Myths surrounding bilingualism and language development have continued to persist. While someone may be well-meaning when advising information-seeking parents regarding their child’s development, ill-informed guidance can be harmful.
Let’s address some common myths and misconceptions regarding bilingualism. Please feel free to share this information with other clinicians and parents.
Myth #1 Two languages are too confusing for a child
Fact: Bilingualism is not a rare phenomenon in our world. About two-thirds of the world’s population is bilingual! Many countries are multilingual states inherently. The official language in Spain is Castilian (Peninsular Spanish); however, various autonomous communities also have their own official languages. A child growing up in Barcelona will speak both Spanish and Catalan, and a child growing up in Galicia will speak both Spanish and Galician. The type of second language acquisition depends on the household. A child who learns both languages at the same time before the age of three would be considered a simultaneous bilingual. A child who learns a second language after the age of three when the first language has already been established would be considered a sequential bilingual. Please see my article “Types of Second Language Acquisition” for more information about simultaneous bilingualism and sequential bilingualism.
Myth #2 Exposing children to two languages will cause delays in speech and language development
Fact: Bilingualism does not cause delays in speech and language in typically developing children nor children who are demonstrating delays. Both monolingual and simultaneous bilingual children should achieve “universal” developmental language milestones at comparable ages, such as saying their first word at 12 months and producing two-word combinations at 18 months. Between the ages of 3 and 4, both groups produce complex sentences. A monolingual child and a simultaneous bilingual child should relatively have the same number of words in their vocabulary when taking into account a bilingual child’s combined vocabulary - 200 words at 22 months and 300 words at 25 months (Hoff et al., 2012).
Variability does exist for morphosyntactic development (sequence of grammatical morpheme development) and phonological/articulation development due to factors such as the frequency and saliency of grammatical morphemes and phonemes (sounds) of each language. For example, regarding grammar milestones in Spanish, some of the earliest acquired morphemes include articles, plurals, and past tense. In contrast, in English, some of the earliest acquired morphemes include present progressive tense and prepositions (Baron et al., 2018). For example, for speech milestones, the average age to acquire /f/ with at least 90% mastery criteria is between 4;0 and 4;11 years in Spanish and between 3;0 and 3;11 years in English (McLeod & Crowe, 2018). In addition to the inherent differences between two languages, depending on the bilingual profile of the child, there may be cross-linguistic influences.
Specific differences may arise between simultaneous and sequential bilinguals; however, these are differences, not a delay. Children who are learning a second language after the first has already been established will likely apply language rules from their native language in the new language (language transfer). For example, a child who is a native Spanish speaker and learning English may produce utterances with a difference in adjective order, “I like corn yellow” due to the adjective coming after the noun in Spanish “Me gusta el maíz amarillo.” This child does not have a disorder; it is Spanish-influenced English (SpIE). These differences also exist for articulation/phonology. For example, a child may pronounce /b/ and /v/ as the same in English, as these phonemes share the same pronunciation in Spanish. A child using SpIE should not have their development evaluated using standardized tests, as they are not normed for this population. For more information on characteristics of Spanish-Influenced English, please check out my article “Identifying a Difference from a Disorder - Spanish-influenced English.”
Myth #3 My child will struggle in school if the home language is not English.
Fact: The most important thing for language acquisition is a strong, natural model. A parent should speak the language that they feel most comfortable speaking; this gives the child a rich example of language. Once in school, bilingual children should receive any necessary accommodations to access the curriculum. This support could come in the form of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes or a language immersion school program that is structured for a bilingual curriculum. In addition, there are many cognitive benefits to being bilingual: increased linguistic awareness, better performance on tasks that involve switching between activities, and memory aspects where generalizing information is needed (Byers-Heinlein & Lew-Williams, 2013). In addition, studies have shown that bilingualism may be advantageous in delaying age-related decline in memory and cognitive flexibility (Bialystok, Craik, and Luk, 2012).
Myth #4 My child will mix the languages and become confused
Fact: A child may use two languages in one sentence, a concept called code-switching or code-mixing. Code-switching is a typical occurrence for bilingual speakers of all ages; it is just a strategy to increase communication. Simultaneous bilingual children will continue to apply the grammatical rules of both languages when code-mixing.
I hope this myth-busting article has cleared up any misconceptions about bilingualism!
References:
Baron, Alisa, et al. “Production of Spanish Grammatical Forms in U.S. Bilingual Children.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, vol. 27, no. 3, 2018, pp. 975–987., https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_ajslp-17-0074.
Bialystok, Ellen, et al. “Bilingualism: Consequences for Mind and Brain.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 16, no. 4, 2012, pp. 240–250., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001.
Byers-Heinlein, Krista, and Casey Lew-Williams. “Bilingualism in the Early Years: What the Science Says.” LEARNing Landscapes, vol. 7, no. 1, 2013, pp. 95–112., https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v7i1.632.
HOFF, ERIKA, et al. “Dual Language Exposure and Early Bilingual Development.” Journal of Child Language, vol. 39, no. 1, 2011, pp. 1–27., https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000910000759.
McLeod, Sharynne, and Kathryn Crowe. “Children’s Consonant Acquisition in 27 Languages: A Cross-Linguistic Review.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, vol. 27, no. 4, 2018, pp. 1546–1571., https://doi.org/10.1044/2018_ajslp-17-0100.
