Many kids learn foreign languages easily while abroad, only to quickly ‘forget’ them after repatriation. This was the case for one of our members, who wonders about the impact of early bilingualism on her daughter’s brain. Here is her question and our expert’s reply.
Question from Global Connection member:
“One of the greatest advantages of an overseas assignment is the chance for children to learn multiple languages at the same time. For my daughter, that was English and Mandarin, plus our native German. When we returned from China, my then 5-year-old daughter refused to continue speaking English and Mandarin. We decided not to push her. We have been wondering if the fact that she was an emerging talker at the time we moved to China and learnt three languages at the same time, will have a positive effect on her ability to acquire languages at a later age. Will a child’s synapses develop differently if exposed to multiple languages? Will it have a lasting effect?”
Answer from expert:
Annabelle Humanes, PhD, specialising in bilingual language acquisition says yes, being exposed to foreign languages at an early age will most likely have a lasting effect in your daughter’s brain. According to Humanes, research indicates that “early exposure to a foreign language will make it slightly easier to learn this language in the future”. A good example is a recent study conducted with 30-year-old subjects from South Korea adopted in the Netherlands between 6 and 18 months. This study concluded: “the Dutch-speaking adults adopted from South Korea exceeded expectations of Korean pronunciation when retrained after losing their birth language”. Humanes asserts that “the languages you are exposed to are never totally forgotten”. So even if you don’t consciously remember a language you were exposed to as an infant, in theory this experience will still give you an advantage over a learner starting from scratch.
Sources: BBC, The Guardian
Photo: Clare Mono – Flickr
