Good News for Those of Us in Bilingual Families

Kazellim

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Raising bi-lingual children

I am not fluent in a second language, but I did study one for 5 years in school. I have taken a lot of effort to expose my children to that second language. My hope is that when they finally reach that age in school where foreign language is taught, they will be more prepared. I think our school system misses out on a great opportunity to introduce elementary age children to foreign languages.

In my work as an Au Pair in America Community Counselor, I see first hand what a tremendous benefit early introduction of a language by a native speaker is. I have many host families who really value the language component of the cultural exchange. One of the languages that is now requested by parents is Mandarin. I find that fascinating.

socio/ economical background is more important

In response to Alan of CA comments, i dont agree with your thoughts that these children will never speak proper English b/c of when they started learning it. They could learn proper English, but their parents don't even speak proper Spanish, so how could they help the children? you are referring to inmigrant families of low socio-economical status. Remember, not all hispanics (or minorities) are created equal. You can't generalize the way hispanic children learn. I have a fully bilingual 13 year old daughter, i raised her in Pittsburgh, we now live in FL. I only spoke Spanish to her growing up, and she is an A/B honor roll student, and there are many like her in the community where live (Colombians, Purto ricans, Venezuelians). Most hispanic children are not destined to the "gangas"...but it depends on their parents and trhe entire community to help them. That has nothing to do with being bilingual.

WHEN is key

No question that learning a second, or third, language is a useful skill. In fact I have read that speaking a language without an accent almost requires that you hear that language when you are small and your brain is developing. The responder that mentioned learning English when she was twelve probably will never speak it without an accent. The problem comes when a child enters school not speaking that nations primary language. It takes time to develop language skills and those second language only children are falling behind their peers in academic subjects while their language skills develop. This is a major problem with the Hispanics in this country and a major factor for their low success rate in US public schools. They start out behind and never catch up, so they give up in disgust before they finish high school and look for other facets of their lives to make them feel important (such as gangs). Of course there are other factors, and, no, don't point out to me some exceptional success story. We're talking populations here, not individuals. Oh, and what is my exposure to this problem? My wife substitutes for a good friend who teaches in an elementary school with a mostly Hispanic population. They are quite proud at this school because they have brought these kids English language skills up to the 25th percentile by the third grade. Of course, all the rest of the skills are also at this very low level. We live in a community with a lot of professional parents and when these low achieving students get to high school they are rapidly marginalized by the much stronger students who began their education already speaking English with parents who put a high priority on education. Yes, it's great to speak multiple languages, but it's not the only skill you need to succeed in this country.

@ Jug drinking Hee Haw Joes

If we had strong multiple language being programs in our schools we'd have a stronger nation. Put down the Skoal, turn off NASCAR, and pick up a Rosetta Stone CD for a language. I suggest either the one used by people currently plotting attacks against the USA, you know the one with an "extremist" minority from the Middle East, or the one that will be a problem in 10 to 15 years - China will have 20 million men between fighting age 18-45. These guys will have nothing to do, no women to marry, and resources are going to continue to be constrained by an out of control human population growth.

So

Who's afraid of bi-lingual classrooms?

Rednecks who think that immigrants are taking over the country?

Thanks for the mention!

Hi,

I really enjoyed reading your article and the natural way you summarize the findings from the article on Science magazine.

I love how just this year it seems that so many reports are tearing down the negative myths associated to bilingual babies and their capacity to learn many languages at an early age.

Thanks so much for mentioning our site. We just had a great week full of articles from experts and parents on the topic of the OPOL (One Paren/One language) method.

We use ml@h and are always in awe of how parents using the OPOL method are so committed to teaching their language, knowing it's a huge gift.

For years monolinguals

have had their say about the ailments of being bilingual. They have for decades steered the course of the discussion with jingoistic shenanigans about loyalty to one language as if language purists did not know that languages are made up of other languages. Though this article is but a tiny drop of dew oc the ea of discord for us bilinguals, it's welcomed as good news.

bilinguality

I spoke korean until 12, moved to the u.s. with my family, and learned english. Although this wasn't baby-stage simultaneous learning, i had no problem picking up english. I scored 97th percentile on verbal section of the GRE later on. I went on to take 4 yrs of german in highschool, a semester of italian in college (because of my love of operas), tried learning latin on my own, and then tackled french for the past 4yrs, self taught; i am 44. I can read Le Monde and understand 95% of it. Interesting thing is that i was never that verbal as a child and i don't remember excelling in language arts as a child ( a C student), so i am no language prodigy. I heard of a theory in the past, 7 yrs ago, that said learning an additional language subtracts from the primary language because your brain supposedly has a limited space for grammar and vocabulary. I knew instinctively that this wasn't right, based on my experiences. I found that learning additional language gets easier, not harder, even at my middle age.