We did our very first Google+ Hangout yesterday and we’re super happy with the results. It felt great to just be able to hang out with a group of moms — including our expert — talking about a topic we’re so passionate about and that we’ve invested in so much.

For our fist session of SpanglishBaby LIVE, we tackled the always popular subject of dual language immersion programs. And there was so much to talk about! From the many DL options available to why you have to be willing to take a leap of faith if you want your child in one of these programs, we spent a good half an hour talking about this type of education.

First off, we’d like to thank our amazing guests for joining us in our first Hangout:

Simona Montanari, PhD, Associate Professor in the Dept. of Child & Family at California State University Los Angeles, specialist in first and second language acquisition in childhood. Simona has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of the Italian immersion program at Franklin Elementary, Glendale Unified School District.

Xochitl is one of our contributors and manager of  SpanglishBaby Playground. Her son is in a DL program in Berkeley where she has volunteered for the last four years and is part of a group of parents and teachers who successfully achieved the consolidation of all the DL programs in Berkeley into one school which will start in 2014!

Rebecca Bernard is the Chief Cultivator of TheCulturedSeed.com, a digital resource for parents that value cultural enrichment and want to grow globally-minded children. She’s also a founding parent of a new Spanish-immersion charter school that will open next year.

Although I feel like I’ve written and researched this subject a lot, I can’t believe I learned so much from this conversation. The two topics that caught my attention the most were standarized tests for kids in DL programs and what happens when a child goes to a DL elementary school, but there’s no such thing at the middle and high school level. You can watch the entire conversation here:

I hope you can take the time to watch it because I promise you’ll learn something new. And be on the lookout for the announcement of our next session of SpanglishBaby LIVE. We plan to discuss another popular subject: how to deal with the bilingual rebellion stage.

I have a bright 7 year old son. I’ve spoken to him since infancy in Spanish (OPOL). He used to speak only in Spanish to me, but now speaks and responds in English 90% of the time (this began in Kindergarten).

He is really quite bright and just started 3rd grade (he skipped 1st). He has a hunger to learn and to communicate. And the things he wants to talk about are getting more complex than my Spanish can handle! When he was under age 5, short simple phrases were fine, the topics were nature and home and love and names of things, and my Spanish was perfectly sufficient. Now, I need to use nuance and lots of vocab about castles, historical periods, math, conservation of endangered animals, orchestra and music terms, the subjects go one and on! I can speak in a basic way in Spanish but to get into great detail I need to mix in English. I hate it.

As an OPOL parent, what do I do when the minority language is getting more difficult for me as my son’s education advances? I feel that sticking to Spanish that lacks the depth and vocab of English prevents me from properly educating him about so many things that are important now that he’s older! He wants me to teach him about so many things, but I am missing the fluidity in Spanish. My responses to him are a bit choppy and less colorful while he goes on and on expressive, descriptive English!

Do I need to transition to another method? And how do I explain it to him?

Carla

Dear Carla,

I think it would be a shame if you stopped speaking Spanish with your son and threw away what you have been building for the past seven years. It appears that his current preference for and proficiency in English has already made him a passive bilingual (he can understand Spanish but really has difficulty or no motivation to speak it). So, at this point, if you give up Spanish, his odds of becoming a productive bilingual will really be low. Is this what you want?

I understand that he is a very bright child whose command of English might be beyond most average children. If this is the case, why don’t you exploit his talent and ‘his hunger to communicate’ to make him fluent in Spanish? Let school, books, and the environment teach him everything he wants to know about castles, historical periods, and music terms (living in the US will easily provide these opportunities). But let him further develop his cognitive skills by learning to speak another language. In fact, while the majority of monolingual children will eventually learn the vocabulary associated with all the ‘complex’ topics you mention, very few might be fortunate to learn another language in childhood.

So my suggestion is that not only you continue to provide Spanish input to your child but that you encourage him and socialize him into speaking only Spanish with you. Challenge him to use Spanish-only sentences (no mixing to English!) and to learn even simple words that he might have forgotten or never have learned. Introduce him to the complexities of Spanish literacy and challenge him to become not only bilingual but also bi-literate (even if his Spanish skills will not be as high as in English). At the same time, work on improving your Spanish skills by taking an advanced Spanish course, and use books and media to teach yourself and your child vocabulary in a wide range of topics. This is no easy feat as you will need to put in a lot of time, effort and motivation. But if you succeed, you will not only have a quite common child with a single, well-developed language but a special child who can navigate between languages and cultures and who possesses all the skills necessary to live in the 21^st century.

