Are 3 languages too many for my toddlers ?

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Hi,
does anybody have any idea on how many languages is ok to teach babies/toddlers ? I am chinese, my husband is Greek-Cypriot but we speak English to each other. I try to speak Chinese with them as much as I can when I am on my own and speak English when together with husband.
My in-laws insist on speaking Greek with them, which I think is great and I encourage my husband to do the same. Do you think it would be too confusing for them ? Shall we just stick to two ? My thought is that, the younger they learn more languages, the better....

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Tze Ching

Tags: babies, languages, multi-lingual, toddler

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tati on March 9, 2009 at 6:33am: Someone just had this question on another site and an "expert" answered that: http://www.spanglishbaby.com/2009/03/ask-an-expert/

I think that children can learn as many languages as you give them and it is not confusing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Or-Tal Kiriati on March 10, 2009 at 1:24am: Hi
In Israel there are many families who grow kids with 2 or more languages. It is well known that it is easier for the child to develop one language to a perfection or near perfect command of the language. The more languages - the harder it is to master the language. I have cousins who were raised to speak 4 languages. They knew Hebrew, English, French and Italian. At a later stage they also learned Greek. That's because their family was spread between Israel, Canada, Italy and Greece. It was a wonder when as toddlers you would say to them how are you in one language and they would reply in that language and when you continues in another language they would reply in this other language.
However, when they got to school, it became apparent that they have developed some learning difficulties because of that. They had difficulties with reading and with expressing themselves in writing and school was a little hard for them.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tc on March 10, 2009 at 2:16am: Hi,
thanks for your reply. This is what I was worried about, that they would develop problems later on. But I guess the question is then, do we limit them to one language now so that they wont have to face potential learning difficulties at school or do you just go ahead with the 3/4 languages, which would be very useful for them at a later stage...; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tc on March 10, 2009 at 2:17am: Thanks for the link Tati.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tc on March 10, 2009 at 9:02am: Hey Dale,
very useful. thanks.
ps. Your book is hilarious.

Tze Ching x; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by GILLIAN TALBOT on March 10, 2009 at 5:19pm: Hi Tze Ching,

There is no evidence that multilingual children have learning difficulties. The majority of the world's inhabitants are multilingual. The people that do the research are often monolingual.

I would say the most important thing for your child is consistency. If you speak Chinese to your kids, only speak to them in Chinese. They will learn better, and they won't be confused. Ask your in-laws to make sure they only speak Greek to them.

As the Ask a Linguist FAQ Dale posted says, there must also be motivation from another source. When my daughter was little, we were living in France. I took her to an English-speaking mother and toddlers' group, and on visits to the UK. This showed her that English was not just this weird language Mama speaks.

Similarly, she has been having Chinese lessons (Mandarin) since she was 4 (now 7.5). We have a tutor but during the summer vacation, I send her to a local Chinese school's summer camp. She has made lots of progress and the children all speak at least one of her main languages aswell (French or English).

Actually, my daughter has had learning difficulties, but they were due to her early environment. A speech therapist told me she believed my daughter's brain had in fact been stimulated by the bilingualism and that it had allowed her to create new "pathways".

Hope tis helps,
Gillian
mama to Sarah, speaking French, English, Mandarin and some Spanish (thanks to Dora the Explorer); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lolley on March 11, 2009 at 8:20am: If it helps at all: I have friend who is french. Her husband is japanese and they lived in England when their twins were only 4 years old. She spoke to her children in french, and when they were a family together french was the language too. But their father spoke to them in japanese and at school everything was in english.

The twins are now coming up to 15 and are proficient in 3 languages with no side effects!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Amy Kallesten on March 15, 2009 at 8:12am: Hi Tze,

I do have some thoughts on your question, but I also have research. I'll offer you a bit of both, and invite you to move forward based on either (or both) sources!

