Don't be misinformed! Let us help you set the record straight on the benefits of learning languages young.

 

1. Being bilingual from an early age significantly alters the brain's structure.

FACT! In recent brain research, scientists have discovered that bilingual adults have developed denser gray matter (brain tissue packed with information-processing nerve cells and fibers) in the brain’s left hemisphere, where most language and communication skills are controlled.

 

The effect is strongest in people who learned a second language before the age of five and in those who are most proficient at their second language. This finding suggests that being bilingual from an early age significantly alters the brain’s structure.

 

Reference: Society of Neuroscience, "Brain Briefings” September 2008, The Bilingual Brain

 

While new language learning is easiest by age 7, the ability markedly declines after puberty. "We're seeing the brain as more plastic and ready to create new circuits before than after puberty," according to Dr. Patricia Kuhl. As an adult, "It's a totally different process. You won't learn it in the same way. You won't become (as good as) a native speaker."

 

Reference: Unraveling How Kids Become Bilingual So Easily

 

2. I don't speak Spanish. If I try to help my child with Spanish at home and mispronounce words, I will do more harm than good.

MYTH! Exposure to native speakers in class will outweigh your less-than-perfect accent, but nothing can replace the enthusiasm and support you show for language learning at home!

 

Many people in bilingual communities or homes need to speak to their child (at least some of the time) in a language which is not their native language. There is nothing at all wrong with doing this. Language shift (moving to a language which is not the language of your ancestry) is a normal part of human behavior. Some parents worry that they will pass on an "incorrect" accent to their children. Don't worry about this.

 

Once children start mixing with other children (from the age of 2 or 3) they start to learn their accent from their friends. Parents soon discover that they are not the model for their children's language behavior, any more than they are the model for their sense of fashion. Children acquire the language of the community where they live. Be prepared for this—you might not like it!

 

Reference: Deborah D.K. Ruuskanen, Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Vaasa, Finland, and mother of three bilingual children.

 

Not knowing a language perfectly well and having an accent in it is not a reason for not speaking that language to a child. Note also that many families who have changed linguistic regions or countries, and have to help their children who are schooled in another language, often do not have perfect knowledge of the outside language.

 

It is very important for children to receive as much exposure as possible to each language.

 

Reference: Professor Francois Grojean - Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

 

3. If we start now and my child is not able to continue, he will lose everything he learns.

MYTH!"Use it or lose it" is a myth. Like getting on a bike after many years, the skills come back with practice. A child will retain the ear, native-like accent, and ability to learn again at an accelerated pace when returning to language learning later.

 

A student re-learning a language more formally later in life will have retained the ability to speak with a native accent, the meta-linguistic knowledge and the language learning strategies, even if he or she needs a refresher on specific vocabulary and grammar.

 

4. Starting a language young will enhance literacy development in the first language.

FACT! Learning a second language young actually improves reading abilities and general literacy in the first language.

 

Early language learning builds "meta" language skills—a broader understanding of the uses of language as a whole, increased ability to integrate and retain new vocabulary, and increased ability to interact with symbolic systems such as print.

 

There is a correlation between second language learning and increased linguistic awareness. A study by the ACTFL aimed to validate the effects of second language learning on children's linguistic awareness. The results showed an advantage for the children who attended bilingual classes since kindergarten: they were better at grammatical judgment and correction tasks and word recognition.

 

Reference: Demont, E. (2001). Contribution of early 2nd-language learning to the development of linguistic awareness and learning to read. International Journal of Psychology, 36(4), 274-285. from PsycINFO database.

 

In comparing 9- to 10-year-old bilinguals to English monolinguals on tasks in English, the bilingual skilled readers scored higher on word-reading and spelling tasks than the monolingual skilled readers.

 

Reference: D'Angiulli, A., Siegel, L. S., & Serra, E. (2001). The development of reading in English and Italian in bilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22(4), 479-507. from PsycINFO database.

 

There is also a correlation between young children’s second language development and the development of print awareness. Three groups of 4- and 5-year-old children were examined for their concepts of how print refers to language. Bilingual children understood better than monolingual children the general symbolic representation of print. The older Chinese-English bilingual children also showed advanced understanding of the specific correspondence relations in English print.

 

Reference: Bialystok, E. (1997). Effects of bilingualism and biliteracy on children's emerging concepts of print. Developmental Psychology, 33(3), 429-440. from PsycINFO database.

 

The study of foreign languages has also been shown to have positive effects on memory and listening skills. While children are developing the ability to communicate in a different language system, they also learn to see language as a phenomenon in itself. Children become aware that language and its objects are independent of one another, and that there are many ways in which to refer to one object. This may also be the reason why language learning skills transfer from one language learning experience to another. Knowledge of one foreign language facilitates the study of a second foreign language (Curtain & Pesola, 1988).

 

5. My child will be delayed in his first language if he learns a second language too young.

MYTH! Children are NOT delayed in overall language development when learning a second language young. Research shows that a child who is exposed early in life to two languages achieves each and every milestone on the same timetable as the other language—and also on the same overall timetable as a monolingual child.

 

"In looking at that literature, I was surprised by claims being made about the developing child being exposed to two languages," says Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto of Dartmouth College. "What was claimed is that very early exposure to two languages caused the child to be developmentally delayed in language, language confused, to mix the two languages. Strong attributions were made that these children were fundamentally confused.

