If a child were raised in an environment where they were exposed to many different languages, could such a child become omnilingual? Omnilinguals are people who can speak and/or understand all the different languages. While being bi- or multi-lingual is common in Singapore, would a child who is exposed to all the languages and its varieties here be able to pick up on all of them?
“Kids are motivated by watching others use their language together,” Dr. Styles said. “And they are generally motivated to use those languages that they see having the greatest social impact.”
Our lab director Dr Suzy Styles gives her insights on language acquisition in multilingual environments for the New York Times. In the article, she shares how the amount of exposure and whether the child is interested in learning particular languages are two important things we should consider.
Read the full article here (5 mins): https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/science/children-languages-randall-munroe.html