Bilingualism and Language Delay Many of the parents we interviewed believed that their children had experienced or were likely to experience language delay as a result of their dual language environment. Te same view is prevalent in the popular parenting literature. Such sources frequently note that acquisition of two languages can result in “language delay,” though many also suggest that the long-term benefits of bilingualism are important (e.g., Fabian, 2003; Foreman, 2002; Murkoff, 2003; Pruett, n.d.).
It is important to differentiate between the popular use of the term language delay in reference to a child who is perceived to take longer than average to begin to speak but who is well within the normal range of productive vocabulary development (Fenson et al., 1994) and the clinical use of the term to refer to significant delays in the development of language, which can be either primary (not associated with another disorder) or secondary (associated with conditions such as autism). A lack of understanding of the different uses of the term may result in undue concern for some parents interested in raising their children with two languages.
Terminology issues aside, the research is quite clear: No empirical evidence links bilingualism to language delay of any sort. As De Houwer (1999) summarizes, “Tere is no scientific evidence to date that hearing two or more languages leads to delays or disorders in language acquisition. Many, many children throughout the world grow up with two or more languages from infancy without showing any signs of language delays or disorder” (p. 1). Likewise, Petitto and Holowka’s (2002) extensive literature review leads them to argue that “very early simultaneous language exposure does not cause a young child to be delayed with respect
to the semantic and conceptual underpinnings at the heart of all natural language, and this is true regarding each of the young bilingual’s two native languages” (p. 23).
Bilingualism and Language Confusion Many of the parents interviewed worried that their children would experience confusion due to exposure to two languages. Some believed that language delay was the result of this confusion. Several advice publications (e.g., Eisenberg, Murkoff, & Hathaway, 1989; Honig, n.d.) suggest that confusion could be avoided by using the one-parent, one-language approach to bilingual childrearing, in which each caregiver uses only one language with the child and parents refrain from using two languages in the same conversation.
However, research indicates that the ability to switch back and forth between languages, sometimes called code-switching, is a sign of mastery of two linguistic systems, not a sign of language confusion, and that children as young as 2 are able to code-switch in socially appropriate ways (Lanza, 1992). Research also shows that many normally developing bilingual children mix their two languages, with the type and amount of code-switching depending on environmental factors, such as how much the parents or wider community engage in code-switching.
As to the effectiveness of the one-parent, one- language approach, there is evidence that it can lead to the development of children’s active competence in two languages, but it can also result in passive bilingualism (Döpke, 1992; Yamamoto, 1995), in which children understand both languages but speak only the majority language (i.e., the high status language of the wider community). Tis approach is one option for raising bilingual
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