 

"Implicit in that is a notion about the brain that didn't seem to be plausible. If that were true, it would almost have to be that you and I have brains that were neurologically set for one language—wired to be monolingual. Then bilingualism is some kind of assault, some deviation where the brain has to limp along, and eventually tolerates two languages. So, I changed that into a testable hypothesis about the development of young bilingual children. I examined very young bilingual children, and asked, "Well, ARE they language delayed?" Through a series of studies over a period of ten years, we mapped out the milestones for young children acquiring two languages—and were quite surprised to find that they are not delayed at all. In fact, a child who's exposed early in life to two languages achieves each and every milestone on the same timetable as the other language—and also on the same overall timetable as a monolingual child. There was no timing deviance. These children were acquiring language on the same developmental time course in each language."

 

Reference: From Interview: "The Brain's Capacity to Learn Multiple Languages: Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto Discusses Her Work." Professor Laura-Ann Petitto is a cognitive neuroscientist teaching at Dartmouth College, where she also serves as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory for Language & Child Development in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Education.

 

6. Children who learn another language young demonstrate better focus and multitasking skills.

FACT! Research shows that multilinguals have enhanced memory, planning, and multi-tasking skills. When learning multiple languages young, the brain is trained to attend to salient information and to disregard non-pertinent information, a skill that later supports better focus, memory, planning and multitasking abilities.

 

Reference: research at ACTFL (American Council on the teaching of Foreign Languages)

 

7. Mandarin is no harder to learn than Spanish.

FACT! New brains are "equipped with the ability to pick up any language equally well. Infants and children learn the language that...is used with them in everyday life."

 

Reference: The Bilingual Edge, p.39, Alison Mackey, Kendall King.

 

Infants' initial universal ability to distinguish between phonetic units must eventually give way to a language-specific pattern of listening. In Japanese, the phonetic units ‘r’ and ‘l’ are combined into a single phonemic category (Japanese ‘r’), whereas in English, the difference is preserved (‘rake’ and ‘lake’); similarly, in English, two Spanish phonetic units (distinguishing ‘bala’ from ‘pala’) are united in a single phonemic category. Infants can initially distinguish these sounds, and Werker and colleagues investigated when the infant "citizens of the world" become "culture-bound" listeners. They showed that English-learning infants could easily discriminate Hindi and Salish sounds at 6 months of age, but that this discrimination declined substantially by 12 months of age. English-learning infants at 12 months have difficulty in distinguishing between sounds that are not used in English.

 

Reference: Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code, Patricia K. Kuhl, Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. Volume 5. November 2004. 831.

 

8. My child has videos and CDs. He doesn't need a language class.

MYTH! Research shows that personal interaction improves sound acquisition and vocabulary much more than TV or CDs alone.

 

Nine-month-old American babies who played games with and were read to by Mandarin speakers could still hear Mandarin phonemes at 14 months after only a dozen 25-minute Mandarin sessions. A control group could not. Babies who were exposed to videotaped Mandarin could not.

 

Reference: Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code, Patricia K. Kuhl, Nature Reviews. Neuroscience. Volume 5. November 2004. 831.

 

Research clearly indicates that some activities are more effective than others in promoting second language acquisition and bilingualism. In particular, we know a growing amount about the limits of television and video as instructional aides with young children. For instance, recent studies have examined the process of perceptual narrowing in infants, that is, infants' gradual loss of the ability to perceive sounds unlike those in the language(s) to which they are regularly exposed. Researchers have found that live interaction (e.g., reading or talking to a child) is more effective than exposure to recorded sounds (e.g., television) in reversing the narrowing process (Kuhl, Feng-Ming, & Huei-Mei, 2003). Other studies have found that, for older children, being read aloud to in the second language increases second language vocabulary much more than watching television in that language (Patterson, 2002). In short, while audio and video materials can serve as a positive and entertaining source of support for language learning, human interaction is the best method for fostering both first and second language development.

 

Reference: Raising Bilingual Children: Common Parental Concerns and Current Research Kendall King and Lyn Fogle, Georgetown University

 

Reference: www.cal.org

Reference: Unraveling How Kids Become Bilingual So Easily

 

Educational DVDs aimed at teaching language to very young children cannot replace human interaction, the most effective way that babies learn, according to a University of California Riverside study. The researchers followed 96 babies, ages 12 to 24 months, and found no evidence that the children learned words from language videos, said the lead author, Rebekah Richert, assistant professor of psychology. "Children have never learned language that way, and that hasn’t changed with these types of videos," she said. "The video itself and what is happening on screen is not an adequate substitute for that live interaction that has always been important for child development." Richert said parents should not rely solely on videos, but could use them as teaching tools. "If parents treated the videos like anything else – walking through the new environment and labeling things, engaging them, reading books – children were able to learn," she said.

 

Reference: The study, funded with a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, was published online in the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. Learn more about the study online at: archpedi.ama-assn.org

 

9: My child will be confused if he starts a second language young and will mix them up.

MYTH! The use of two languages in the same conversation has been found to be a sign of skill in and mastery of both languages.

 

Research indicates that the ability to switch back and forth between languages, sometimes called code-switching, is a sign of mastery of two linguistic systems, not a sign of language confusion, and that children as young as two years old are able to code-switch in socially appropriate ways (Lanza, 1992).

 

Reference: Raising Bilingual Children: Common Parental Concerns and Current Research, Kendall King and Lyn Fogle, Georgetown University

 

10: My child is eight years old - she missed the "window."

MYTH! Although the first 5-7 years see the most brain plasticity, research indicates that, "even when children were relatively late exposed to the second language, they were highly likely to become fully bilingual."

 

As late as nine years old they could still have a rich knowledge of the grammar and structure of the other language, and a rich vocabulary—providing that the exposure was systematic and very rich.

 

Reference: From Interview: "The Brain's Capacity to Learn Multiple Languages: Dr. Laura-Ann Petitto Discusses Her Work" Professor Laura-Ann Petitto is a cognitive neuroscientist teaching at Dartmouth College, where she also serves as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory for Language & Child Development in the Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, and Professor in the Department of Education.