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The process of learning a language is just the same in bilingual families as it does in single-language families. The first stage is just crying. Next comes babbling, followed by the one-word stage. After that come the sentence stages, starting with two-word sentences, then moving onto simple sentences and then to more complex ones. Live language from parents and older siblings is where children pick language up from so keep talking, singing and reading to your youngster.
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Mother Tongue: Language Learning
Stages
www.fridayschildmontessori.com
More than one parent has noticed that you spend the first few years of a child’s life waiting until they can
walk and talk, and you then spend the next 15 or so years getting them to sit down and shut up (apart
from a brief period during the early teen years in boys when they speak in grunts).
That’s a bit cynical, but the fact remains that parents look forward to their children’s first words.
Learning a first language goes in a set pattern of stages, some of which you can see even in children
who are deaf.
Learning your first language is completely different from learning a second language when you’re older.
If you’re a human being, you are pre-programmed to learn language and you will pick it up without explicit lessons, without textbooks and with next to no help at
all.
It’s well known that the best time to learn a language is when you’re under the age of 12, as your brain is
hard-wired for picking up language and learning grammar.
After that age, the language circuits are fixed and picking up languages is a lot harder, as you’ve
probably found out if you’ve travelled internationally.
This article is mostly about learning a single language as a first language.
However, if your family has two languages – say, the mother is Japanese and the father is Australian – then the process is the same but the child will pick up two
languages.
If you have a bilingual household, it’s a good idea to talk to your children in both languages and let them
pick up both.
It won’t be detrimental to their English, as many parents fear, and you’re probably likely to speak to
your children in your first language (your heart language) anyway. So keep it up.
Your children will soon learn that Mum’s language is for use with Mum while Dad’s language is for Dad
and for out and about.
