Bilingualism at 23 months, I

It’s a long time since I last wrote about A. language development, but recently I read two blogs written by mothers who document the linguistic development of their bi/tri-lingual children, and I realised how useful these posts are, not only for the writer but also for the reader. For the writer it’s an opportunity to think over things that are happening right under her nose, for the reader though it’s an opportunity to gain indirect experience, to learn from others. If I add that the children on Intrepidly Bilingual and of Come in un bosco (in Italian) are older than mine, you’ll see why I love these blogs.

So, how’s bilingualism going in my house? Suspence…

Actually, it’s going really well!

Let me say it, I’m really happy! A. is a fully bilingual little boy. He understands everything in both languages, acts to instructions given in either language, and most of all, he speaks both languages! He was quite a late talker, so now that he’s 23 month old neither the quantity nor the variety of his speech are astonishing, and this is perfectly Ok. Every child has his/her own pace, and being male, a single child and (may be also) bilingual does not help.

However in the last month or so A. language skills improved considerably, although I can’t quantify by how much… (One side of me would like to know exactly how many words my boy can use actively, another side of me though is quite happy that I’m not the kind of mother who counts every single word the little one says. It’s a fierce battle. However the second side has a strong ally, lack of time, so it wins. Just in case lack of time is not a problem for you first please let us all know because it’s almost unheard of, secondly you might want to know that monitoring a child’s language development can be interesting and is recommended by some experts. Although I’d humbly add: please make sure you don’t overdo it, for your own good.)

There are few things I find rather interesting about this language development. The first one is that neither language has emerged as dominant, not yet. There still is a very good balance between Italian and English, he has added new words in both languages and even uses (very) few words in either language. This is far from obvious, considering that:

• I’m the only person who speaks English to him
• We are now by the seaside, where we actually spend very little time me and him alone, most of the time we are with other people
• I am not a native speaker

I’m obviously tempted to give myself a good tap on the shoulder and celebrate my success; oh how good am I at implementing OPOL consistently!  Hmm… may be, most likely though I’m lucky that quite a few things are turning in my favour… A.’s own character to start with, the support I’m getting from family and friends (everybody says Car and Bye Bye like there was no equivalent in Italian!) and not last the fact that English is an easier language, with those nice and simple one syllable short words like car, down, sea, beach, etc.

Quite frankly, I do pay a lot of attention at speaking only English to him, but there are few Italian expressions I can’t help using (like Bravo! Now I know why everybody around the world uses this word…) and the occasional sentence in Italian does happen, but it’s really rare, and when it happens I bit my lips and make note of it, i.e. by now I have an automatic control system that helps me minimizing exceptions to the rule.

That said, I am well aware that things, might change, Italian might become clearly dominant and I might have to fight disappointment. I promise I’ll let you know…

Finally, A. is also producing two words sentences, happily mixing languages like “Shoe Anna”, or “Car Nonno” (Nonno=Grandfather). Again, this is totally OK and doesn’t worry me in the slightest. As we saw earlier Code Mixing is normal, but it’s also one more reason to avoid Code Switching on the parent’s side.

I realised I have so many things to say in the topic, so I’ll continue with more posts in the next days. Where I’ll talk about:

• A.’s language development and gestures
• A.’s language development and songs

See here for Bilingualism at 23 months, II and Bilingualism at 23 months, III

Before closing let me introduce you to a new idea:

BILINGUALISM STEP BY STEP

I realised the obvious: that it’s important not only to think about change but to act it, to make things happen. So I though a gentle invitation to act might help you too…

This is today’s recommended step: Find someone who’s not a family member and talk to them about your and your children’s experience of bilingualism. Just tell them how it works, what works best what needs improvement, how happy are you with it, etc. It’s amazing how many things we realize and understand just by spelling them out and trying to explain them to others. And, of course, let me know how it goes please…

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