What If I Want My Child to Speak a Second Language,
But I Speak Only One?
An increasing number of parents now know about the advantages and the fun that comes with raising a child to be bilingual. They understand how important this ability will be for their children later on in life. It can open doors in university, the business world, law, politics, science, the arts and many other fields. Learning another language will give the children of today the preparation and the wider outlook necessary for the global world of tomorrow.
Many of these forward-thinking parents are also becoming aware that their children are ready to learn a language now—not years down the road. They realise that children have a terrific opportunity and a great ability to learn quickly and exuberantly, laying the groundwork for the continuing development of cognitive benefits—sharper reading and critical thinking skills, greater creativity, and a broader overall awareness of language. And all this while thoroughly enjoying the experience of exploration and adventure that comes with learning new sounds and playing with new words.
Parents are often amazed by the ease and openness their children display toward learning a new language. Children are less anxious and less self-conscious, so they see and interact with a new language as an extension of the activities they already love—making up words, rhyming, trying out new sounds and creating imaginary friends.
In addition to being less anxious and more adventurous, children also possess a surprisingly skillful capacity for imitation. And parents are well aware of this. Many parents make an extra effort to present a good example—saying 'please' and 'thank you' more conscientiously, for instance—in the hope that their kids will adopt this habit themselves.
Some parents worry, though, that this eagerness to imitate will make teaching their children a second language more difficult. Even parents with quite good conversational skills in a second language express concern that a shaky accent or a vocabulary deficiency will prevent their child from blooming as a strong and confident speaker.
Thankfully, that is simply not the case. Even if your second language vocabulary consists of a hesitant 'bonjour' or a tentative 'danke,' every parent can and should take an active role in helping their child grow into a new language.
In their book The Bilingual Edge, linguistic experts Drs Kendall King and Alison Mackey of Georgetown University in the United States write that "with the right foundation of knowledge, any parent can raise a child who knows more than one language, even if that parent is monolingual." They go on to say that parents are often too concerned about exposing their children only to "native language models," and that this selectivity is not necessary. While having good models is important, achieving "perfect linguistic input and exposure" is not.
Quite perceptively, Drs King and Mackey remind us that children receive very little "perfect linguistic input" in their first language. "One of the most amazing things about a child's first language learning," they go on to say, "is that it happens naturally and flawlessly despite the lack of perfect speech that surrounds (and is directed at) children. All children end up knowing how to speak much like the adults around them even though much adult speech (in any language) contains false starts, hesitations, interruptions, backtracking, sentence fragments, and grammatical errors."
This of course does not mean that parents don't have to do anything. Rather, they have a great deal to give their children in the way of encouragement and enthusiasm. As Dr Colin Baker of the University of Bangor, Wales argues in his book A Parents' and Teachers' Guide to Bilingualism, "the dangerous conclusion would be that the first language should be learned in the home and the second language can be acquired outside the home. This is a false and dangerous position because parents' attitudes, encouragement and interest are vital in a child's second language development. Gentle inquiries about the child's second language development may indicate to the child that the parent is positively interested. Praising the child when they hear the child speaking the second language may do wonders for the child's language ego."
Children imitate more than the words they hear; they mimic the attitudes and habits they observe in adults, including their attitude toward the new language. If their parent is enthusiastic and an active participant in learning the new language—reading aloud to them, singing songs, playing word games, asking questions to encourage use of the language—the child will absorb that enthusiasm and employ it themselves. And this goes as well for their first language as it does for their fifth.
As Drs King and Mackey ask, "So, is it critical to have a native language model who speaks in complete sentences? Children seem to be responsive to language that is tailored to their developmental levels, complete sentences or not. What is critical is not that children hear complete sentences but that they are directly engaged in conversation. Children have an amazing ability to learn language, and acquisition occurs even though adults do not always speak perfectly or do not actively teach them a language. Directing sophisticated language to the child from the outset is not crucial. Even parents with limited second language proficiency can interact with their child in the second language, providing important language input. The value lies in the interaction."
Language is the perfect gift to give your child, but it doesn't mean you have to be perfect to give it.
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