How many languages can a child learn simultaneously? Tom’s Story

#10 - In this episode, we’re diving deep into a topic close to our hearts, we’re answering a question that’s on many parents’ minds: How many languages can a child learn simultaneously?

We were inspired by a thoughtful email from one of our listeners, Tom. Growing up in a multilingual paradise like Luxembourg, he’s no stranger to languages. But Tom’s wondering if his young daughter can successfully juggle Luxembourgish, German, French, English, and Polish. Join us as we explore the fascinating world of multilingual upbringing. Drawing from our experiences and research, we’ll shed light on the magic of language acquisition, the power of a supportive environment, and strategies to set your child up for multilingual success. Let’s tackle the complexities together. 

Tune in to the episode, and let’s embark on this journey of raising brilliantly multilingual children.

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Transcript

Camillo: 0:00

Greetings, everyone.

Kaisa: 0:02

Welcome to the language experiment. Today we have an audience. It's a cricket outside of our basement window. Yeah, maybe. Maybe you can hear them, maybe not.

Camillo: 0:14

I'll try to remove that from your ears once I start editing this.

Kaisa: 0:21

Let's see. Let's see how that goes. So today we are answering. One of our listeners questions and the topic is, how many languages can a child learn simultaneously?

Camillo: 0:37

we were inspired to write this episode because we got an email from one of our listeners. As Kaisa said, his name is Tom. he grew up and currently lives in Luxembourg where the environment is multilingual with the local languages being luxembourgish, German and French. And as Luxembourg is a small country with a significant foreign population, there's a strong presence of English as well.

Kaisa: 1:09

Tom's wife is from Poland and speaks Polish as her first language, and at home the couple speaks English with each other. Together they have a young daughter and Tom was wondering how likely it is that his child will learn Luxembourgish, German, French, English, and polish, or if it is possible at all. Although he thinks that exposing a child to multiple languages is a good thing. He has also heard that sometimes a child might not accept it well and they may even struggle. He's wondering how he can detect it early on and what he can do about it.

Camillo: 1:54

Are we the best people? To answer Tom's question, maybe not. Are we experts in the field of multilingual upbringing with credentials and accolades to back us up? Definitely not. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't accept the challenge of answering Tom's question based on our own experiences and the research that we've managed to dig up about this topic. So here we go.

Kaisa: 2:24

When growing up in a place like Luxembourg, the major advantage is that the community and environment is already highly multilingual and children in that environment are naturally exposed to many different languages. This unique linguistic landscape exists in many other places too, such as Switzerland, where French, German, and Italian are spoken. And in many African countries where there might be multiple local or indigenous languages, and due to the history of colonization in these countries, languages like English, French, and Portuguese might be spoken as well. Did you know that South Africa has an impressive 35 languages, 12 of which are official languages in the country, and amongst these are Zulu, Africans, English, and swati.

Camillo: 3:22

Another advantage of growing up in an environment like that is that people in that environment have a different perspective on multilingualism. For most of them, like Tom, it is a way of life and how they grew up, and something that they don't have to think about or reserve time for in their calendars. Most people might not have a plan in place for how their children's language education will be, or. Some kind of language goals that they want to reach because acquiring those language just happens naturally with no extra effort.

Kaisa: 4:02

I would imagine that this environment is generally supportive of multilingualism compared to a monolingual environment where people trying to raise their children multilingual, could experience prejudice, difficulties in getting support and finding resources. In an environment where more or less everyone is raising their child, multilingual, it's easy to find peer support, and you have people you can commiserate with when you hit some roadblocks on your journey, which is great. All of this is to say that the environment plays a significant role in shaping the language exposure and how hard or easy it will be to raise a child multilingual.

Camillo: 4:49

One more aspect would be the quality of the interactions and exposure that a child can have in an environment as Luxembourg is a multilingual society. It offers a natural advantage in exposing its young inhabitants to multiple language in different areas of life, as opposed to someone growing up as an immigrant in a monolingual society where a different language or languages would only be restricted to the home environment. For example, in Luxembourg and similar environments, multilingualism is present most likely at home. Schools and workplaces and in the community,

Kaisa: 5:32

This kind of a society is like a living classroom where languages are spoken seamlessly in various contexts. The way our daughters are growing up in Montreal is a good example of this as well. At home, Camillo speaks Portuguese to the kids and I speak Finnish. And between us we speak English at daycare. Our younger daughter mostly hears and speaks French, and our older daughters teachers also speak French, but, but our daughter and her friends play in English and use a mix of English and French to communicate with each other.

