<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><!--StartFragment--><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Dear Tamar and Yves!</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Your question has generated a great deal of discussion among my students of bilingualism at the University of Uppsala. Thanks a lot for raising this issue. Below I attach one of the answers of my students (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; ">Olof Pettersson -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><a href="mailto:olofmartinhenry@gmail.com">olofmartinhenry@gmail.com</a>)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 16px; "><span> </span></span>who did a great job going through all the previous answers and comments and at the same time adding a new perspective. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Hope it will be interesting for you to read and perhaps - even help making your decision.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Best,</p><p class="MsoNormal">Natasha Ringblom </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Dear Tamar and Yves,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">I would like to begin by stating that while
I don't think your situation is as complicated as some of the earlier responses
make it out to be, I would say that it is far from without complexity. Most
research on bilingualism seems to focus on bilingual children rather than tri-
or quadrilingual, as is the case with your child. This is what potentially
could make things a little complicated.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>I
feel the need to point out that I do not agree with those who claim that
bilingual first language acquisition could be disadvantageous to the mental
development of children, causing language delay or even autism. Given the state
of the world, where bilingualism (i. e. a situation where children have been
exposed to more than one language since before they can produce utterances) has
a clear statistical majority over monolingualism, it seems absurd to claim that
multiple language acquisition could be the cause of impairment of the cognitive
abilities of a child. Many of the earlier responses have already mentioned this
statistical majority, so I feel that not much more needs to be added about
that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Now,
something that seems rather crucial to mention, that I haven't seen in any of
the responses so far, is the notion of a “critical period” for acquisition of
language. Most researchers agree that such a period exists, based on evidence
that the neurological maturation of the brain causes it to lose its initial
plasticity. Such a development has been proven to exist in many other species,
and is typically linked to some art-specific skill (like flight for birds). In
the case of humans, this is supposed to lead to easier language acquisition
before this process is finished. Now, there is little consensus among the
scientific community as to what age range this period actually applies to. The
originally propositioned end age of 13 has been abandoned, and many researchers
are now speaking of different critical periods for different sections of
language acquisition (i. e. phonology, morphology, syntax etc.). One thing that
most linguists researching early bilingualism however seem to agree on is that
the early years and months are ideal for learning more than one language with
native-like control as ultimate attainment as goal. Thus I would agree with
Bruno (10/5 2011) that it is important that you make out clear goals for your
child, based on which language you deem to be most likely to be the most
instrumental to him in his future.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>This
brings me to your question about what language his nursery should be in. Also
here you should take into account what the future might hold for your son,
because the language(s) he learns there is likely to be a strong candidate for
becoming his dominant language, especially if it is the same language as spoken
by the society in which he grows up, or also if it is one of the languages he
hears at home. As Lofa (9/5 2011) writes, and I agree, the country of residence
and your own attitudes towards the different languages play huge roles in
shaping the prerequisites for your son's language choices. Every little thing
that can be associated with the respective languages is going to be picked up
by him, because in the state of neurologically optimized language-learning he
currently is, he is sensitive to all available input. When choosing what
language you want him to be surrounded by the most, it is also important to
keep in mind that complete multilingualism is very hard to attain. Most often,
multilingual children will end up with a complete abstract linguistic system,
with domain-based proficiency in each of their different languages. This means
that whichever language your son is most likely to hear in for example the
kitchen, is the language he will most frequently use about kitchen items or
activities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span>Keeping
all these things in mind, together with the answers given earlier, I hope you
feel that you are better equipped to make good choices for your son. I hope I
was able to add something useful.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Olof Pettersson, linguistics student at the
University of Uppsala, Sweden<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><!--StartFragment--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal;mso-font-kerning:
.5pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:HI;mso-bidi-language:HI">Olof
Pettersson - <a href="mailto:olofmartinhenry@gmail.com">olofmartinhenry@gmail.com</a><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal;mso-font-kerning:
.5pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:HI;mso-bidi-language:HI"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"><br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal;mso-font-kerning:
.5pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:HI;mso-bidi-language:HI"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"><br></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Calibri;
mso-fareast-font-family:SimSun;mso-bidi-font-family:Mangal;mso-font-kerning:
.5pt;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:HI;mso-bidi-language:HI"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span></span><!--EndFragment-->
</p></div><div><div>8 maj 2011 kl. 19.48 skrev Tamar & Yves:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>Hello all,<br>Our 10 months old son is exposed to 3 languages at home ( each one of<br>us is speaking to him his mother- tongue, and we speak English between<br>us) and to a 4th one outside.<br><br><br>Soon he will be starting Nursery, and we were wondering what language<br>it should be in. Is it better to expose him simultaneously to all 4<br>languages or should we do it gradually over the first few years of his<br>life (It's possible to sign him up to a nursery in my husnband's<br>mother tongue (2)/ english (3)/ bi lingual (enviroment+English)(4))<br><br><br>We don't want language acquisition to be too much of a burden on him,<br>and not sure how many languages he can learn at once.<br><br><br>We are aware of the large number of factors affecting the answer, but<br>does anyone know or refer us to research done on the specific issues<br>of (i) number of languages babies can learn and its implication on<br>their emotional state; and (ii) Is it better to expose a baby to those<br>languages simultaneously or gradually over the first few years of his<br>life.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Tamar & Yves<br><br>-- <br>You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Info-CHILDES" group.<br>To post to this group, send email to <a href="mailto:info-childes@googlegroups.com">info-childes@googlegroups.com</a>.<br>To unsubscribe from this group, send email to <a href="mailto:info-childes+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com">info-childes+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com</a>.<br>For more options, visit this group at <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en">http://groups.google.com/group/info-childes?hl=en</a>.<br><br></div></blockquote></div><br></body></html>
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