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

Editor’s note: This week we’re doing something a little bit different. Another one of our knowledgeable experts, Simona Montanari, has written a book and since  Suzanne, one of our regular contributors, is raising a trilingual child, we asked her to review it for all of us. And she did a wonderful job!

Simona Montanari’s book, Language Differentiation in Early Trilingual Development, offers an example of how a toddler developed the use of three languages: Tagalog, Spanish, and English. It presented a researcher’s quantitative perspective about how one child’s use of syntax, phonology, vocabulary, and language choice evolved among three languages. Montanari explored how, with consistent exposure, children can become trilingual speakers as opposed to the assumption that children exposed to multiple languages develop a unitary language system.

As a result of her three-year-long case study, Montanari provides a picture of how children who hear more than one language can potentially discriminate details, such as the phonology and grammar, belonging to each language. As a parent, who has made the intentional decision to expose my daughter to three languages, there are several strategies and considerations I learned by reading Montanari’s book. In addition, the book offered a glimpse as to the kinds of results parents might see their children express by surrounding them with multiple languages.

As a doctoral student with an interest in language acquisition, I appreciated the opportunity to read a case study in the form of a book. It was very much a quantitative analysis; therefore I hope my review of the book can serve as a useful guide to assist parents about how they would like to raise children with three languages. The following is a list of important factors and possible outcomes to consider, extracted and adapted from Montanari’s book, in order to help shape your decision about the kind of language education to provide to your children.

Balanced Proficiency

One of the first things to consider when deciding on a language plan are the resources (e.g., foreign language schools) your community offers to support the languages you plan on teaching your child. You may also want to consider a time line as to when you would like to introduce the third language (which may also be dependent on your home and community linguistic demographics) and how it can determine whether or not your child develops with a balanced proficiency in two or three languages. In other words, a balanced proficiency is not limited to vocabulary development, but also includes a competent use of phonology (sounds, pronunciation), syntax (grammar), and pragmatics (language use) in three languages!

Language Input

Just as adults adjust their use of language depending on whom they are speaking to, children do as well. This also refers to different languages or dialects individuals speak. How parents and the local community use language will also influence the way your child will communicate. The toddler in the book learned to mostly speak Tagalog with mom, English with the author, and that she could code-switch with dad and grandma. Montanari reminds us that the use of language is very contextualized. Children learn to whom and when they can speak in monolingual terms and to whom they can mix languages. In other words, the adults modeled what was expected and established the grounds for the way communication would take place in a conversation and in a particular setting.

Parental Speaking Strategies

What makes Montanari’s case study unique from various others about trilingual acquisition and young children is that her observations occurred in the child’s natural language environment. Several times the young child would be conversing with her grandmother, mother, father, and the author in the same context. In other words, other researchers observed children in controlled environments where the person they were speaking to would speak one language, whereas in this case study there were times when a similar scenario occurred, in addition to instances where the child would switch languages depending on who was present.

Montanari also adds that language mixing served not only to fill in vocabulary gaps, but for pragmatic reasons as well. For instance, she describes how, even at a very young age, children can begin to decipher with whom they can mix languages with and with whom they should only speak one language. Based on similar observations researchers, like Elizabeth Lanza, have described strategies used by adults when conversing with children. Some of the strategies, like the first three listed below yield more use of the minority language, hence better proficiency.

Minimal Grasp Strategy: Ask for clarification in the form of a question or a statement or pretend not to understand a child’s utterance and then ask for clarification.

Instruction Strategy: Explicitly inform the child what the expectations are when it comes to language choice and use.

Repetition Strategy: Involves the adults’ repetition of the content of the child’s mixed utterance, then use the other language in a non-question form.

Move On Strategy: Consists of a continuing utterance in which the adult indicates comprehension of the child’s mix, which also reveals a bilingual identity.

The Benefits of Bilinguals Learning a Third Language

At the time this study was conducted the research around trilingual acquisition was at its infancy. Much of the data available about language acquisition came from the way bilingual children learn two languages.  Montanari asserts that bilinguals learn a third language with greater ease than monolinguals especially if the third language is similar to one of the other two (e.g., Spanish and Tagalog). In addition, learning a third label for an object takes less time than learning a second. Lastly, her study concluded that hearing three languages does not necessarily delay the development of separate linguistic codes.

