toddler learning 2 or more languages

S

Su Mei

Registered User
hi,

my 17 month old son has to date only been exposed to English as it is the mother tongue of both my husband and I - we speak English at home and his playgroups and classes are conducted in English. We are very keen for my son to be conversant in 2 languages, English and putonghua (the aim is for him to attend a bilingual pre-school eventually) but was wondering:

1. when is the best time to introduce putonghua? (I know people say the earlier the better but now there seem to be evidence to the contrary so I'm confused!!!)

2. would introducing both cantonese and putonghua to him confuse him further? do I have to do it step by step, ie putonghua first and then later on cantonese? (the priority is of course English, then putonghua, then cantonese)

Thanks alot in advance!
 
Hi Sumei,

I am not sure if there is a "best time" to introduce a 2nd language. I started my daughter with both English & Cantonese at birth. When I talk to her, I stick to one language at a time. I don't mix the two in one sentence, which is very common in HK.

When she was 1.5 yrs, she started her first English/Putonghua playgroup and that was her first exposure to Putonghua. In her first class, it looked as if she was thinking "What are you talking about?" Then I decided to talk to her in Putonghua at home. But as soon as I said my first Putonghua sentence to her, she said "No." So I did Putonghua rhymes and songs instead. She liked it and was conversant in all 3 languages by the time she was 2.

What works for one child may not work for another. But I think songs really do magic for my daughter. And I heard my daughter's Putonghua teacher said to another parent, that simply going to the playgroup for a few hours a week is not enough to learn the language. Even if you don't speak it, you should play CDs at home.

Hope the above info helps.

Sandy
 
Hi SuMei,

Quote:
(I know people say the earlier the better but now there seem to be evidence to the contrary so I'm confused!!!)

Where have you come across evidence that introducing a second language earlier is not as good? That's really interesting as all materials that I've read so far supports introducing a second language as early as possible.

The key to learning another language is to have somebody else speak the language exclusively with him (where possible) or set aside a specific time or place where the second language is learned/spoken. Make it a 'natural' learning environment and don't force it. I say this from experience. I was speaking 4 languages by the time I started kindy at 4.5yo--and this was from being exposed to different people who were speaking those languages. My parents certainly were not the types who would enrol me in classes just to learn the languages, but they did make sure that the poeple I was in contact with (family friends, nanny/helpers, grandparents) spoke their own language/dialect naturally when they're with me. Learning languages at an early age helps one speak it more naturally --i.e. with no trace of 'foreign' accent.

If you are worried about your son being confused (although I wouldn't think he'd be), you might want to try using baby sign language to "bridge" the two (or 3) languages that you are speaking with him --i.e., a single sign for the same concept. This will help your son associate that "ping guo" is "apple." If you want to know more about signing with your baby, you can send me a private message. I'd be happy to share more (we've been doing it with our 17 month-old since he was 8 months and it's helped a lot with his speech development!).

Good luck!
 
Hi,

My son is 3 years old; he can speak English, Mandarin and does some baby sign language. And he even picks up some Cantonese from my previous part-time helper last month. So my advice is that doing it as early as you can. I speak to him in Mandarin and do baby sign language and my husband speaks to him in English. Sometime, he even translates my mandarin into English for my husband. I was worry as you do, somehow children will figure out themselves. So just give them the opportunity to expose to the languages that you want him to learn. Now I wish that I did give him more chances to learn Cantonese. Good luck.

Best regards, Amanda
 
a matter of trade-offs

I am currently studying for a higher degree in linguistics, which covers various aspects of language acquisition. As far as I know, there has been research in bilingualism showing that children learning two or more languages spontaneously in their early years are not progressing as fast as their monolingual counterparts in terms of language development, and that they more or less go through a stage of confusion leading to code mixing in their speech.

Nevertheless, it doesn't mean that exposing young children to a multi-lingual environment is undesirable,but quite the opposite holds true, because there exists a critical period for learning a language (usually below 12) and the younger the child, the higher the chance of achieving native level competence (starting at 4 could already result in a foreign accent). It is probable that the 'negative consequence' of slower progress and language confusion is just a short-term issue with no far-reaching impact on the child's later development (though awaiting further research effort to prove).

