Today’s question was sent by Maite, a Spanish-speaking mom that is concerned her daughter is not learning enough English since they use the ml@h (minority language at home) method.
“My husband and I are native Spanish speakers and we have a girl of 3 yrs 9 months. At home we only speak Spanish and have been very consistent with this practice, since we both want our daughter to be bilingual and be able to communicate with our family. She’s been in a Montessori school since she was 2. We have noticed that her Spanish is much better than her English. She is very shy and we think that part of this may be associated with her not understanding everything the teacher/peers say. Not sure about this, but it’s a hunch. In any case, we’re wondering what to do next: keep speaking Spanish at home 100% and let the school be her connection to English, or split with the one-parent-one-language to “bring her up to speed”. Currently, we read to her in both languages, but our way of communicating is in Spanish. The TV she’s allowed to watch is in English (Elmo, Disney movies, etc). Thanks in advance for the advise.”
Dear Maite,
I wouldn’t worry about your daughter’s English being less developed than her Spanish. She is not even four and since you live in the U.S., she has a lifetime to learn English. In fact, I think you have adopted the perfect strategy for your daughter: push the minority language at home and let the environment outside the home teach her English. This includes the preschool, the media, and even your reading to her in this language. With time, you will see that her English will become stronger and, most likely, it will become stronger than her Spanish. This is because once children are no longer all day with their parents and spend considerably more time in school and with peers (usually from age 5 on), the influence of the majority language – English – becomes ‘massive.’ Children at this point not only hear more English around them but they become extremely aware of the prestige of English as a language as opposed to their home language. They realize that everyone pretty much uses English in all circumstances as opposed to Spanish, which is usually relegated to the home environment. So by age 8 or 9, most of these children who did not know much English until 4 speak better English than their home language, and prefer English to their home language. Some children even get to the point where they refuse to speak their home language, and might answer in English when addressed in Spanish.
This is to say that you should not worry about your daughter’s English. Given her age and the place she lives, she is definitely not at risk for not learning English. The shyness that you describe is just a temporary phenomenon that children experience when they are not yet completely fluent in a second language. It does not have life-long repercussions or effects on self-esteem. In fact, it is fairly common and harmless for children at this age – monolinguals or bilinguals – to not be able to express or understand everything that they want to say or that is being said to them.
What you should be worried about is to keep up your daughter’s Spanish, and continue the many opportunities you have provided so far for her to learn this language. Remember that these are crucial years for her to develop the home language. These are the years during which she is building a strong foundation in this language, a foundation that would be impossible to build at later years given the environment where she is growing up (there are not many opportunities to use Spanish outside the home). When it comes to English, however, your child will have plenty of opportunities to hear it and practice it as she grows.
Simona Montanari, Ph.D.
Simona Montanari, Ph.D., is an expert on early multilingual development and Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. You can learn more about her here and read her previous inspiring answers to our reader’s questions here.
Dr. Montanari is located in the Los Angeles area. For more information or to schedule a phone/in person consultation contact her at smontan(at)calstatela.edu.
Do you have a question for our experts? Remember no question is too big or too simple. So, to send us your question, please click here or leave a comment below. Thank you!
Amen! Thank you Simona for this response. I am someone who was brought up in this country by Spanish-speaking parents using the ML@H and can tell you first hand that what Simona says is true. If you don’t build that strong (and strict) minority language habit at home –I can guarantee that the minority language will be lost. I see an interesting trend on this blog with the native speakers of minority languages worrying if their children will learn to speak English. I hope they read Simona’s response before its too late!
Ines, I know we’ve “talked” about this issue in the past. I was just wondering, though, since I feel like the way you and your brother grew up is the same way both my kids are going to grow up, how much of a difference there would be if I enroll them in a Spanish immersion school where all they would hear from Kinder to third grade would be Spanish?
I feel like giving Simona a big abrazo/hug! She states so perfectly what could happen should you switch to less than 100% Spanish as home with your daughter.
As for the shyness, our daughter was in just the opposite setting – an English speaker surrounded by Spanish-speaking child care providers in her two-year-old room in a local preschool and was basically silent the entire 4-5 hours she was there (I was told this by her teachers). It had nothing to do with the language surrounding her we found out. Just a ‘stage’ that she outgrew and now never shuts up (in a loving way!).
Give your child the gift so many families wish they could give their children – your native Spanish coupled with a community that will provide her plenty of English all in due time.
.-= Beth Butler´s last blog ..Piggyback Songs and Why They Work So Great for Teaching Young Children =-.
I have seen this effect first hand in my stepchildren, who neither spoke nor understood any English at all when I first met them four years ago when they were 2 and 4 years old. It would have been fruitless and artificial for me to try communicating with them in English and I never even tried to teach them. However, at their mom’s house they had virtually unlimited tv time but were only allowed to watch the Disney channel (which repeats a lot). They had whole episodes of Hannah Montana memorized. Nowadays they are 6 and 8 years old, and both enjoy speaking English so much they not only speak to each other in it as much as they can– they even quiz each other for fun on the lists of vocabulary words that the older one brings home from her english-as-a-second-language class at school. I speak to them now in English (as I do with my baby son) since it’s more comfortable for me, but I’m glad all the other adults in their life speak to them in Spanish, so they don’t lose it.
Hi Maite! My daughter is 2.8 years old and we are also very strict about only speaking in Spanish to her. She has a pretty extensive vocabulary and impressees me so much every day at how much she talks and asks..but I am worried (and I’ve mentioned this before on other posts) that she’ll have trouble at school when she doesn’t understaad her peers that are speaking English. Even now..I feel bad when she asks me “mami de que estas hablando” when she wants to know what I”m talking about to someone else…or somtimes other children at gatherings speak only English and she’ can’t communicate with them at all so she backs out of playing…this is when I really second guess myself. Please keep me posted on your daughter’ s progress.
Blanca, I think you will be really shocked at how quickly your daughter will pick up English when she starts school. Then your challenge is going to be keeping Spanish strong. I think it will help her immensely to have the foundation you are setting now.