Parents often ask when and how a child should be exposed to a second language.
Babies are born with the capacity to learn any language. Between 6 and 12 months, a baby's eventual ability to precisely make the sounds (phonemes) of every language fades as he pays attention to the utterances, intonation and diction of the languages used in his own home.
When an infant is exposed to a couple of languages, he maintains the capacity to mimic exactly the pronunciation unique to those languages.
Parents who speak two languages often ask, "Is it best for the mom to speak one language and dad to speak another?" While this well-defined approach makes sense to adults, to children, who have a tremendous potential for language learning, it really isn't necessary. Even if both parents speak both languages, young children catch on to knowing which words go with which language and who to speak them to; for example, speak English with grandma and Mandarin to auntie and uncle.
Bilingual parents also wonder, "If my child goes to a preschool where English is spoken, will my child who is learning two languages be behind his or her peers who are only learning one language?" The answer is "possibly," but it's only temporary.
Take Jamie as an example. Jamie's mom (my friend) is half Caucasian and half Japanese; his father is Caucasian. His mother spoke to him at first in English, and later, through the use of a puppet, in Japanese; his father always spoke to him in English; grandma always in Japanese. He attends a Japanese preschool/child care two days a week.
When starting preschool, he was reluctant to speak. While eager to play with the other children and participate in the activities provided by the teacher, he didn't seem to understand all the Japanese language that surrounded him and was timid to speak too freely.
This was the case when he started preschool at age 3. Now at 4-1/2, he's fully comfortable talking with dad all the way to school in English, and then he automatically switches to Japanese at school.
What a gift these parents have given their son. When he travels to Japan to visit relatives, he isn't a tourist but a native speaker.
A child moving to France at age 10 can certainly become fluent in French. But if he hasn't been exposed to that French "r" from age 6 months on, he probably won't be able to say it as perfectly as a native French child.
What about families where only one language is spoken in the home? Can parents buy foreign-language audio tapes and DVDs and play them to their baby, thus creating a child capable of holding onto the sounds of a second language?
The answer, according to some research, seems to be "no." It appears that in order for children to speak with exact enunciation and pronunciation, they need a real person to speak to them from age 6 months on. The baby needs a variety of people to talk, watch and play with in order to keep the potential alive for being able to speak without an accent.
A research study at the University of Washington conducted by Patricia Kuhl, Feng-Ming Tsao and Huei-Mei Liu demonstrated that when babies played with a native Mandarin speaker, the babies held onto the sounds — the phonemes — of Mandarin. When other babies only listened to Mandarin on audio tapes or watched DVDs, they didn't hold onto the capacity for making those unique utterances found only in Mandarin.
The bottom line: If there is more than one language in your home, go ahead and use them freely with your child. If you want your child to be bilingual and there is only one language in your home, introduce your child when he or she is an infant to people who will talk to your child in that language. The younger the child is exposed to a second language, the more likely it will be for the child to speak as a native.
Jan Faull, a specialist in child development and behavior, answers questions of general interest in her column. You can e-mail her at janfaull@aol.com or write to: Jan Faull, c/o Families, The Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists
