Bilinguism in early childhood - A workshop for parents

Do you want your child to learn two languages? Are you not sure when to introduce your child to a second language? What if one of the parents does not speak that second language?

These are only few of the questions Simona Montanari tried to answer last Saturday, October 22. Professor of Language Development and Second Language Acquisition at California State University, Los Angeles, Prof. Montanari is an expert in bilingual/second language development and a mother of two trilingual daughters. The IIC in Los Angeles hosted one of her popular seminars to explore basic themes related to simultaneous bilingual development as opposed to monolingual learning.

Main issues discussed were: How learning two languages in childhood differs from learning just one; What to expect when a child is learning two languages; What to do when the child mixes languages or refuses to use one; How to optimize the child’s bilingual development; What to do when language/speech/learning disabilities exist and more.

“Never be worried of immerging a child into a double language environment” says Montanari, “It will never result into any kind of confusion but into an automatic learning process.” Children in fact can assimilate up to 3 languages at the same time. Errors are to be considered absolutely normal, as well as mixing of one language on the other. Most of times in fact, children use the second language to substitute a lack of vocabulary in the first one. This makes bilingualism a source for them, not a limit.

There might be other typical errors like those related to sounds, vocabulary and sentence structure, but all of them are just temporary and part of the learning process.
Montanari also explained that the use of language is much contextualized. Children learn to whom and when they can speak in monolingual terms and to whom they can mix languages.

So adults and parents in particular, work as models and establish the grounds for the way communication would take place in a conversation and in a particular setting. It’s not an easy job... Sometimes it seems much easier to just speak the main language to your child: don’t do it. He/she will think the language you are avoiding is not important.

Encourage instead that little efforts required for both of you to speak the second language and explicitly inform the child what the expectations are when it comes to language choice and use. Ask for clarification in the form of a question or a statement or pretend not to understand a child’s utterance and then ask for clarification. Let him understand the importance and the value of being bilingual!

Unfortunately –underlines Montanari- the US socio-political context doesn’t encourage bilingualism. Children are often encouraged to “drop” their home language and acquire English. Most Italian-American children in fact do not hear their languages at equal amounts and so they do not become fully bilingual. For this reason it is important that parents provide sufficient language input in each language. The key to productive bilingualism is that your child has plenty of daily opportunities to hear and practice both languages.

In this regard, Los Angeles offers a unique opportunity: a public school that provides its students, beginning in kindergarten, full immersion in studies of a second language, which can be German, Spanish or Italian. It’s the Benjamin Franklin Elementary School in the Glendale district. Professor Montanari says: “Research shows repeatedly that children in long-term bilingual programs not only develop higher competence in English than children learning solely in English, but they also reach higher academic achievements than children educated in only one language. Bilingual programs have cognitive, emotional and practical benefits.”