I. Background
How Do Infants Learn Languages?
1. It All Starts with Sound
To be able to answer your questions, first, you should understand how your child learns languages. Language is a universal human ability [1], and language learning starts with the processing of sounds. There are an estimated 800 phonemes [2], consisting of consonants and vowels, that make up all the languages in the world, ranging from as low as 11 to as high as 112 phonemes per language [3]. For example, English has 44 phonemes [4], Mandarin has 29 phonemes [5], Malay has 30 phonemes [6], and Tamil has 26 phonemes [7].
Newborns’ first form of communication starts with crying – crying can bring them food, comfort and companionship. During this time, they also learn to recognise their mother and primary caregiver’s voices [9].
Studies show that, up to about six months of age, a baby’s brain can differentiate all 800 phonemes [10]. After six months, infants gradually figure out what sounds are important, based on the sounds they are hearing the most. This is influenced by whatever language(s) they hear from their parents and caregivers. They then focus on these commonly heard sounds in their native language(s). In other words, babies learn which phonemes belong to the language(s) they are learning and which do not. Similarly, the babies also start detecting the stress patterns in words, for instance, quiet and relax. By the 12th month, infants begin to lose their ability to hear the differences between foreign language sounds.
PHONEME [8]: a sound in a language that makes one word different from another word, e.g. ‘lock’-‘rock’; ‘lice’-‘rice’. Languages categorise phonemes differently. For example, English differentiates between ‘l’ and ‘r’ but Japanese considers ‘l’ and ‘r’ to be one sound.
2. Learning Words
At this stage, your toddler babbles in a speech-like manner and learns how to produce basic sounds like ‘b’, ‘p’, and ‘m’. After that, they grasp the technique of how sounds in a language blend together to form meaning. For example, they learn that the sounds ‘m’, ‘ah’, ‘m’ and ‘ee’, or ‘mummy’, refers to the person that feeds and comforts them.
From there, they start to build up a limited but specific vocabulary consisting of words such as mummy, daddy and milk. For these sounds to make sense, your toddler would need to determine the beginning and the ending of a word, or word boundaries. Toddlers also develop a sense for grammar rules and understand that when the sound ‘-s’ is added to other words, it means “more than one”.
BABBLE [11]: speech-like sounds that do not have any meaning
WORD BOUNDARIES [12]: where one word starts and where one word ends, e.g. ‘black cat’ and not ‘blackcat’
3. Grammar and Meaning
By about two years of age, toddlers learn how to create sentences. They link single words into two-word sentences and expand them into longer sentences. This also means that they can arrange words in the correct order. An instance would be knowing that “I want a cookie” makes grammatical sense, but “Want I a cookie” does not. Grammar aside, your child would also be able to make sense of logic in language. For example, “Colourless blue eats grass” does not make sense because 1) the colour blue cannot be colourless, and 2) a colour cannot perform actions.
Earlier is Better
1. Language Ability Declines with Age
Languages are best learnt young. Although there is ongoing debate as to whether there is a “critical period” for language acquisition, research does indicate that one’s language ability declines with an increasing age [13]. Evidence has also highlighted some advantages simultaneous bilinguals may have over sequential bilinguals. Simultaneous bilinguals often have more authentic accents, a wider vocabulary bank, higher grammatical competency and faster real-time language processing skills, thus equipping them with the ability to express themselves better [14]. For instance, if your child learns English and Mandarin from birth, they would portray a more reliable grasp in both grammar systems.
Simultaneous bilinguals typically become native speakers of the languages they learn. At about seven years of age, these skills gradually slow down. It becomes more difficult for a child to memorise new sounds, and the push for progress can be very frustrating. Frequently, adults who choose to learn a second language later in life rarely achieve native-like fluency.
SIMULTANEOUS BILINGUALS [15]: bilinguals who learn two or more languages from birth
SEQUENTIAL BILINGUALS [15]: bilinguals who learn the basic command of a first language, followed by a second language
2. Environment Plays a Part Too
The innate ability to learn language may favour younger learners, but your child’s environment plays a part as well. Naturally, younger children are immersed in more language-rich environments than older children and adults. In their first few years of life, babies and young children get to practise language for many hours everyday with their caregivers. The use of parentese motivates babies and young children to listen and respond. These two factors contribute to a conducive environment for language learning, where children get to discover language for themselves and learn about the sounds, syllables and phrases that make up their native language(s). In this way, children are provided with a high-quality and high-quantity language experience that results in the successful learning of a language [16]. Compared to older children, the latter’s amount of language exposure is reduced as learning becomes increasingly constrained to within the classroom.
