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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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