Montanari ends the book stating the need for more studies to examine what the lower limit of language exposure is in order to yield a more balanced proficiency in multiple languages. She asks the following questions: What is the minimum input needed in order to develop as a productive trilingual? Is it sufficient exposure to each language? Is it linguistic relatedness among languages? Is it psychological or personality-related factors? Is it a social context that strongly supports trilingualism?

Suzanne Garcia Mateus is a first-time mother and a first-year doctoral student in bilingual and bicultural education at the University of Texas at Austin. She continues to explore her research interests and the various ways to nurture a trilingual home via her blog titled: Interpretations of a Bilingual Life.

Hi Gabrielle,

My first suggestion for situations like yours is always to hire someone who can come and play with your child, the more often the better. At this age, children don’t really learn much language in class and it is often better they have someone who plays and interacts with them on a one-by-one basis. So if you could hire someone – a Spanish–speaking person – to spend time with your child some hours a week, this would be the most successful strategy that I can think of. Be specific when you hire this person that you want her to speak Spanish to your child and not English. Barbara Pearson’s book “Raising a Bilingual Child” warns that many nannies end up using English with the children they watch, both because they want to practice English or because the child might speak English to them. You might want to be very firm and explain to this babysitter that you are specifically hiring her to teach Spanish to your child, and so that no English should be used. You might want to call her ‘Spanish tutor’ instead of babysitter to give her some clout.

Now, I am aware that this might not be an affordable solution (but do your math: how much does the class cost? How many hours of a Spanish-speaking person does it equate to?) If that’s the case, you can help your child learn Spanish by continuing her Spanish classes, by playing Spanish music and videos, perhaps by participating in Spanish-language play groups etc.  These activities won’t make your child bilingual but they will introduce her to the language, and therefore help her learn it later when new opportunities (i.e. Spanish immersion programs) arise. In fact, in the long term, if you are truly motivated to raise a bilingual child, you should seriously consider Spanish immersion programs. These are programs (often public) that can run from K through 12th grade and teach the entire curriculum in both Spanish and English. Children in these programs have to work harder but they end up truly bilingual and bi-literate. Check your school district to see if they offer any immersion programs. Glendale Unified School Districts in L.A. County offers many languages, including Spanish, Italian, German, Armenian, Korean and Japanese.

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

However, my concerns have re-surfaced now that she has started preschool. She just started preschool (English) two days a week for 2 hours and I am now wondering how we will review the concepts she is learning in school. Do we review in English? (i.e.colors, letters, etc). I want her to feel successful in school. I remember when I took her to a Spanish school for a few classes she felt more comfortable participating. (Unfortunately, it is not financially feasible to take her to that Spanish heritage school right now).

She recently expressed that she does not like me reading to her in English or speaking in English to her, which made me concerned. Everyone tells me to continue speaking in Spanish to her because she will “pick up” on English at school—but what about her academic English? From what I understand, a child’s academic level of a language is usually around the level that their parents’ levels are, and since we are not speaking or reading to her in English, are we not risking her reaching a higher potential in academic English? I notice that her vocabulary in Spanish is great, and I believe it’s due to all of the reading we engage her in Spanish as well as Spanish TV. What to do?”

Dear Blanca,

I completely understand your concerns but I want to reassure you that your daughter will learn English without any major difficulty, given that she lives in the US and will be educated primarily in English. I know it is difficult to understand this now as she is still young and does not speak or understand it, but you will see that with time and with more exposure to it, she will learn it relatively quickly and effortlessly.

When children have strong skills in a first language, they have a strong basis on which to build a second language. In other words, competence in a first language translates into competence in a second language. This is especially true for academic language competence: children with high academic language competence in one language quickly transfer those skills in a second language and often end up more academically successful than monolinguals. It is when children have low skills in either language that language learning becomes difficult and issues might arise.

So my suggestion is that you keep using Spanish and you keep promoting and encouraging this language with her. If she likes you to read in Spanish, then just do so. Take advantage of this time in which she still prefers Spanish (this might change when she is older) and continue to build her Spanish vocabulary and language skills. Reinforce concepts learned at school in both languages if it makes you feel more comfortable, but do not just teach her letters, shapes and colors in English because this is the language of schooling. In order to be successful in English, children who speak languages other than English must develop academic skills in their home language first.

