Challenge #13: Talk, Talk, Talk to Your Child

Remember this essential principle when it comes to fostering active ability in the minority language:

The more that goes in, the more that (eventually) comes out.

For some parents, I know it can feel awkward engaging in largely one-way communication with their children before they begin to produce spoken language of their own. However, the volume of speech directed toward small children, from birth to age 3 (and then beyond), is crucial for promoting strong language development. This is just as true for monolingual children, but with bilingual children, the risk in not exposing them to sufficient speech in the second language, during these early, formative years, is that by the time they do start speaking, it may be mostly in the dominant majority tongue.

In a landmark study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley at the University of Kansas, published in book form in 1995 as Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experience of Young American Children, the interactions between parents and babies in 42 families of various backgrounds were recorded and transcribed. Every word of these interactions was then analyzed—a process that took six years to complete.

What did the researchers discover through this painstaking process? They found a correlation between the volume of speech spoken by parents to their children in the earliest years and the child’s language ability and performance in school at a later age. “The important variable was how much talking the parents were doing,” Risley said.

And when it comes to raising bilingual children, I think this is doubly true.

Quantity (and quality) of speech

First, let me say that other factors surely influence language development, too, particularly each child’s individual nature. Still, all things being equal, I would agree wholeheartedly that the sheer quantity of speech directed at the child by the parents and caregivers from birth to age 3 has a tremendous impact on the growth of that child’s language ability. (Of course, the quality of that speech is important, too. Input which engages children with the world around them through an ongoing stream of observations, questions, and positive reinforcement will plainly have the most productive impact.)

In terms of budding bilingual children and their minority language, perhaps we can sum up this idea by saying:

The more you talk to your child, and the more you read aloud to your child, the more active your child will become in using that language.

At the same time, I’m afraid the reverse is also true as a general rule:

The less you talk to your child, and the less you read aloud to your child, the less active your child will be in using that language.

Now, of course, “you” can be interpreted more broadly here to include other caregivers beyond the parents, as well as schooling in the minority language. But the point remains: In some way you must create sufficient exposure to the minority language in order for the child to develop active ability in that language; otherwise, the child’s ability will probably be more passive.

Keep conscious and proactive

Of course, young children should be provided with quiet time, too, so they can assimilate all the stimulating input they receive each day. But I do think, and growing research seems to support this position, that keeping conscious and proactive, when it comes to communicating with our kids, is at the very heart of nurturing—and maximizing—early language development.

And remember, although birth to age 3 is a vital time for supporting the minority language, it’s never too late to take advantage of the idea that “The more that goes in, the more that comes out.” Because even if your child is older, and isn’t using the target language much at the moment, if you continue doing what you can to put more in, the odds that it will eventually come out one day will only grow.