Camillo: 6:14

I've heard them saying things like, when we do the course, you can't depasse, or we were swimming in the piscine, or I like playing with the jeu gonflable. Interestingly enough, some of our older daughter's, closest friends in her daycare group speak Russian at home, and that's why our daughter has picked up several Russian words that she hears her friends saying. It might sound like a lot of languages and their usage might seem too random and fragmented, but as we have talked about it in previous episodes, this type of code switching that the kids are doing is actually a highly sophisticated skill that requires advanced executive functioning. It enables them to communicate with each other effectively.

Kaisa: 7:11

This kind of exposure to various languages also develops their adaptability and a deeper understanding of languages. Role in communication. I. For kids, all that matters is that they understand and can make themselves understood. It's as if for them, it's irrelevant whether they're using one or two different languages to communicate. Research has actually shown that children who grow up in such environments become intuitively attuned to different languages, sounds and structures, and this leads them to develop strong listening skills and a certain sensitivity to the nuances of the different languages they are exposed to.

Camillo: 8:00

And what's interesting to me, That someone who grows up in this kind of an environment, like our listener and Tom might describe the interplay of all this language as chaotic and an outsider who didn't grow up in such an environment could absolutely describe it as chaotic and wonder how children learn any language at all. But once you look under the hood, there's actually a lot going on. That's not so obvious at first glance, and that something is highly organized and not at all random or chaotic.

Kaisa: 8:43

Tom grew up in Luxembourg and spent his childhood immersed into three local languages, German, Luxembourgish, and French. German and Luxembourgish are his mother tongues, and he also started being exposed to French early in his life and learned English a little later. He remembers using the languages interchangeably at home and in the broader society. English is the first language that he learned in a different way as he learned it as a foreign language in school.

Camillo: 9:19

What makes Tom hesitant about his current situation and a bit reluctant to compare it with how he grew up is that for his daughter, there is a fifth language in the mix polish. This does add another layer of linguistic diversity to the picture, and it is this exact linguistic landscape that plays a role in shaping Tom's expectations for his child's language acquisition. It is a valid concern that he has. About balancing the exposure to multiple languages and how they can ensure each language gets sufficient attention. So the question becomes, can a child learn five language at once? Or how many language can a child learn simultaneously?

Kaisa: 10:15

Children will have no problem learning two languages at the same time. That's something that we can all agree on. The evidence behind how kids can successfully become bilingual is a topic that has been heavily researched, and researchers have found that not only do kids learn two languages simultaneously without any issues, they also learn to differentiate between the languages early on and learn the ability to switch between them. The same process can more or less be applied when a child is being exposed to more than two languages.

Camillo: 10:55

However, there's a catch. Although kids have the ability to learn many languages at the same time with every additional language, the amount of exposure to each individual language is reduced. The more language there are in the mix. The more limited the child's vocabulary might be with some of the languages, just because it is simply impossible to be in the same places, have the same interactions, and experience the same things in multiple languages all at once.

Kaisa: 11:32

This means that the more languages there are, the bigger the likelihood that the languages are split and associated with different times and places in the child's life. For example, two languages at home, third language in school, and fourth in the community. However, this shouldn't discourage anyone knowing multiple languages can be well illustrated with the act of juggling, so throwing balls in the air and catching them as they fall. Some balls will always be higher in the air, just like some languages will always be a bit stronger, but those positions are not static, but actually in constant motion.

Camillo: 12:21

So if it is indeed possible in some cases for a child to learn as many as five languages, what are the different factors that influence it? We think there are, at least three children can naturally absorb different languages when they are exposed to them consistently and meaningfully. This is also the aspect that we as parents can influence the most. It is by far the most crucial factor in learning. And giving a child daily exposure to different language has been proven to be the best approach.

Kaisa: 13:05

There's plenty of research that cites several different figures about what percentage after a day a child should get exposure to a language to fully learn it. And those figures vary from 25% to 30%. This connects back to what we talked about earlier, which is that the amount of languages a child is able to pick up is limited because with every language that's added, the amount of exposure per language decreases. So let's say that the minimum percentage of exposure needed is 25% of their day, that would mean that four languages is the maximum amount. They can supposedly handle. If it is actually 30%, then it would be even less than four languages.

Camillo: 14:00

I think 25 to 30% is a good guideline for optimal language learning, but it's not something that's set in stone. If according to your calculations, you might not be able to give your child 25 to 30% exposure each day, it doesn't mean you should give up. There are, again, multiple factors that come into play. I wouldn't even be able to calculate how much exposure my girls got to each language every day, and I'm absolutely sure that if that was an absolute target, we wouldn't reach it daily. And still we are somehow in a place where my five year old can speak all the four languages. Another interesting thing to think about that's relevant to our situation as well as Toms is that what if your child is getting exposure to two languages simultaneously, does that count towards full exposure to both of them or not? We can only wonder.

