For a long time, it was thought that growing up with several languages was more of a disadvantage. Today, many mums and dads want their children to learn English, French or even Chinese at an early age. Parents should have realistic expectations, says linguist Raphael Berthele. And approach the whole thing as relaxed as possible.
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It doesn't take long for children today to encounter other languages for the first time. Whether it's grandma calling from Turkey, discovering Russian counting rhymes on YouTube or a visit from cousins from French-speaking Switzerland. It used to be thought that growing up with more than one language was more of a disadvantage. Today, many mums and dads want their children to learn English or Spanish as well as Swiss German at an early age. Or even be able to say how blue the sky is in Chinese.
"Parents should be aware of their expectations and not expect miracles," says Raphael Berthele, Professor of Multilingualism at the University of Fribourg. A course in Arabic for the youngest children or bedtime stories from their dad in French won't turn many children into bilingual prodigies. Even if a child spends a lot of time with a parent or someone else who speaks another language, there are major differences to the main language in their environment: they usually only hear the second language from one person and the vocabulary is limited as it is adapted to the child's stage of development. Terms and sentence constructions that occur in adult conversations are rare. In addition, the child does not converse with peers in the language, but largely adopts the vocabulary of the parents' generation. "What's more, not all children are equally gifted in language," says Berthele. These differences are often exacerbated by social class: parents with a good education talk to their children much more often and about more topics than less educated families.
However, this does not mean that children cannot grow up multilingual. The linguist recommends that parents speak the language with their children in which they feel most comfortable and can best express their thoughts and feelings. He doesn't think it's a good idea to pass on a language that you don't speak perfectly yourself, for example because you want your children to speak German better than you one day or because you want them to learn English at an early age. Not only does this teach your offspring mistakes at best. You also lose things that can only be expressed correctly in the mother tongue, such as dictionaries or verses and songs from your own childhood. Nevertheless, Berthele believes that the rule that one person should only ever speak one language with the children is unrealistic, especially in bilingual families. After all, you want to be able to talk to each other at dinner in a way that everyone understands.
According to Berthele, the most important thing is to take a relaxed approach and ask yourself what purpose the additional language has to fulfil: should the child be able to translate the President's speeches flawlessly one day or is it enough if they can follow everyday family conversations without any problems? Forcing your child to constantly answer in a language that is more difficult for them than another will almost certainly take away their enjoyment. When people are familiar with more than two languages, it is also common for adults to often focus their knowledge on specific areas such as work or relationships.
By the way, it is quite normal for bilingual children to initially not be able to list as many words in vocabulary tests as their monolingual peers and for their grammar to be somewhat less complex. This difference usually evens out over the course of their time at school. If you also include the words from the second language, it becomes clear in most cases that the children actually have the same amount of vocabulary - it's just that it's spread across two languages.
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