image credit: drawing with mummy, via flickr

I have a 27 month old son, who is currently doing a great job learning two languages. He learns Spanish from me and English from his mother (I am Spanish and she is British). I can see that he hasn’t had any problems with this arrangement to date. My wife and I have been wondering if it would be a good idea to teach our son a third language. Is that a possibility? Would this affect his first two languages or put too much pressure on him? Is he ready for this or should we wait? We look forward to your response, since we’ll be basing our decision on your professional opinion.

Eloy

Dear Eloy,

Of course it’s possible to teach your son a third language. If you can create enough exposure in that language, your child could even become trilingual. Unless your son has some sort of developmental problems (which doesn’t seem to be the case if he is already speaking Spanish and English at 27 months), he should have the necessary capacity for learning several languages at the same time as long as he is given enough learning opportunities in each language. There are many trilingual children in the world who are proof that trilingualism is possible.

Your fears about putting too much pressure on your son are the key to deciding whether or not to start teaching him a third language at this point. The best option would be for your son to learn his third language in the same way he has learned his first two, by having enough exposure to the language so that he’ll acquire it “naturally”. If he’ll be learning his third language in more of a classroom type setting, it may be best to wait a bit until your son’s first two languages are a bit more grounded. This would put less stress on your son, and you wouldn’t risk any interference with the development of his first two “mother tongues”.

Here’s an example, which might clear things up for you:

If you are able to expose your child to the third language during at least 20% of his waking hours (because one of you has a high enough level in the language or you plan to hire a nanny who speaks the language or are enrolling your son in a school which teaches in that language), then go ahead and start right away. But if you’re thinking about taking your son to classes once a week or watching television in the other language, without giving your son the opportunity to really speak with anyone in that language, it might be a good idea to wait. In this case we’re not talking about developing the third language like a native speaker would, so your son should be able to learn a third language in a classroom setting when he’s a bit older. Many of us have learned to speak a new language very well as older children or even adults, so it’s never too late.

Here are a few suggestions on how to start with the third language if one of the parents can speak and read the language well:

-Reading books in the new language are a great option. It can be useful to choose books for younger children with illustrations, tabs and other special features for you to discuss with your son. The parent who decides to read to the child in the new language should always read in that language, so that the child associates reading time with the new language. If you can find bilingual books in the new language and the language the other parent speaks, that would be a wonderful resource. For example, an English speaking father could read a book in German (the third language) and the mother would read the same book in Spanish. The child will first become familiar with the story in one of his native languages, and then he’ll enjoy the story in the third language.

-A new character or doll that only speaks the new language. This system will allow you not to break the “one parent, one language” rule because you can use the stuffed animal as a new voice. If possible, you might even try to find a doll based on one of the stories you’ve begun to read him (this may be possible with some well known characters). The doll “only knows how to speak” the thrid lanugage, so you could begin to play with your child using a separate voice for the doll in the new language.

-”Only in the new language”. Children have a great understanding of exceptions. If you have a no television during the week rule at home, you could make an exception for television or movies in the new language. You can also use dvds your son already loves and allow him to watch them with the audio track in the new language.

Sometimes it can be difficult to get a child to see a new language as something natural, so creating situations for your son to interact with monolingual people in the new language is one of the most useful things you can do (during family vacations, with a native speaker nanny or an exchange student at home…) The best of luck!

Dr. Orlanda Varela is a Child Psychiatrist and the Coordinator of the educational project for Bilingual Families at SINEWS Multilingual Therapy Institute in Madrid. SINEWS organizes bilingualism workshops for parents in Madrid, as well as personalized speech therapy sessions to bilingual families with specific language development problems. For more information, please visit sinews.es.