At the same time, tell her how much you value bilingualism and how important and special it is to know two languages. This will give her motivation to learn English outside the home without losing or neglecting her Spanish. Most importantly, continue exposing your daughter to English language experiences outside the home, just as you are doing with preschool. I suggest that you gradually increase the amount of time she spends at school and that you expand the English language opportunities that she has outside the home. It could be in the form of play dates, special classes, summer camps, etc. This will help her gradually become more accustomed to English and will lay the foundations for her learning of this language.

You will see that by age 5 or 6 her English will not be perfect, but it will start to be very similar to that of a monolingual. And then, one or two years of schooling will do the miracle and you will have a daughter who knows two languages incredibly well.

This is somewhat my daughter’s story. She heard Italian, Spanish, and English from birth. English remained a third language – the language she heard and knew less – well until she started kindergarten. At kindergarten entry, she was classified as an English language learner, but her Italian and Spanish were native-like. Just after one year of schooling – in an Italian immersion program on top of that – she is scoring above grade average in English reading and she has been reclassified as proficient. Notice that she is in Italian immersion, so she is being very little instructed in English. Yet, her strong Italian and Spanish skills have transferred over to English and have allowed her to learn a third language not only without difficulty but with an edge over monolinguals.

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

You, too, can have your question answered by one of the experts on our panel. Submit your question to Ask an Expert.

Thank you for your advice.

Amelia”

Hi Amelia,

The options that you outline for your children’s education are both reasonable and have both pros and cons. On the one hand, you could introduce your children to a ‘much-valued’ third language – Chinese – and have them become proficient in it through schooling, opening up opportunities for their future that might not be offered by knowing Spanish. At the same time, you would continue to provide Spanish input in the home so that you children would keep growing in this language as well. I am assuming the school that offers Chinese immersion also teaches English, so that by 12th grade, your children would be literate in English and Chinese and, at least, they would be orally proficient in Spanish.  So this option makes sense for those who highly value a third and lesser known language and for whom it does not matter the degree of proficiency and literacy achieved in the home (minority) language.

On the other hand, if you want your children to know Spanish WELL, if you want them to have grade-appropriate levels of literacy in it, and perhaps go to college in Spain as adults, then my advice is that you send them to Spanish immersion. As you say yourself, by just using Spanish at home, your children might become orally fluent in it but they will rarely reach the levels of literacy achieved by children who are schooled in that language for 8 or 12 years. Even if you provided many opportunities to develop Spanish literacy in the home, it would be very hard, if not impossible, to match the time spent in school learning in that language. So if your goal is full bilingualism and bi-literacy in the languages spoken by your family, I would say go for Spanish immersion. Of course you can always introduce a third language, but this could be done as a ‘subject’ that you take separately at school or after school.

I went myself for this latter option. My children were raised with three languages, Italian being spoken by me, English by dad, and Spanish by our nanny. When time came to send my daughters to school, I could have opted for the more ‘marketable’ Spanish immersion, but I went for instruction in the home (minority) language – Italian. For me, it makes more sense to have my children fully bilingual and bi-literate in the languages spoken at home than any other – no matter how marketable – language. The bottom line is, you have to look at what your goals are when deciding in which language(s) to educate your children as these choices will have life-long implications for them and for the entire family.

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

You, too, can have your question answered by one of the experts on our panel. Submit your question to Ask an Expert.

We are a Russian-speaking family and my 2.5 year old daughter goes to an English-speaking daycare. She is bilingual, although her Russian is more advanced than English. We do not speak to her in English at home at all, so all her exposure to English occurs at school. This summer we planned on her staying at home with her Russian-speaking grandmother, but I am afraid that three months of complete immersion in Russian will make her loose her nascent English skills. I am considering enrolling her into summer school (a considerable financial burden being my only hesitation). Do you think this is necessary or recommended, or could there be some alternative ways to keep her up to speed on her English acquisition? Thank you for your time!–Inna Sokolova

Dear Inna,

I don’t think you have to worry about your daughter losing her English over the summer. Even if she does forget it a bit, think about the big picture: what will be your daughter’s dominant language in the long run? What will be her preferred language? What language will she speak at school and with friends? The answer is English. You live in the US where English is the mainstream language and Russian is a minority language. Even if you live in a neighborhood where Russian is spoken, English remains the language spoken by EVERYONE, as well as the language of the media, of education, of business. In sum, no matter what you speak to your daughter, her English, in the long run, will always be her dominant and preferred language. You don’t see that now because, at two and a half, your daughter’s entire world has revolved around you and her immediate caregivers, who speak Russian. However, starting from about age five, children are tremendously influenced by their peers, which means that your daughter’s dominant and preferred language will most likely shift to English.

