other words, the child is able to
translate words freely between languages but mixes up grammar. The
bilingual child may be able to produce a grammatical structure in one
language but not the other, and vice versa.
In the third stage of “Simultaneous bilingualism”, a child correctly produces lexical and grammatical structures from
each language.
"Successive bilingualism" can also be seen in three stages. In the first
stage, the child establishes a social relationship with speakers of the
second language. The interaction is more important than what is being
communicated. The child depends heavily on fixed units of language
learned such as “hereyouare” or “waitaminute”. The social strategy is
to join the group and act as if they know what is being communicated.
They use the few words and phrases they know to give the impression of
competence.
During the second stage, communication becomes more important. The
child produces speech to achieve practical aims. They use any words
they have available, without too much attention to correct grammar and
style.
In the third stage, the child concentrates on perfecting language
forms. In “Successive bilingualism” a child has the advantage of their
first language as a base. They use this to both analyse and develop the
second. For example, the child knows that language is organised in a
particular order. The more mature child also has a better vocabulary base,
acoustic perception, and comprehension - they, therefore make fewer
errors in a second language.
Adults learning a second language experience a similar process.
Language mixing inevitably occurs. A child might insert a word from
the other language into a statement. Adults tend to mix whole
sentences. Mixing is usually a part of the normal development of both
languages and is usually a result of not knowing a word. Also if
parents regularly mix languages, the child will do so as well.
Don’t be concerned if your child experiences a “quiet” phase. They
child will be “inputting” the language even though they are not
speaking very much or “outputting”.
As a rule, a child is considered to have speech delay when their speech development is significantly below the norm for children of the
same age. Speech delay means a child acquires language skills in the
normal sequence, but at a slower than normal rate.
Raising truly bilingual children is not as daunting as it may seem. As
long as your child receives adequate exposure to both languages and sees that both languages have value status, by the age of five
to seven years, they will be speaking both languages to a surprising
level of mastery.
Judith Mctaggart Surralles is an Australian speech therapist living in Barcelona. She is also mother to a "Simultaneous bilingual" son.
Copyright 2008 Judith Mctaggart Surralles
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