Can a young child learn two languages at the same time?

Some parents, caregivers and even teachers might think that exposing a child to several languages at a young age can confuse them and delay their learning of another language

Language is a skill that’s innate in every human. No matter what environment a child is brought up in, they have the capability to learn a language, and in many cases, two languages before starting school. It’s the case for many children in Quebec: families made up of one anglophone parent and one francophone parent, or one allophone parent with either an anglophone or francophone parent. And even if English, French or another language is the only language spoken at home, a child can be exposed to a second language depending on the neighbourhood where the family lives, or the daycare that the child attends.

Some parents, caregivers and even teachers might think that exposing a child to several languages at a young age can confuse them and delay their learning of another language. Dr. Fred Genesee, Professor of Psychology at McGill University, has compiled data from various research projects on learning two languages from an early age with the aim of proving that this is not the case, and to draw conclusions which can help reassure parents who have bilingual or multilingual families.

Advantages to bilingualism or multilingualism

Greater ability to communicate with all members of the family, including grandparents, or even family members who live in the family’s native country.
The chance to develop an identity which connects to their cultural heritage.

Greater development of cognitive abilities which may result in: Greater abitlity to solve problems, more creativity, more opportunities on a personal and professional level Ease of communication while travelling, choice of schools, opens more options for job hunting

Learning two languages at the same time

It’s estimated that more children are growing up learning two languages than those who are learning only one language. No scientific study has ever shown that a young child’s brain is wired to learn only one language. According to research, children who learn two languages simultaneously go through the same processes and progress at the same rate as children who learn only one language. They begin to start talking and say their first words or first sentences within the same time frame.

It’s true that learning two languages is more complex than learning one single language and there can sometimes be certain delays or differences. But in the long term, such a delay does not affect the child’s language abilities. They will also have a vocabulary that is a little more limited in each of the languages or possibly they will pronounce certain words differently, but they will always have the advantage of being able to communicate in more than one language.

Two languages = confusion?

There is no proof that young children who learn two languages at the same time get mixed up between the two. Children will adapt according to the language spoken by the person with whom they’re interacting and will know how to make the distinction between the two languages. They can mix up the two languages in the same sentence or the same conversation just like adults, but research shows that normally, they use the languages separately. When they resort to using a word in the other language, it’s because they don’t know the word in the language they’re speaking at that moment. Using two languages doesn’t mean they’re confused and they don’t know which language to use, it just means they’re drawing on all the language resources they possess. Another study conducted by Dr. Genesee shows that even if children mix up their words, their grammatical structure follows the norms.

Bilingualism is, without a doubt, an advantage both personally and professionally for an individual. If your child is lucky enough to be born into a bilingual or even trilingual family don’t worry about the myths surrounding learning more than one language at the same time. Your child will come out a winner no matter what!

Learn more about bilingualism in our video, featuring Speech Language Pathologist, Caroline Erdos [1].