First, I'd like to name what you're asking about as simultaneous trilingualism. Most research you will find will deals with simultaneous bilingualism, but many article also include information about children learning more than two languages, as is the case with your very lucky children. Simultaneous trilingualism means that your children are learning all the languages from birth and at the same time. This may be important because research on this method differs from that done on teaching children a second (or third) language later in life.

Research shows that children who are simultaneous bi/trilinguals may show some delayed speech milestones, but that this delay is not a cause for concern. In fact, there is absolutely no research I've seen that indicates any link between learning disabilities and simutaneous multilingualism. Rather, research shows that children who grow up in this environment outperform their school aged peers over time and have greater opportunites for carreer options. It is also true that children in this environment may use more than one language in a sentence and/or respond in one language when spoken to in another. This, too, is expected and is neither a sign of confusion, nor of a learning disability.

It seems that you are going about the whole thing beautifully. You have identified specific adults and situations where each language is spoken which creates consistency for your children. I'm also guessing that, since you are sharing your heritage languages, your children will also have the advantage of being not only mulilingual, but multicultural (not in the PC sense, but truly immersed in the values and cultres of your family's beautifully diverse background). As they approach school age, the question will become whether you'll provide them with the gift of being biliterate, or having the ability to read and write two languages in addition to speaking them.

Perhaps you'd be interested in reading more about this. Below is a link to an article from the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL). It is clear but thorough and has a list of fine resources for your consideration.

http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/earlychild.html

I hope this will be useful,and that you'll give me a tweet (I tweet as EducationAdvice) and let me know what you've decided! I wish you the best!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by maryva on March 16, 2009 at 11:30am: Hello,
don´t worry, babies from 4 to 6 months are able to distinguish different languages. The brain of the babies acquires lot of knowledge and they will learn a lot from people around speaking to them
Your baby learns to listen your words well before they can learn to talk. This way of listening helps them to learn the language.
Maryva ;-)
http://onlyforbabies.blogspot.com/; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucile on March 17, 2009 at 1:15pm: Hi Tze Ching,
I think Amy has provided you with a very good and evidence-based answer. Thanks Amy.
Your situation and the choice you have made in terms of languages are perfectly natural. It is natural that family members speak to children in their native language. Why would you want to change this by getting family members to speak in a language they are not native? Your choice is perfectly fine, be reassured and continue the same way.
I just wanted to add that I learnt somewhere that in order for a child to become fully bilingual in a language, he needs to be exposed to the language about 30% of the time. So, if you manage to get the balance between the 3 languages right, your child should naturally become trilingual.
By the way, I am French, my partner is British from Indian parents but only speaks English as his parents did mainly speak to him in English when he was a child (such a pity). When my son was born, I asked my partner's family to speak their native language with my son. They did it a bit, but not always (sometimes, they would speak english by habit) and not often enough. I knew my son would never be fluent, but hoped he would at least understand the language (a bit like his dad ;o). When my son started to speak, as he was speaking to them in English, they would reply in English and the older my son gets, the more difficult it becomes for his grand-parents to speak to him in their native language.
You don't say where you live. US? UK? Jsut make sure your child is frequently enough in the "minority" languages (about 20-30% of the time minimum). My tips: find and meet other families speaking the additional languages near where you live to provide additional learning opportunities to your child.
Lucile

Multilingual families: new group which helps you to find and get in touch with other bilingual families:
https://www.bigtent.com/groups/familingua; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by tc on March 19, 2009 at 2:18pm: I thank you all for taking the time to answer my question ! It was all very helpful. It certainly is great to hear your different point of views, as it sound like there isn't really a right or wrong answer in this matter.

Very much appreciated.

Tze Ching x; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lucile on March 21, 2009 at 11:31am: Hi all,
Just to let you know that I have now created a new group for bilingual / multilingual families on TM:
http://www.twittermoms.com/group/familingua
I would like to invite you to join and we can have other similar discussions about multilingualism there.
Happy mother's day (tomorrow in the UK).
Lucile

Familingua: a new group for multilingual families:
http://www.twittermoms.com/group/familingua
https://www.bigtent.com/groups/familingua; ▶ Reply to This