Parentese [17]: the way an adult uses an exaggerated and repetitive manner to speak to a child
II. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: Will it be confusing for my child to learn many languages?
A: No. Language learning is natural, and it is not uncommon for infants and toddlers to learn three, or even four, languages.
A sign of “confusion” may be due to a phenomenon known as code-switching.
Example:
Child: “I want pu2 tao2 (grapes)!”
Mother: “Yes, you can eat them after dinner.”
Child: “xian4 zai4 (now)! I want it now.”
In Singapore’s linguistically rich society, language mixing is a common occurrence. However, code-switching as a sign of confusion is a myth. It does not happen as a result of confusion between a child’s languages. Rather, it is deemed as a communicative strategy [18].
Code-switching [22]: a speaking behaviour in conversations where words and structures from two or more of speakers’ shared languages are combined
There are a few functions of code-switching:
1. Copycat
Your child may be doing this because you are doing it. Children are adept listeners, so when adults around them have the habit of mixing languages together when they speak, children would naturally follow suit [19]. Your child could also be imitating the speaker’s speech patterns. If you typically interact with your child using more than one language, your child would respond in the same manner.
Bilingual children show awareness of code-switching, as they do not show the habit of language mixing when talking to people who only have one common language with them, unless they cannot find the word or expression to carry their message across. From another perspective, code-switching can also be your child’s way of building and maintaining an emotional relationship with speakers [20].
2. Coping Mechanism
Although not necessarily a sign of poor language command, your child may have a wider vocabulary bank in one language over the other. Code-switching is a display of his language resourcefulness [21]. Your child may be used to talking about certain subjects in a specific language. To illustrate, if your child is exposed to and converses about sports in Malay, then he would probably associate these terminology to the Malay language. In a conversation where your child is unable to quickly retrieve the appropriate word in English, he would then “borrow” the Malay alternative, e.g. bola (ball), to express himself.
Q: Which language should I use to talk to my child?
A: Talk to your child in the language you think your child needs exposure to the most.
Of course, it would have to be a language that you are fluent enough to freely express yourself. Children in bilingual households learn languages easily as they are naturally immersed in a language-rich environment. Generally, children, whether they are monolingual or bilingual, start speaking within the same time frames. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon if your child takes a longer time to start talking, which may be commonly misinterpreted as a language delay [23]. Continue interacting with your infant or young child by using both languages on a daily basis, and with time, they will catch up and learn both.
The critical point is when your child starts school. In the Singapore context, children usually enter nursery school at around 3 years of age. Singapore’s education mainly uses English as a medium, including nursery school and kindergartens, to cater to the different ethnicities; hence, your child would presumably be exposed to many hours of English in school. One thing to take note of is that preferences for a language will develop, and so would your child’s dominant language. Thus, it is essential for parents to detect which language a child prefers to use as mode of communication from an early age. A way for parents to balance out the languages would be to speak English outside and use the mother tongue language at home. If only one parent is proficient in the mother tongue language, that parent can choose to speak the second language with your child. Alternatively, parents can obtain supporting materials like children’s books to help them in their teaching.
Q: What can I do to help my child learn a language?
A: Language learning is instinctual, but it still takes a lot of effort. Your child would require maximum exposure and practice to be able to learn a language well.
As a parent, you know that your child needs to learn more than one language. You are eager for your child to utter his first word, but you are equally as worried that your child may not be learning fast enough. Although children have an easier time learning languages than adults, we should still not underestimate the effort it takes. Ultimately, they require maximum exposure and practice to learn a language well – what you can do is provide them with interaction opportunities to encourage language development.
Here are some ways you can nurture your child’s language development:
1. Talk, Talk, Talk
Talk to your child daily, and he will pick up your language with ease. Chat about what your child would be doing that day (e.g. “We’re going to the playground!”, tell him what you are doing (e.g. “I’m cooking chicken rice tonight. Do you like chicken rice, honey?”) or point out things that are around him (e.g. “Oh look, that’s your favourite toy, Mr. Poodles!”). Apart from dialogue, you can also verbalise yourself through songs, word games, stories, and books [24].
The trick is to talk to your child throughout the day, whether you are dressing him or preparing him for bed. You should start conversing with your child from when he can babble, even if you do not understand what he may be saying. Instead of ignoring him, provide him with support by injecting motivational phrases such as, “Good job!” and “You’re absolutely right,”. Everyday dialogue affirms your child’s communication attempts and validates his efforts, giving him the confidence to speak. Research has also shown that toddlers who get to interact daily with parents have larger vocabularies than those who do not. These effects follow through into their school life, where they excel their peers in reading comprehension [24].
