Bilingual Children

Silent Period

When children are first exposed to a second language, they often focus on listening and comprehension. They are very quiet, speaking little as they focus on understanding the new language. The younger the child, the longer the silent period tends to last. Older children may remain in the silent period for a few weeks or months, whereas preschoolers may be relatively silent for a year or more.

Transfer from the first Language to English 

The child may make an English error due to the direct influence of the first language. E.g., in Spanish, "esta casa es mas grande" means "this house is bigger." However, a literal translation would be "this house is more bigger." A Spanish-speaking child saying this would be making a transfer from Spanish to English.

Code Switching

The child may change languages over phrases or sentences, e.g., a French speaker might say, "That’s a petite [small] butterfly”."

Benefits of Bilingualism

Many research studies cite the cognitive-linguistic benefits of being a fluent bilingual speaker. Experts have found that children who are fluent bilinguals actually outperform monolingual speakers on tests of metalinguistic skill.

Ideally, children should learn English while their first language and culture are maintained and reinforced. Experts into multilingual language acquisition strongly recommend that parents speak with their child in their mother tongue, even if this initially delays their language development.