Bilingual Child Myths

With successive bilingualism a child has the advantage of their first language as a base. They use this to both analyze and develop the second.  For example, the child knows that language is organized in a particular order.  The more mature a child is they also have a better vocabulary base, acoustic perception, and comprehension. Therefore they would make fewer errors in a second language.

Therefore, as stated before my view on these two myths is that I strongly disagree with these two myths. My opinion has not changed over the quarter because much evidence has been provided to us that shows these myths are still completely wrong. Therefore, my opinion of myth 1 was that children are capable of learning more than one language at the same time because their brains are like sponges. As we get older it’s harder for us to learn a different language

There are three types of bilingualism; simultaneous bilingualism, receptive bilingualism and sequential bilingualism (Trejos-Castillo & Merle, 2014). Simultaneous bilingualism is the introduction of two languages at the same time. Infants learn this way through exposure of both languages. Receptive bilingualism is knowing two languages but only being able to use one. This occurs to many children before entering preschool. They’ve been exposed to the language at home, and have only heard of English through television shows, music, etc. They know it’s English and can differentiate between the language however they lack the knowledge to be able to use English as a way to communicate with others. Sequential bilingualism is learning a second language after being fully fluent in a first language. In order to say a person is fully competent in another language, they must be able to comprehend, read and write the other

It is easier for babies to become bilingual because when they hear two different languages their brains start to pick up sounds and vowels that each language makes. Babies become bilingual because they are born with the ability to distinguish different sounds in languages. Being bilingual strengthens their ability to distinguish different sounds. This makes their brain more flexible.

When discussing about “In other words”, Bialystok and Hakuta state that there is some thought that children who may appear to be learning a second languge very quickly at a vey young age (before the age of 5). They further state that accompanied by the loss of their first language, have really replaced the first language with the second language.

This situation also supports the statement of Lyon(1996) that children become bilingual across the world in many communities and this can play a major part in the families into which they are born, and in their later lives at school. Bilingualism occurs within complex, multi-layered context, but from the child’s point of view the family is where it all begins.

People have a way to being intelligent when knowing two languages because they are able to understand certain things more. According to The National Center on Cultural and Linguistic Responsiveness, “brains are very active and flexible when being bilingual” (2016, para. 2). Bilingual can start at any age but some have started to understand both languages at a younger age. They have a higher chance to develop both languages if starting from a younger age because they can understand the language as time goes by. There are shows that show kids at a young age about the different languages such as the TV show Dora. The show Dora shows kids the Spanish language and usually repeats the words more than once in Spanish which makes children usually want to repeat it as well and that is when they start to progress the language.

We learned in our text that the development of language is a complicated process that involves phonemes, morphemes, syntactic development among several other factors (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg & Saffran, 2014, p. 218). Proper and effective development of these language skills has been shown to have a critical learning period that enables successful fluency of a language; this period usually occurs between the ages of 5 and puberty (Siegler et al., 2014, p. 220). I believe that this critical period is the backbone of the argument against bilingual education. Proponents of this argument believe that the sooner a child is immersed in the new language, the better off they will be with regards to mechanics and use of that language.

Dual language learners are children learning two or more languages at the same time, as well as those learning a second language while continuing to develop their first (or home) language (Dual language learning, 2008). The number of children being raised in bilingual homes is large and growing, however the mechanism of language development in children from bilingual homes is not well described or understood (Hoff et al., 2011). A large body of research has refuted the opinion that dual language input may confuse children, and other research indicates that children exposed to two languages can distinguish those languages from infancy, learn two phonological systems, two vocabularies and two grammars (Kova´cs & Mehler, 2009a; Petitto,

The second belief stated was that exposure to a second language in early years may confuse a child and affect their language development.

During this podcast, I connected to Dr.Gleason first interest in linguistics. Similarly to Dr.Gleason I have a brother with special needs, I like her interpret my brother needs and help him communicate. Language is an important aspect of life. I have always wondered about different languages and how language develops. I found it interesting, how a child’s language develops before birth. I always thought when an expecting mother would put headphone on their belly for the child could hear music; I thought that was a myth. However, I now that is not a myth. For instance, in the article, Dr. Gleason discusses babies in the womb listen to multiple languages. She states, “Babies who are hearing two languages in utero are born with a bilingual brain”

As De Houwer summarizes, "There is no scientific evidence to date that hearing two or more languages leads to delays or disorders in language acquisition. Many, many children throughout the world grow up with two or more languages from infancy without showing any signs of language delays or disorder" (1999).

This belief is prevalent in monolingual countries and has far more politics than science to back it up. Rest assured that your child's little brain has more than enough neurons firing to cope with two languages (or even more) without frizzing out. On the contrary, decades of research in countless studies actually show significant cognitive advantages to being multilingual. And what about the experience of millions of families around the world where multilingualism is the norm, not the exception? Just look at Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and Finland -- to mention a few.

New Zealand has recently been identified as a culturally and linguistically super-diverse country (Spoonley & Bedford, 2012). This means many children of our country will be introduced to two or more languages from birth and will develop proficiency in these languages following their significant exposure to both. This is referred to as simultaneous bilingualism (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 2004). There are many misconceptions about simultaneous bilingualism that are believed to be persistent in society, even within professional groups including teachers, doctors and speech-language therapists (Hamers & Blanc, 2000; King & Fogle, 2006). This is hazardous because these professionals are often providing advice to parents which may influence their decision to raise their child bilingually (Hamers & Blanc, 2000). The most common misconceptions surround the cognitive impacts of bilingualism, the difficulties associated with dual language learning, as well as its relation to and impact upon language development and delay (King & Fogle, 2006). It is important to understand these misconceptions and the opposing evidence. This is because the misguided attribution of any impartment to a child’s bilingualism may encourage the abandonment of a heritage language; therefore limiting cultural diversity and identity (Genesee, 2010).

Now, we have more data that that directly contradicts those views, such as the fact that a child can simultaneously learn two languages from birth with bilingual first language acquisition (Ng and Wigglesworth, 2011), or Ronjat’s (1913) hypothesis that bilingual children have better meta-linguistic skills. More and more studies on bilingualism are being funded, especially with public opinion backing the prevalence and usefulness of multilingualism, especially in this age of globalization.