Bilingualism in children

Bilingualism in children

Almost 21% of children are born in a couple of mixed parents. How do these children learn to speak several languages? Barbara Baeur, author of “The challenge of bilingual children” deciphers how the acquisition of bilingualism in children works …

Bilingualism and preconceived ideas

Barbara Baeur explains that a child becomes bilingual when he is immersed in a particular linguistic bath, where one, two, or more languages ​​are used on a daily basis. The child grows up in this particular context with two parents who speak several languages. Bilingualism has had a bad reputation for a long time. The myth of the “novicity of bilingualism” continued until the end of the 90s, without any serious scientific basis. The doubts rested on the fact that we did not know if the child would succeed in speaking both languages ​​well in the same way, and if the fact of mixing them would not hinder the good development of his language. Barbara Baeur wants to be reassuring, the child will effectively mix and speak both languages ​​until the age of 4. Then, in a natural way, he will use each of the languages ​​learned in his early childhood wisely.

Learn two languages ​​at the same time

Bilingualism is either “Simultaneous” when the child grows up with parents who speak two different languages, or “successive”, when it learns a second foreign language earlye. Bilingualism is called “late”, when a second language is learned after six years. The younger a child is exposed to a second language, the faster they will be able to learn it. But beware, he will also forget it more quickly if he does not use it continuously throughout his childhood.

Psycholinguists explain that language acquisition takes place in stages. From 0 to 1 year old, the baby babbles. He is therefore exposed to the first words spoken by his parents. At 2 years old, the child has about 50 words. At 2½ years old, a key moment, he acquires about ten words a day, and he begins to construct the first simple sentences of two words: “Mum shoes” for “Mum I want my shoes”, for example. At 4 years old, the syntax is acquired. After 7 years, the child’s brain has reached a threshold of maturity that no longer allows him to learn a language intuitively. He will no longer learn a language but languages. And after that age, children no longer acquire a second language as their mother tongue. It is therefore not necessary for the first language to be fully established to begin the acquisition of the second. Quite the contrary. The earlier a language is introduced, the easier it will be to assimilate. The two languages ​​do not compete for the same space in the brain. For psycholinguists, the second foreign language does not affect the first so-called mother tongue. On the contrary, they feed off each other.

The key to bilingualism: the affective filter

Bilingual competence, for Barbara Baeur, develops when certain conditions are met: in a rich and varied environment, emotional and continuous over the long term.

Barabara Baeur insists on “Affective filter” that the child uses unconsciously when he is in a bilingual situation in his daily life. It is because he wants to communicate with the adult who takes care of him in one or the other language, that the child accepts to appropriate several languages. Parents therefore have a key role for Barabara Baeur. They must give meaning to the learning of a second foreign language so that the child wants to acquire it.

DMany Baby Sitter agencies have understood this. Teaching a child a second language as early as possible is a guarantee of its acquisition. “Speaking Agency” was based on the work of the psycholinguist, Maria Kihlstedt. The agency offers adult childcare natives of 7 countries: English, German, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. This is why the “Baby-speaking” service, for example, offers native speakers who will address the child only in their mother tongue and foreign for the child.

The benefits of foreign languages ​​learned early

Psycholinguists have observed in their research particularities in the development of bilingual children. Their linguistic appetite is usually strengthened very early in their life. They also acquire denser creative thinking and better intellectual focus.. Having to concentrate on the choice of words in one language or the other, they have to put more effort into concentration. Finally, children who learn a second language early on have better communicative sensitivity and are more gifted in their social life to solve problems.