Give kids the gift of bilingualism

Want your kids to be bilingual? You’ll have start them young and keep working at it – but it will be worth it

WHEN their daughter Liso was a toddler she spoke only Xhosa – her mom’s mother tongue. But when four-year-old Liso started playschool, where only English is spoken, she began to juggle two languages – as many South Africans do.

“For the first few years of her life we spoke to her mainly in isiXhosa,” says dad Hagen Engler, former editor of FHM magazine and author of Marrying Black Girls For Guys Who Aren’t Black.

“I was also at my best as an isiXhosa speaker then – telling my little girl to ‘Nxiba umngqwazi’ (put on your hat).

“But now that Liso’s at a playschool where English is the only language used, her Xhosa speaking has decreased,” Hagen (44) says, adding that they speak mainly English at home. She still understands it well and his wife, Nomfundo (36), makes an effort to converse with her in Xhosa, “so I’m confident she’ll get back into speaking Xhosa again”, he adds.

In a country that has 11 official languages it’s a challenge many parents who want to raise bilingual children face – there’s usually a preferred language, often the language of instruction at school and the one spoken by their kids’ friends. Becoming fluent in a second language tends to take a backseat simply because it’s spoken so infrequently.

But raising a bilingual (or multilingual) child is worth the effort as there are many benefits to speaking more than one language. With February having been Language Month, we look at the advantages of bilingualism and how to make it easier to learn another language. THE BENEFITS OF BILINGUALISM There aren’t only practical and educational advantages to bilingualism but emotional and cultural benefits too.

On an emotional level it comes more naturally for parents to bond with their child in their own language. And it’s often about heritage as much as it is about language.

“I used to love speaking Afrikaans to

my son when he was little,” Cape Town accounts clerk Tanya Petersen says.

“He’s six now and since he started at a predominantly English school we hardly speak Afrikaans any more. It’s sad for me because it’s my mother tongue.

“I encourage him to speak Afrikaans when we visit my mom and dad, and his cousins all speak Afrikaans, but he struggles because he speaks it so rarely,” Tanya (33) says. “But I still sing Afrikaans lullabies to him at night and he knows all the words and sings along with me.”

“Bilingualism allows children to enjoy the cultures connected to the languages they speak,” Cape Town speech therapist Laura Russell says. “Being able to speak more than one language also broadens your ability to work, travel and socialise.

“Studies have shown that children growing up in homes where multiple languages are spoken have better social skills and are better able to understand other people’s points of view,” Russell adds.

Bilingualism is also good for your brain – whether you’re a child or an adult. “Speaking more than one language can be seen as a type of mental exercise that encourages the brain to be flexible,” she says.

Ana Deumert, professor of linguistics at the University of Cape Town, adds that research even suggests multilingualism can delay the onset of dementia in old age.

“There are no downsides to speaking more than one language.” WHY IT’S BEST TO START EARLY A child’s brain has a remarkable capacity and is up to the challenge of communicating and being educated in more than one language, Russell says.

“It used to be thought that learning two languages at the same time puts a lot of strain on a child, but their brain is more than up to the task.”

Research suggests that by the age of just four months, babies are able to distinguish between sounds belonging to different languages.

The earlier parents start acquainting their children with a second (or third) language, the better, Professor Deumert says. “Even before children learn to speak they learn to distinguish between and produce the sounds that make up a language.” WHY CONVERSATION IS CRUCIAL Even though a second language is taught in SA schools, children often don’t get enough practice conversing in a second or third language. The general recommendation is that children learning a second language should be exposed to it at least 30 percent of the time to become fluently bilingual.

The best way to learn a language is to speak it, even if you make mistakes, Russell says. “You won’t learn Afrikaans simply by watching 7de Laan or Xhosa by watching Selimathunzi. Children need good-quality, high-intensity interaction in a language in order to learn it well – they need to converse in it.”

Professor Deumert says both quantity and quality are important when trying to master an extra language. “It’s not enough to just be exposed to it – you also need to use the language because the more you use it, the better you become at it.” Both experts encourage parents to let their kids learn an alternate language in whatever way they can. For example, Russell advises that if your domestic helper speaks Xhosa and your family speaks English, you could ask her to teach your children – and you – some basic phrases. It doesn’t matter how informal the “lessons” are. “What’s important is the amount and the quality of the interaction. Lots of exposure from a proficient speaker is the key.”

In households where the parents don’t have the same mother tongue, Russell suggests the one-parent-one-language method. “Each parent speaks only his or her mother tongue to the child – the advantage is that the child gets a good model of each language from a first-language speaker. However, this is just one way of doing things and it’s important to do what works for you as a family.”

Bilingual parents needn’t worry that exposing their kids to both languages at a young age will cause language confusion or delays. New research indicates that bilingualism in fact aids verbal development.

“Children are excellent language learners,” Professor Deumert says. “Whether they’re exposed to one language or many, they work it out; they see the patterns and start speaking.”

‘There are no downsides to speaking more than one language’