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Starting School in Catalan - a New Language

How do children who are already mastering one language at home, cope with the introduction of a new language when they first attend school? Judith Mctaggart Surralles, Barcelona-based Speech Therapist, explains Successive Language Aquisition and what to expect as your child progresses in Catalan...read full article

Successive Language Acquisition 

English-speaking Joseph and Kelly move to Barcelona with 3 and 1/2 year old Ethan.  They find that most children of this age start school here, and, therefore, enrol him.   Overnight, Ethan is in a totally different language environment; Catalan.  One year later, however, Ethan is speaking Catalan as fluently as the rest of his class. 

James and Sheena have been living and working in Barcelona for 5 years, and their daughter Leila was born here.  When Leila starts school at three, those background sounds of language she has heard on the street, on the TV, and sometimes with Mum and Dad´s Catalan friends, suddenly come to the foreground as a language she must communicate in.  In three months Leila is speaking Catalan readily.  Wonderful! 

These are two common scenarios, where children who have an established first language are subsequently placed in a new environment where a second language becomes necessary.   The first language is usually representative of the family, whereas the second represents contact and developing a relationship with a larger society.  How successful the second language development is, can depend greatly  on the child´s readiness or willingness to have meaningful contact with that wider group. 
 

What strategies do children use to cope with their new environment? 

In order to integrate with the group and particiate in activities, children usually act as if they understand, and  use simple phrases like "a veure" (let´s see), "es meu" (that´s mine), and "ay va!" (wow or whoops!).  These phrases give the impression that they understand, which helps other children accept them.  Their playmates will respond, and these responses can then be used by the new language learner to build up their cache of phrases. 
 
Some children like to know the names for things and their first words in the second language may mainly be composed of nouns.  Their main strategic phrase might be "Que es aixo?"  (What´s this?).  Their language development will probably develop from nouns to noun phrases and then to sentences. 

Other children, in contrast, seem to like social and functional words, and will tend to acquire verbs first and build from verbs to verb phrases to sentences.  Their strategy is to use words that achieve interaction such as "vine" (come here), "te" (take this), and "hola" (hello).  
Of course, many children will enlist a combination of these strategies at different times and for different needs. 
 
Many children will go through a silent period, that typically lasts from one to three months, where the language load is seemingly too heavy and the child withdraws from the situation.  This slience represents an analytical period for the child and will eventually end.  Children who start speaking again after the silent period will most likely use complete structures and make few errors,  having taken this "down time" as a way of sorting out the language before its implementation. 
 
Other children do not experience a silent phase, and jump into an expressive phase, overusing the few phrases they have to try and fit them into any situation.  Gradually, through trial and error, these children develop an idea of the right phrases for the right situation. 
 
Whichever new language a child is confronted with, these same processes of learning tend to apply.   All children are, however, unique and time periods and skills development vary greatly.  As parents to children who are entering the world of a second language, patience, security and a little humour are the best means of support you can provide.

Judith Mctaggart Surralles is an Australian speech therapist living in Barcelona, mother to a bilingual son.

Copyright 2008 Judith Mctaggart Surralles. This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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