How does speech and language develop when different languages are spoken within one family?
Example#1
One parent is a native speaker of Greek and the other
a native speaker of English. The child is born in a country where English or
Greek is spoken. The parents can choose one of the two languages in which they
will address each other, especially when they are all together as a family. But
each parent should use his/her native language when addressing the child. This
child will grow up to be bilingual, initially alternating languages even in the
same sentence. He or she may make some mistakes, but as long as there are no
other developmental issues, the child will master both languages. Most
specialists suggest that each parent should use his/her native language when
addressing the child, or “One Parent One Language”.
Example#2
A family moves to a foreign country. Here we have the
“one environment-one language” model, so that the language used at home is
different than the language used in school.
Example #3
One parent is a native speaker of Greek and the other
a native speaker of English. The child is born in a country where natives speak
Spanish. The parents can choose one language in which they will address each
other, especially when they are all together as a family. But each parent
should use his/her native language when addressing the child. The child will
learn Spanish at school, through social contact with friends and others. As
long as no learning or other difficulties exist, this child will grow up to be trilingual.
He or she will be a native speaker in three languages. Of course if the child
was not born in that foreign country, the time it will take to learn the third
language will depend on his/her age.
Even if there are more languages involved in one
family (other family members speaking different languages, moving to many different
countries etc.), the basic rule of each parent using his/her native language
when addressing the child is very important. This rule should apply at least
until the child’s speech and language has fully developed.
There are of course more factors to be taken into
account, such as the parent’s educational background and the exposure to each
language. There may sometimes be a small delay in speech development due to
input from many different languages, but this is to be expected and therefore
completely normal.
What is the ideal age to learn a foreign language?
Even though there is no absolute answer, since there
are many factors to consider, we can safely say that the correct approach to
learning a second language is starting at a young age and continue the lessons
until at least the end of puberty. After having learned a second language, it
gets much easier to learn a third or even a fourth one.
What factors affect how we learn foreign languages?
There are different factors at play while learning a foreign
language and in every case different learning mechanisms apply.
Age
Researchers suggest that if our goal is the perfect
accent and pronunciation, it’s better to start early (4-7 years old). Our
hearing and listening skills are better when we’re young and so is the ability
to imitate. The younger we are the less shy and the more confident we are,
since people are more tolerant to our mistakes. We also learn faster through
games and songs. If we learn a second language before the age of seven regardless
of how good we are in spelling, verb tenses or syntax, chances are we’ll have the
perfect accent and language comprehension.
Other researchers believe it’s better to start later
(after 11 years of age), since we are already proficient in the structure and
mechanisms of one language. We achieve a deeper understanding of rules and
grammar.
Motivation
Teenagers or adults understand the benefits of being
proficient in a second language, so they put more effort into learning it.
Learning difficulties or dyslexia
In cases of such difficulties the teacher may have to
use different strategies and:
-prompt the children to record the lesson so they can
listen to it multiple times.
-consider the use of visual aids, games and songs
during the lessons.
-not force the children to speak, but encourage them
instead to answer when the teacher believes they know the answer.
-discuss the foreign words and the summary of a new
text, before they ask the student to read it.
-introduce new words and rules gradually.
-go through the same lesson many times.
-encourage and reward effort and accomplishment.
Besides having lessons, anybody learning a foreign
language could try to:
-be in contact with native speakers.
-read foreign newspapers, magazines.
-listen to the news or watch movies without subtitles.
-listen to songs and try understanding and learning
the lyrics.