Kaisa: 15:09

Second factor that influences how easy it is for a child to absorb up to five languages. Is the mix of languages, are they all from the same language family, or from totally different ones? Learning multiple languages from the same language. Family might be easier than learning languages that are all from different language families. Tom shared something about his own experience of growing up in Luxembourg and learning all these languages simultaneously, and he says that Luxembourgish and German were easy for him to learn while French, which isn't his mother tongue, although he started learning it early, was a bit more difficult

Camillo: 15:57

Even as an adult, although he considers himself fluent, he says he's still lacking a bit on the French vocabulary side. English, which he started learning after the other languages, was a walk in the park for him, and he found it easy to master. While there might be many different things that influenced his learning experience, I think it is worth noting that the languages that he did find easier are all from the Germanic language family, Luxembourgish, German, and English, and French, which he found a bit more tricky is from the Romance language family.

Kaisa: 16:40

The third factor is the one that unfortunately we have no control over, and that is genetics and other aspects that have to do with the child's biological makeup. There's quite a bit of debate about how big this factor is, but regardless of its size or relevance, it's there. So even if we raise our child in the exact same environment with the exact same linguistic inputs as the ones that, for example, we grew up with, it's not guaranteed that the end result will be the same

Camillo: 17:20

In our family, the difference between our two girls has been notable ever since our youngest one was a baby. Our firstborns language and gross motor skills developed much faster than our second daughters, although they are growing up in the same environment with very similar linguistic input. That's why we shouldn't compare our kids to each other. Or to other children because in the end, every child is a unique individual who is developing at their own

Kaisa: 17:53

pace. Is there anything that Tom can do to detect problems early on and what if he does, what can he do about them? We think Tom should reflect on his own multilingual experiences and the factors that shaped his language learning. Maybe the things that helped him learn will also help his daughter learn and maybe where he struggled, his daughter will also struggle or maybe not. It's also possible that their experiences will be completely different. As every child and family and their situation is unique, there's no way for any of us to see the future. What we can do as parents is to do what feels natural to us and keep following and monitoring our child's progress, making small adjustments on the way as needed.

Camillo: 18:52

We think Tom is in an ideal situation. In many ways, he's living in a multilingual community. And not only that, he's a product of that same community. As long as he can give his daughter meaningful and constant exposure to all the languages, there is no reason why she wouldn't be able to learn all of them to some degree. And by the way, when I say. Tom giving meaningful and constant exposure to all languages. I don't say Tom should teach her all five languages, but basically work in a way where they as a family can establish those percentages in a more optimal way to expose her to all five languages. Meaningful and constant exposure is something that creates the need to learn and use a certain language. And if that doesn't happen, It is possible that a proficiency in that language will not develop. It also shouldn't be considered failure if a child doesn't learn five language all at once. Maybe learn. Some of them will only be relevant later in life.

Kaisa: 20:15

Multilingualism is a lifelong journey and one's language skills can continue to develop way beyond childhood. Let me give you an example of my language skills by using the juggling metaphor that we talked about earlier. I grew up in a monolingual environment and only started learning foreign languages in elementary school, so that would be past the age of seven. Because I lived abroad in many different countries, as a young adult and traveled for extended period of time, I managed to get exposure to many of the languages that I had studied in school currently. When I juggle the balls or the languages that are the highest up in the air for me are English, Finnish, French, and Portuguese, because those are languages that I use or here every single day. Therefore, creating a need for me to use and understand them. On the mid-level are Spanish and Swedish, both of which I got a lot of exposure to in the past, but not so much recently. And those are languages that I can still use, but not as fluently as the ones I use every day. The bottom ball for me is German, which is the only language that I never got constant exposure to over a long period of time, but I can still understand it and speak it a little bit. I hope this illustrates how it's never too late to learn something and how important exposure is, whether it's past or present.

Camillo: 22:06

If there's one takeaway that we want everyone to get from this episode is that daily exposure to a language is by far the most important factor in language learning. If you can help your child to get that, it's guaranteed that they will make progress over time. If you stay flexible in your approach and your expected outcomes, you might be surprised to see what the end result can be. Even for us, we have no idea where exactly we are headed with our girls and their language learning. We're totally okay with it.

Kaisa: 22:51

We would like to thank Tom for writing to us and sharing his story. It was such a great experience to learn about him and his family and to deep dive into all kinds of multilingualism topics to answer his question, or at least attempt to answer it from our perspective. We encourage all of you listeners to share your stories and questions with us, because that helps us create more interesting and helpful content that can encourage more parents out there to continue on their journey of raising multilingual kids.

Camillo: 23:29

that's it. That's all for today's episode. We would like to thank you. we will absolutely see you on the next episode.

Kaisa: 23:40

See ya. Have a good one. Bye-bye Bye.