So, I am suggesting that you take advantage of the summer to reinforce and strengthen your daughter’s Russian skills. These are crucial years for her to develop her Russian. Later on, once the influence of peers and the overall social environment (which promotes English only) kicks in, it will be really hard to keep up her Russian. So it is advisable that you do that now and allow her to build a strong foundation in Russian,  before it might be too late. As for English, she has an entire life to develop it, and I assure you that since she is so young and already exposed to it in daycare, she will have no problem acquiring it and speak it like  her monolingual peers by kindergarten.

If you still feel that you don’t want to completely stop your daughter’s English exposure during the summer, organize play dates with English-speaking peers,  sign her up for any weekly class/activity (which will happen in English), watch videos, read her books in English, play music, or simply, do things with her out there where everyone speaks English. Exposing your child to the majority language is certainly very easy. It is the minority language that, in order to flourish, will need extra time and attention on the road to bilingualism.

Good luck!

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

“My kids are not babies anymore. They are 12 and 8. The 12 year old speaks better Spanish. It is harder for the 8 year old. I tried to tell them that at home we only speak Spanish, but for the little one that stops her from telling me her stories. What advice can you give me? I want them to be FULLY bilingual.”

Dear Marcela,

I completely understand your problem and your frustration as I am also experiencing something similar with my daughters. My oldest daughter, almost six, is completely fluent in Italian, Spanish and English. She passes as a native speaker in Italy as she has no accent, and her language is so advanced that people cannot believe she wasn’t born or raised there. At the same time, she is extremely fluent in Spanish; she reads in it and can talk with very few errors. The same is true for her English. In her, I see what is called “language aptitude,” a particular talent for language(s) that some children have and others might not.

My younger daughter is four and a half and, as opposed to her sister, she doesn’t seem strong in any of her three languages. Her Italian is dominant but she produces many errors, partly due to the influence of English in her Italian. She has learned a lot of English in the last year but because it is her third language she is still not completely fluent in it. And the same is true for her Spanish.  The crucial issue is that she seems to have a hard time keeping up with three languages and might be one of those children who would prefer to abandon Italian and Spanish to just go with English, the majority language.

Although personality – or the lack of language aptitude – might be the culprit, it is also true that my little one was not exposed to Italian as much as her sister in those first crucial years of life. She never had extensive one-on-one interactions with me because her sister was always around demanding interaction herself. And she pretty much had to learn Italian from her sister because I was working full time during those years. So it is important to remember that promoting multilingualism among younger siblings requires a bigger effort from our part and perhaps more understanding. As I said before, younger siblings do not receive the same amount of one-on-one interaction than first children did. They are also tremendously influenced by their siblings as to which language to learn and use. If older siblings speak English, then the amount of Spanish heard by younger children decreases, making them less likely or motivated to learn and speak this language.

How can we solve this problem? Exposure, exposure, exposure…
Continue speaking Spanish in your home, don’t give up (this is what many parents mistakenly do). Provide your younger child with more opportunities to practice this language, from purchasing books, tapes and videos in Spanish, to perhaps enrolling her in an Spanish immersion program (ideal) or in Spanish classes. Emphasize what an amazing “talent” it is to be bilingual and constantly praise her for being able to speak two languages. Children love to please their parents and if they can please you by speaking two languages they will try or at least be more motivated to do it. Take a trip to a country where Spanish is spoken, where the child will have to interact in that language or won’t be able to communicate (for a long period of time, if you can). And see if your oldest child can help: if she started using Spanish with her sister, perhaps your youngest daughter could learn and use more of it. After all, in my case, it was really my oldest daughter who taught a great deal of Italian to my little one and who motivated her to learn and speak it. To these days, it is still their preferred language and the language which they use all the time to communicate. Although I fear that schooling and the influence of English-speaking children might break this fragile link, I am confident that any talkative (!), motivated, yet understanding parent can succeed in raising fully bilingual children.

Good luck!

Simona Montanari, Ph.D.- – Assistant Professor of Child and Family Studies at California State University in Los Angeles. She is the department’s expert in early multilingual development and has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Southern California. Simona is Italian and she’s also a mommy to trilingual daughters aged 3 and 4 1/2. In addition, she conducts a workshop titled: “How to Raise a Bilingual Child” in the LA area. You can read her answers here.

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!