Myths of Bilingualism and Developmental Language Disorders
Children with developmental language disorders (language learning difficulties) have language skills that are delayed and below that of same-aged peers, but they often have no other developmental deficits. It is common for bilingual parents of such children to ask if they should teach their child both languages. Unfortunately, in the past, these parents may have been advised to use only one of their languages, typically that used in the school system, with their child. This advice stemmed from myths surrounding bilingualism and language disorders. The review article Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities by Dr. Fred H. Genesee compiles research evidence that busts two of the common myths.
Myth #1: Children with developmental language disorders should not be taught two languages. This myth is based on the assumptions that it will be easier for these children to learn and use one language than two, and that the use of two languages will make the disorder worse. Research has shown that bilingual children with developmental language disorders have the same difficulties in each of their two languages, for instance, they may struggle to use the proper verb tense (past, present, future) in both languages. Research has also shown that the severity of the disorder is the same for a bilingual child as it is for monolingual children with the same language disorder learning the same languages. The evidence suggests that learning two languages does not increase the impairment compared to children with the same difficulties who learn only one language, therefore, there is no harm in exposing a child with a language disorder to multiple languages.
Myth #2: Children with developmental language disorders should not be put in immersion programs. This myth is based on the assumption that students with well-developed language skills, especially literacy skills, are at an advantage compared to students with poorer language skills. It is thought that these children will face language challenges in an immersion program, for example a French-immersion program, resulting in worse language skills than if they were in a typical English program. To determine if this were the case, one study looked at literacy and academic achievement measures of immersion and non-immersion students who were similarly impaired or normal in their first language development. The study found that immersion students with low language skills demonstrated the same levels of English and academic achievement as similarly impaired students in the typical English program. So the immersion students were not performing worse than similar students in the English program, suggest that children with developmental language disabilities should not be excluded from immersion programs based the false assumption that they will achieve less in such a program.
The main point to remember is that bilingual children with developmental language disorders are bilingual within the limits of their learning ability. They may not learn or use their two languages perfectly, but nor would they learn or use any single language perfectly. Moreover, exposing any child to a language rich environment has many positive benefits, and a child should not be deprived of this opportunity solely because of language learning difficulties.
Reference:
Genesee, F. H. (2009). Early childhood bilingualism: Perils and possibilities. Journal of
Applied Research on Learning, 2, 9-12.
