Early Bilingualism

Researches & educators used to think that learning two languages at one time (known as simultaneous bilingualism) had a negative impact on children's development and may even cause delays or other developmental problems. Today's newer research, conducted across the disciplines of education, psychology, speech and hearing sciences and neural processes now suggests otherwise saying that early bilingualism may in fact have positive consequences on cognitive and neural development.

 
Today's new thinking tells us that learning a second language in early childhood or learning two languages simultaneously is not the difficult process it becomes after about the age of 10 or 12. Research has shown that after this age the brain handles language differently because until then it is constantly making neurological connections - after this age the hard-wiring slows down.
 
When learning two languages simultaneously, young children will typically have smaller vocabularies in each language compared with children who are learning only one language. However, when you combine the words that the child knows in each language, often their vocabulary is larger than their same age peers who speak only one language.
 
Children do sometimes "mix" languages, for example saying a bahasa Indonesia word for milk and an English word for cup, but this does not mean the child is confused. It has been found that many families combine languages in their daily interactions at home. As children get older they will adjust their language according to whom they are speaking with, by speaking more English with friends and teachers at school, but then coming home and speaking only in bahasa to their parents.
 
Parents and teachers alike can help support young bilingual children by using gestures, actions and facial expressions to enhance the spoken message to a child, repeating new words and phrases frequently, expanding on any single words the child uses by putting them into a sentence and also allowing for plenty of daily play activities that do not require the use of spoken language.

by Ani Sulistiani (F42109046)