As the world becomes smaller and smaller, more and more children are growing up hearing multiple languages at home, certainly in the Netherlands. While Dutch government clinics insist it is better to bring children up with just one language, linguists disagree.
Bilingualism
There are around 6,000 languages spoken across the world.
Less than a quarter of countries have two or more languages officially.
There is no specific data, but experts are convinced there are more bilingual people worldwide than monolingual people. So monolingualism is not the norm.
There are two main ways to bring children up bilingually: OPOL and ML@H.
OPOL (one parent, one language) means each parent speaks his or her own language to the children. If a Dutch woman is married to a Chinese man, the woman should speak Dutch and the man should speak Chinese in all circumstances.
ML@H (minority language at home) means that both parents speak the ‘minority language’ at home. That might be Chinese for a family living in the Netherlands. Of course both parents have to be able to speak good enough Chinese to do this.
Eventually, most children will master one language best. That is usually the language spoken around them, by friends at school for instance.
“Bilingualism is growing in the Netherlands and that's making it a popular topic. Scientists are also looking for practical situations. Bilingual families know that.”
So what makes one bi- or multilingual? One woman at the workshop grew up speaking Cantonese, Malaysian and English and later learned Japanese and Dutch. A man, who was born in India, moved to England as a child, learned English, and forgot his mother tongue. A YouTube film shows a toddler switching effortlessly between Indonesian, English and French, the familiar situation makes the audience laugh.
Critics
Many of the workshop participants have a partner who speaks a different native language and are familiar with bringing up bilingual children. They are also aware that the consultatiebureaus - clinics run by local government for children age 0-4 which parents visit for regular health checks for their children - are critical about bilingualism.
Linguist Sharon Unsworth - whose mother tongue is English - doesn't agree with the consultatiebureaus.
“Look, I completely agree with people who say you have to learn Dutch to function in the Netherlands. But that does not mean that you have to give up the other language. Parents that do that do not suddenly start speaking better Dutch if they haven’t really mastered the language. It would be better if they spoke their mother tongue, so that that language can serve as a basis for Dutch. Research shows that this approach works best.”
The best way
But how do you deal with the issue on a daily basis? Do you - like Sharon Unsworth, her Dutch husband and her children - speak one language - in their case English - at home?
Or do you choose to speak multiple languages at home? It seems to be a problem that parents grapple with, but Ms Unsworth says "children learn to distinguish between the different languages in societies where different languages are spoken” - so it seems they'll figure it out eventually either way.
Misconceptions
The linguists hope to dispel a number of misconceptions in the workshop.
Misconception 1. It is better to teach a child a second language at as young an age as possible.
It is true that it is good to start early, says Sharon Unsworth. “But there is no critical age, like four years old for instance, which is thought to be too late to learn a second language.”
She stresses that learning a second language depends greatly on the number of hours a child is exposed to the second language. The more a child hears, reads or uses a certain language, the better they pick it up - at whatever age.
'Complete confusion'
Misconception 2: Bilingualism leads to complete confusion in that poor child’s head.
Nonsense, says Ms Unsworth.
“There are more bilingual or multilingual children in the world than monolingual children. That fact alone shows that a child does not become confused when it learns two languages. A child is a kind of machine which is ready to learn language from the moment it is born. That can be one, two or more languages.”
Conclusion?
There is nothing wrong with bringing children up bilingually. For the sake of clarity, it's good to be consistent about who speaks which language when. It is also important that the children have enough exposure to the languages through reading and listening to be able to, for example, communicate with family abroad or speak to people their own age outside the home.
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The one issue I'd take with this article.
Misconception 1. It is better to teach a child a second language at as young an age as possible.
It is true that it is good to start early, says Sharon Unsworth. “But there is no critical age, like four years old for instance, which is thought to be too late to learn a second language.”
She stresses that learning a second language depends greatly on the number of hours a child is exposed to the second language. The more a child hears, reads or uses a certain language, the better they pick it up - at whatever age.
Research has shown a child's ability to form or distinguish between certain sounds ie. phonemic awareness usually ends, neurologically speaking, before age three.
Let's not underestimate the fun factor, mixed with cultural interest. My mother tongue's Dutch, but I'm fluent in English and Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), simply because I love American literature and English comedy & rock music and have lived in Indonesia for 15 years. My children also speak local Indonesian languages such as Javanese and Sundanese, and my Javanese wife picked up Dutch in the Caribbean. My son warmed to English after discovering children's books like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and my English collection of Tintin's Adventures. Bilingualism is becoming more and more common, but I know few people who are completely trilingual. For instance, I can translate Proust into Dutch and English, but not into Indonesian.
I came to the US when I was 13 and had only a few months of school English before that. I arrived in May and in September I was in a regular American Jr HS. I have been bilingual in Dutch and English and kept up with my Dutch even though I did not have anyone to speak it too for months at a time. I now make regular phone calls (it is less expensive now) to speak to my Dutch relatives and I sometimes grope for words, but I have never regretted I spoke both languages. I added Spanish when in High School, but not having a chance to speak it often am not fluent in that language. I wish I could live for 6 months in a Spanish speaking country, that would do it for me I am sure.
I entirely disagree with the Dutch government clinics. The ability to express oneself in two languages fluently has always stood me in good stead. I now hold a PhD from the University of Melbourne, something a doubt would have been possible without that ability.
I migrated to Canada in the 70's and my children were exposed to their mother tongue Tamil as well as Hindi in addition to English and French . This helped them in their Bharathanatyam dance and Carnatic music. Now one is a consultant to an international company and requires her to lead her teams in different parts of the world including India and she is so appreciative of the multilingual exposure and the fact she can talk to family elders .
The Ontario Ministry of Education has mandated supporting Home language in the Early yearns and continue supporting the English language learners in the school years with inclusion of home language.
One small step in promoting world leadership.
In some parts of the world, being able to switch between two or three languages is the norm. I grew up surrounded by four languages and my kids are growing up surrounded by two (Dutch and English). In a few years time I would like to add Chinese to their mix.
We are both Dutch but our daughters (6 and 8) were born abroad and have not yet lived in the Netherlands (they live in their 2nd foreign country). We have always spoken Dutch at home and outside the home and at school they speak English. They are fluent in both languages and works well here. Even when they have playdate they constantly swap from one language to the other without any problems. They sooner a child learns one or more foreign languages, the better.
I am the daughter of Dutch immigrants. I was born and raised in the United States. My father spoke English with a very heavy Dutch accent and my mother, who had only been in the U.S. for four years, only spoke Dutch in the home. I grew up learning both languages. At age two, while visiting our family in the Netherlands, I was wise enough to know which people didn't understand English and I spoke Dutch to them. I never had language confusion, and I am thankful I can communicate rather well in both languages - I can also read and write in Dutch. Of course, never having been in school in the Netherlands, I make some grammatical errors, but for the most part, I am able to communicate effectively.
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