My partner and I were considering raising our child as biligual as he is fluent in German. Are there any problems associated with teaching a child from birth two languages by each parent speaking only one language to the child?

Hi Louise,

As far as I am aware there should not be any problems with teaching 2 languages to a child. Many people are choosing to do this now, and those first few years of life seem to be the best time to acquire a second language. I imagine it would be a good idea to be very consistent with your child e.g. don't have one partner jumping between languages as this may confuse the child. Bilingualism may only be a problem if your child does actually have a speech and language difficulty, but it shouldn't cause a speech and language difficulty.

I have friends who are German and one parent speaks English to the children and the other German. Both children understand and use both languages. In fact it was interesting, because I asked his young son to translate a phrase from English to German, and he looked confused. His father said that he doesn't actually see English and German as 2 different languages so does not translate between the 2.

If anyone else has bilingual children or has some interesting observations on this subject, please feel free to post them on this Forum.

Johan - icommunicate

Thank you Johan,

Will our child develop the same amount of vocabulary as a child raised on a single language? or will she have double the amount of vocabulary, split between English and German? (Hope this makes sense! )

Of course she isn't old enough yet, but when she is, would it be beneficial to enrol her in a bilingual school or would it not make much of a difference?

Hi Louise,

These are interesting questions, and to be honest I am not exactly sure if he would have double the amount of vocabulary, although I assume that is what would happen. I am also not sure what are the advantages of bilingual schools.

I am hoping that one of our other members might be able to shed some light on these questions on the Forum.

However, this does make for an interesting video discussion, so I might try and put something on our video's section soon.

Johan

Hi Louise,

It is such a benefit to be fluent in two languages, I certainly wish I was!

Generally current research (as far as I am aware) shows, as Johan pointed out, that two langauges spoken at home has no negative impact on language development for children, although they can initially seem to be 'confused' (using languages interchangeably) they do sort it out quickly.

There has been some research that suggests that bilingual children score higher on tests of language and phonological awareness than do children with one primary language. Perhaps more exposure to a range of speech sounds and language rules and the need to sort out one language from the other supports this development?!? So yes there does seem like there could be a developmental benefit! The key is ensuring your child has good exposure to both languages.

Hope this helps, I would be interested if anyone else has read any of this research.

All the best,
Tara