Academic urges one language at a time for toddlers if parents can’t speak two well.

Reasons for “One Language At A Time For Toddlers”

1. Parents should avoid teaching their toddlers two languages simultaneously if they themselves cannot speak both languages well.

2. Babies raised in homes where two or more languages were spoken may sometimes appear to have learning disorders, leaving parents puzzled and concerned as to the reasons. (Researchers at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held in Vancouver)

3. Children could start learning an entirely new language effectively even when they are eight and it was not necessary to start teaching them English along with their mother tongue. (Lily Chan, an associate professor of Chinese University’s department of educational psychology)

  • Children who learn more than one language simultaneously can often start speaking later than others. However, there was still no conclusive evidence to prove their language ability would be affected.

4. Parents should not be alarmed if their “bilingual” toddlers did not start speaking as early as monolingual children did. (US psychologist Erika Hoff)

  • Children would have learned the same amount of language ability. Children who are exposed to two languages must hear less of each language than a child who hears only one and so it takes them longer to get the same amount of experience with each language.

5. It was only a matter of time for children to become fluent in all the languages they were taught, if properly schooled. Children taught two languages simultaneously may start speaking half a year, or even later, than their monolingual counterparts. They would eventually catch up. (Rui Yang, an assistant dean at the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Education)

Source:

http://web.edu.hku.hk/outreach/media/docs/media/02212012_SCMP.pdf