2. Talk in Parentese
Caregivers automatically lapse into parentese when they speak to young children. Parentese has a few significant characteristics [24], that is:
- playful and animated
- slow-paced and clearly enunciated
- has a high-pitched tone and singsong quality, and
- repeats words frequently.
This style of speaking will intrigue your child and catch his attention. By listening to you speak, your child’s brain will wire together to reproduce the sounds he hears. Parentese will enable your child to mimic the lip and tongue movements you are doing to form the words [25]. Just remember to avoid using non-existent baby-talk words such as “goo-goo” and “ga-ga”.
3. Don’t be a Speech Police
Avoid criticising your child’s every mispronunciation or wrongly used word. Instead, gently shape his speech by repeating his statements with the correct pronunciation or word usage and expanding on his ideas [24].
Example:
Child: “Meow?”
Mother: “Yes darling, that’s our cat.”
Child: “Meow?”
Mother: “Mm-hmm. Our cat’s name is Max. This is Max’s food bowl.”
Child: “Meowmeow bowl.”
Mother: “That’s right! That’s the cat’s bowl, Max’s bowl.”
By following your child’s lead, you are helping him develop a sense of value. When your child feels that his speech is “wrong”, he may lose the motivation to speak. On the contrary, when your child feels that he has something important to contribute, he would gain the motivation to speak, which stimulates conversation and, in turn, language development.
4. Do Fun Activities
Active participation in a language promotes language learning. When your child is having fun while learning a language, the desire to grasp that language well becomes a motivation for him. Language becomes a valuable and useful tool for him to enjoy and have pleasure in various events. Some channels are music and drama, where language growth happens organically and goes almost unnoticed by your child.
For example, when a child shouts out the lyrics and dance vigorously to a sing-along song, the child is subconsciously learning the language by connecting the words with the actions. This exhilarating and educational experience also anchors in the language’s culture [26]. Other fun activities can also come in the form of cooking, singing, acting, and shopping.
5. Appropriate Facilitation of Digital Media
Infants and toddlers develop holistically through hands-on exploration and social interaction. In today’s technologically-advanced society, it is difficult to avoid exposure to digital media, including educational applications, online videos and digital books. However, it is necessary to understand how to use these materials such that it benefits your child’s learning and development.
Educational applications are widely available on mobile phones and tablets. Emerging evidence shows how toddlers at 2 years of age can benefit from interactive touchscreen applications as it slowly scaffolds to help a child’s learning [27]. When the child selects the right response, the app can then tailor its responses to support the child’s level of competence. These apps sound like ideal educational tools, but most apps under the “educational” category in app stores lack professional input and are not designed for such competency [28]. Studies have also suggested that digital books, or “eBooks”, that come with interactive enhancements may be too distracting, and may also decrease your child’s comprehension of content [29].
One thing parents should take note of is that there is still limited evidence to prove that a child is successfully learning through digital media. Rather, what is important is that a parent should be present to provide support and help your infant or toddler to make sense of what he is seeing.
References
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[4] Freeobnr, Dennis. (1998). From Old English to Standard English: A Course Book in Language Variation Across Time. University of Ottawa Press.
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[6] Thompson, I. (2017, July 9). “Malay (Bahasa Melayu)”. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from http://aboutworldlanguages.com/bahasa-melayu-malay
[7] Thompson, I. (2015, September 29). “Tamil”. Retrieved October 4, 2017, from http://aboutworldlanguages.com/tamil
[8] Kuhl, Patricia K. (2004). “Early Language Acquisition: Cracking the Speech Code”. Nature Reviews Neuroscience (4). Nature Publishing Group.
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[10] University of Washington. (2001, May 30). “Babies Have A Different Way Of Hearing The World By Listening To All Frequencies Simultaneously.” ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 17, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/05/010529233110.htm
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[20] Kwan-Terry, Anna. (1992). “Code-switching and Code-mixing: The Case of a Child Learning English and Chinese Simultaneously”. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 13(3: 243-259).
[21] Lanza, Elizabeth. (2004). Language Mixing in Infant Bilingualism: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Oxford University Press.
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[27] Kirkorian, H. L., Choi, K., and Pempek, T. A. (2016). “Toddlers’ Word Learning From Contingent and Noncontingent Video on Touch Screens”. Child Development, 87(2): 405-413. doi:10.1111/cdev.1250
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[29] Guernsey, Lisa, and Levine, Michael H. (2015). Tap, Click, Read: Growing Readers in a World of Screens. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
