Majority-minority language balance + third language?

Hi Dean,

I can't give you an authoritative answer on this - there will be others on the board more qualified in that regard! - but I can offer you my experience to date with my basically trilingual two and a half year-old daughter.

I am a native English speaker, but went to French schools (outside France) growing up, lived in Paris for over a decade and have always spoken French with my husband (who does speak excellent English however, albeit with a clearly French accent). When my daughter was born, we opted (without thinking much about it) for the One Person One Language strategy. It seemed the most natural for us.

For the first six months, I was on maternity leave so my daughter was exposed to English all day long with me, and to French in the evening and on the weekends - from her father, and hearing the two of us speak together. At six months, she started in a creche in the ML (we were living in Paris at the time, so French).

At 12 months, we moved to Chile. At this point, she started part-time creche (afternoons only) in Spanish. She had previously had no exposure to Spanish whatsoever. As we were concerned about her French language develpment (French was my primary concern, as we intend for her to attend French schools, which can be quite unforgiving for children who lag behind on language), we found a French babysitter to take care of her in the mornings.

What I didn't realise was how little exposure she would end up having to English, and how the ML would really take priority. At this point (her schedule has changed slightly now, but the number of hours of exposure is basically the same), she was waking up and hearing English and French in the mornings, then French from 9-12, then Spanish from 12-6 (with two hours of siesta), then French and English in the evenings and of course all weekend. As we know very few people in Chile, the only direct exposure she is having to the ML outside the creche is from the concierges of our building (with whom she will exchange two or three sentences 2-4 times a day), restaurant waiters and taxi drivers. So hardly anything...meaning that she was basically hearing the ML for four hours a day, five times a week,in a collective setting. So 20 hours a week of non-1:1 exposure, outside of holidays and trips outside the country (of which we had many in her first year for a variety of reasons). You will forgive me for thinking this would mean that Spanish would remain her 'third' language.

Well, for the first year her Spanish was definitely behind that of other children in the class, and the creche in fact decided not to evaluate her in language skills given her situation. Her first 100 words were all French or English. Then things started changing. First, I noticed her using fewer English and more French words. She stopped saying "yes" and moved on to "oui". Then...we started hearing some Spanish words (we were so shocked at this that it took a while for us to realise it!). Then more. And more. Finally, she dropped the "oui", and moved on to "si". Right now, pretty much all her 'talking to herself' happens in the ML, with a bit of French (and very occasional English) thrown in. She replies to us in Spanish most of the time, but definitely understands everything in the mls. She will also take a French word and "hispanify" it, by adding an 'a' at the end (she does this less in English, possibly because the two languages are less related). We are now working on trying to improve her 'fun exposure' to the mls, although we are a little less concerned now as we very recently found out that we will most likely be moving back to France in the next six months - so the major priority will be English (and maintaining in some way her Spanish skills!

The reason for this rather long-winded story (sorry!) is to say that I don't believe you need to worry too much about teaching the ML, particularly if your daughter is going to attend childcare at some point in Polish. As I mentioned above, my daughter had no exposure whatsoever to Spanish until she was 1, and since then it has been only four (since March this year, 5) hours a day in a collective environment. Yet she now speaks at least as well as the other children of her age here in Chile, and from what I have seen, far better than those her age who are not attending collective care. In fact, I would say that the main 'take-home message' of our experience, which came as a surprise for me despite the fact that I work on education policy (!), has been that children's language development seems to thrive more when they are able to hear other children speaking in that language regularly. I had always assumed that it was 1:1 interaction that counted most, and of course it is important, but my experience based on a sample set of 1 child (haha!) is that the collective experience with other children is crucial. My challenge now is to find ways to ensure that collective experience in English...

Regarding teaching Spanish, I'm in two minds about what you should do but mostly think you should do whatever comes naturally. Reading books every now and then certainly won't ensure fluency, and if it's exposure to the sounds that you are interested in, then I'm not sure that you or your wife are the best placed to do that. I think you may be better finding a native speaker and asking them to talk to your daughter (for instance, you could get a Spanish-speaking babysitter). And in fact, that could be a lovely, gentle way of introducing her to the language! But it should be for 'fun' and general exposure, not with the aim of becoming fluent, because in order to get to that level you would really need more sustained exposure.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts from me! It sounds as though your daughter is very lucky and will no doubt be sprouting words in several languages before long!

Dean, it sounds to me like you're well positioned to gradually foster strong multilingual ability, with English getting a head start, then Polish catching up quickly once schooling begins, and Spanish eventually flowering from passive to active ability.

Because a head start to the minority language can often be very helpful for sustaining a good balance between the two languages after the majority language becomes a more dominant part of the child's life, I would agree that focusing more strongly on English during these early years will likely serve you well over the long run.

At the same time, when schooling looms more closely on the horizon, you may want to give more attention to her Polish side, too, if you feel this would help ease her transition to that environment. But it really depends on her Polish ability at that point.

Meanwhile, as you suggest, you could also begin the process of providing gradual exposure in Spanish, in playful ways, and perhaps put even more energy into this once she has a firm and active foundation in English and Polish.

Dean, I expect your family will experience strong trilingual success over the years ahead (with further options for Portuguese and more!), and I look forward to hearing good news as time passes.

Dean, our situations are quite different in this respect so I'm not sure how helpful I can be. I don't speak Spanish myself so the only exposure to this language comes from a twice-monthly tutor (originally from Madrid but now living in Hiroshima) and my daily attempts to provide some input through online programs and written materials. And this process began much later for us, when my daughter was 10 and my son was 7. So I didn't really face the same challenge of seeking to support the third language from early on. At this point (around three years later), they've definitely made progress, but their ability in Spanish is still largely passive.

It sounds to me like your efforts are moving you both in the right direction: emphasizing English while also giving some regular exposure to Spanish, too. (Future opportunities to visit Spain will also strongly support your trilingual goal.) Depending on the specifics of your schedule, you may be able to work out a set "Spanish time" each day--like 20 or 30 minutes after dinner--which would probably make the input feel less "sporadic" and would surely accumulate over time to create steady development.