Hope this helps.

Linda
 
hi there,

thank you all very much for your contributions, esp Linda for your expert views on this. We would like our son to be effectively bilingual in English and putonghua (it's a tough call given my mother tongue is English but he is afterall half Chinese), I think the problem here is that people equate being able to understand and speak a language conversationally to being fully effective in it.

Linda - is there any materials (books or articles) I should be reading to help me along?
 
bilingual babies

Hi there

I just wanted to share with you a really useful resource - I am trying (badly) to rasie my 14 month as English/French and have joined this group of bilingual/trilingual parents who have some excellent experiences and expertise to share.

Soemtimes there are too many mails but sometimes its a quiet list...

[email protected]

Minidom
 
Hi, Linda -- Children who are bilingual might speak later --is that what you meant by "not progressing as fast as their monolingual counterparts in terms of language development"? This is short-term, though, and eventually these kids learn to code-switch quite easily.

Hi, SuMei -- What would you consider to be fully effective in terms of language acquisition? Just interested. :-)
 
We are raising my daughter (age 2) to be trilingual -- English, Italian (spoken to her exclusively by her daddy) and Putonghua. For the latter, we have had Putonghua babysitters come for two to four hours per week every week since she was 10 months old to play with her, because neither me nor my husband speak it. When she turned 2, we started her in the pre-nursery section at KCS (which is only Putonghua).

It is clear that she understands that different languages are for different people. With respect to her language progress, she has a lot of words but does not put them together yet -- I think that other 2 years old are already speaking sentences. So I guess she is a little behind in that regard. On the other hand, she is developing a vocabulary in three languages, and so I am not worried about it. She seems to understand what people tell her in all three languages, and has adapted well to school.

So all in all, I am very positive about it.
 
Hi Buckeroo,
Linguists use various devices to measure child language development -- the age at which verbal communication commences is just one of them; others include mean length of utterance, size of receptive and productive vocabulary, word types, grammatical accuracy, etc.

Hi Sumei,
I think the reading for my coursework is too academic to be of interest to parents looking for practical suggestions, but I?ll keep this in mind and let you know if I find useful materials.
 
Dear Afessler,

I am off a tangent here. I have been looking for good PT mandarin babysitters.

Any recommendations pls? Or pls point me in the right direction to look for one pls? Tks

Feel free to pm me instead of posting here if you wish.

tks

rgds

e
 
On this web site is a list of books which might be of interest to you,
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jaltbsig/sources.html

When I was concerned about bringing my children up bilingually I read a book by George Saunders called Bilingual Children: From Birth to Teens.

It is now quite old (but then so is my eldest) as it was written in 1988. It tells you about how he and his wife brought their children up and the difficulties they faced. He also bought a bit of his research as a Professor of German into the book.

Usually people say that one parent has to use the first language and the other the second language. But he told of children growing up on the border of Italy and France where they speak both languages and no-one worries which they speak to the children. So the children hear Italian, French and a mixture of the two.

I found this situation very similar to Hong Kong where children hear English, Cantonese (and these days Mandarin) and a mixture all the time. So I too stopped worrying as much about who spoke what to whom.

My children all speak both English and Cantonese. Although since they started international school English has been their dominant language. They can also speak Mandarin which they learn at school but it is definitely a third language for them. They are also learning to write Chinese but are not as good as if they?d gone to the local school. And my eldest, who is already at university, seems like she?s forgotten a lot of it because she isn?t using it any more.

Best wishes,
Barb
 
Language is the key to absorbing knowledge and it is very important for children to master good language, no matter it is English or Cantonese, as early as possible to help developing their knowledge acquisition ability.

While learn both languages shoudn't be a problem for kids, it somehow will defer the proficiency of any one language which is not so good for other learning activities. The only exception may be that the child is exposed to a mixed language environment where he or she constantly interact with native language speakers. If both parents are all speaking *native* English to their kids, the best way to learn another language is to put him to a local school and interact with local Chinese students.

I think learning putonghua is a bit tricky here since there is no pure putonghua enviroment in Hong Kong. It is possible that the kid might get confused by cantonese and putonghua since they are two very similar language and cantonese is everyday language in HK. I personally do not think it is a good idea.
 
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