Top Seven Amazing Myths about being bilingual: Fact or fiction?

Read this in: اردو (Urdu)

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Being bilingual can be viewed in different ways depending on who you ask. For parents, it elicits mixed feelings as well. There are several common myths about how it can affect your child. Since you are reading this I take it you have asked yourself the question above a few times.

I have come across several myths while teaching my daughter Urdu in a primarily English-speaking environment. So I am sharing with you the top myths you may encounter while trying to teach your child more than one language.

Disclaimer: I am not a linguist or speech-language pathologist by training. These are the findings based on current research and literature review. If you suspect your child may have a learning disorder, I would recommend clinical evaluation by a speech-language pathologist and your child’s physician.

Who is a bilingual? The Lingo explained

A bilingual is a person who can speak more than one language. Back in Pakistan, it is very common for people to speak a regional language like Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi, Hindko, etc at home while in school you are taught in Urdu or English.

In addition, for those of us who are Muslims, we are taught to read the Quran in Arabic, even if you may not be fluent in Arabic. So you can see how being monolingual would be against the norms.

In fact, we have a culture that promotes multilingualism as a default.

Usually, every person who is bilingual has a dominant language that they would use more often. The dominant language can change depending on the environment you are in.

Language has great power

As first-generation immigrants, we all want to keep our cultural connection with the place we were born and raised. Language is a big part of it. But as we become parents we realize how much we took for granted growing up.

We did not have to make a conscious effort to learn our mother tongue. We visited family and talked to our grandparents in Urdu. The news, dramas, and popular songs were all in Urdu. Taleem-o-Tarbiyat (a popular children’s magazine) was in Urdu too! But as we got older, there was less and less Urdu around us at school and then College.

Challenge of maintaining bilingualism

When we moved to the US, Urdu was reduced to a mode of communication between my husband and me along with our close family, and that was OK at that time. We did not realize the challenges of trying to teach it to our kids until we became parents ourselves.

A lot of friends had children who spoke little to none of their parents’ native language. Since my mom was an Urdu teacher, I felt a huge sense of duty towards ensuring that my daughter was able to communicate in Urdu with our close family.

My personal encounter with bilingualism

When I started sending her to daycare at around 18 months, she was thought to have a speech delay. After paperwork, she began one on one sessions with a speech therapist. Despite repeatedly mentioning that we speak Urdu at home, the therapist realized on the last day of her sessions that she is bilingual. Although my daughter got more individual attention, this made me think about how accurate was her initial language assessment.

When I spoke to a few other friends with kids her age, I learned that many of them were told to stop speaking their mother tongue at home when they started daycare so they do not get confused.

That brings me to the first myth

Becoming bilingual will cause a speech delay

Many people who have limited exposure to bilingualism often assume that if their child starts learning a second language, it will result in a speech delay.

Research shows that the average delay for bilinguals is around 2-3 months. There is variation in it since every child has different exposure to the second language. However, the delay might be there even if they spoke only one language so attributing it to bilingualism is not accurate. In addition, the delay may be there even if the child is monolingual.

So bilingualism is not the cause of the delay, the delay may be there despite the child being bilingual.

If the person assessing your child’s vocabulary does not know that they speak two languages, it may lead to mislabeling them. The vocabulary words may be split into two languages so they know 50 in Urdu and 50 and English and the person assessing English will conclude they only know 50 when in fact they know 100.

The child will mix up the languages

Many parents are worried that learning two languages will result in the child confusing the two languages. This is called code-switching/code-mixing and is to be expected. They will typically start separating the two languages by 3-4 years of age.

In fact, code-switching is a sign that your kid is fluent. Since it can be done only if you know the right context in which you can do it.

Your child is not bilingual if he or she is not fluent in both languages

Although we all want our children to have native speaker fluency, this is not required for them to be considered bilingual. In fact, our fluency can change based on the language we are using more frequently. So we will tend to communicate more often in English at work and in our native tongue at home.

The environment can shape up the dominant language (the one they use more often) of the child. So they may start being more fluent in their native language and then become more fluent in the second language when they are exposed to it in school.

Your child cannot be fluent unless he learns the second language very young

While it is true that in general, the younger your child is, the more likely they are to become proficient in using the second language. Until recently it was thought that the cutoff (called the critical period) to learn a second language is around 10 years old.

There was a study by MIT that looked at the upper limit of the age to learn the grammar of a new language. They looked at data from 670,000 people who were learning English. It found that even though to have native level proficiency you need to start learning the language before the age of 10, our brain is capable of learning a second language until the age of 18.

That is a remarkable study and has certainly evolved the understanding of the critical period for language learning. However, it is also important to note that language learning ability also depends on your willingness to learn as you get older. The study noted that since 18 signifies an important milestone for many (starting a job or moving out) the need for learning a second language may decline after that. So beyond the age of 18, you can still learn a new language and do so with great cognitive benefits.

Children with a learning disability cannot learn a second language

There can be other disorders in hearing or processing which can make it difficult for the child to acquire language skills. However, with proper treatment and evaluation by a speech-language pathologist, they can overcome many of the challenges and are capable of becoming bilingual. The key here is that they are assessed and diagnosed early so adequate therapy can be utilized.

Bilingual children will not do well academically

The optimal setting for learning a second language depends on the child’s age. If the school environment is predominantly English, then your kindergartener will pick up the language via immersion. If they are older, they may need to be taught the second language through their native language (i.e using Urdu words to help understand their English meaning).

There is research to show that bilingual children have a superior ability to solve problems as well as the ability to multitask better. They have more flexibility in learning ability as well. It boosts creativity and has been shown to decrease the risk of developing Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Beyond the cognitive benefits, becoming bilingual has a beneficial effect on social skills as well. It helps your child develop a connection with your own culture.

So to conclude…

Language learning is becoming more important in recent times as we have access to such a wealth of resources online. Being bilingual has numerous benefits and we should trust our instincts as native speakers to guide our children in becoming fluent in the native language as well.

I hope this was helpful to you. We still face struggles while teaching our children Urdu at home. I am going to write in another post the strategies we have learned in our journey so far.

If you have encountered any of these myths, please comment below. I would love to hear from you. For upcoming posts please subscribe to our email list.

Read this in: اردو (Urdu)