Many Malaysian families use Mandarin or another language at home, BM and English at school, and maybe a dialect with grandparents. So it’s natural to wonder: is this too much? Will my child get mixed up?
Here is what the research says, what it doesn’t say, and what you can do at home.
First, an honest note about the research
Most studies in this area look at bilingual children (two languages), not trilingual children. There is much less research directly on children learning three languages. So the findings below are about two languages, and we are careful not to stretch them further than they go.
What the research on bilingual children says
Research has found no evidence that hearing two languages confuses children. A review for clinicians by Hoff and Core concludes that dual language input does not confuse children, and that young children appear to build separate systems for each language. An earlier literature review by Guiberson (2013) also found no evidence to support the idea of “language confusion” in bilingual children.
Mixing languages is normal. Children (and adults) who speak more than one language often switch between them, sometimes within a sentence. The Hoff and Core review explains that this does not mean the child can’t tell the languages apart. One common reason is that they are reaching for a word they know better in the other language.
Being bilingual does not appear to raise the risk of language disorder. Research reviewed by Peña et al. (2023) indicates bilingual children are not at higher risk of language disorder than monolingual peers, and their own study of 595 Spanish–English bilingual children found no added risk from dividing time between two languages. It also warns that testing a bilingual child in only one language can give a misleading picture.
What the research does NOT promise
This is the part that matters most for planning.
Each language needs enough input. In the Hoff and Core review, children develop faster in the language they hear more, and both the amount and the quality of input matter. Learning more than one language does not mean every language will keep up on its own.
Progress in each single language may be slower at first. The same review notes that, on average, bilingual children’s vocabulary in each separate language can be smaller than that of children learning only one, because their time is shared between languages. Many are still within the normal range, and when you count what they know across both languages, they often compare well with children learning one language.
Many children have a stronger language. According to Hoff and Core, bilingual children commonly have one stronger language and different strengths in each, for example home words in one language and school words in another.
Not all input is equal. The review suggests that talking and reading together supports language growth, while television exposure appears to help much less.
If you are genuinely worried about your child’s speech or language development, don’t assume it’s “because of the languages”. Speak to a qualified professional, and ask for all of your child’s languages to be taken into account.
What you can do at home
- Give each language a regular place in the week. It doesn’t need to be strict. A bedtime story in one language, a car-ride chat in another, homework time in the third.
- Talk with your child, not at them. Back-and-forth conversation and shared reading appear to help much more than TV.
- Use the language you’re comfortable in. You don’t need to speak all three. Rich, natural conversation in your strongest language is valuable.
- Don’t scold mixing. If your child mixes languages, simply repeat the idea back in the language you’re using: “Oh, you saw a kucing? Yes, a cat!”
- Notice which language is getting less input. If one language only appears at school, look for small ways to bring it into daily life, such as books, songs or short chats.
- Be patient. Language grows with steady, regular use over time, so try not to expect quick results.
Where YouSeed fits in
At YouSeed, children aged 4 to 12 learn English, BM and Mandarin online with real teachers, live, in small classes. Our programme suits children from SJKC and international schools. Before classes start, a teacher gives your child a free one-to-one assessment, so you can see where each language stands and which may need more support.
Book a free assessment and talk to our teachers about your child’s three languages.
Research sources:
– Hoff, E. & Core, C. (2013). What Clinicians Need to Know about Bilingual Development. Seminars in Speech and Language, 34(4). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5021218/
– Guiberson, M. (2013). Bilingual Myth-Busters Series: Language Confusion in Bilingual Children. ASHA Perspectives on Communication Disorders and Sciences in CLD Populations, 20(1). https://pubs.asha.org/doi/abs/10.1044/cds20.1.5
– Peña, E. D., Bedore, L. M. & Granados Vargas, A. (2023). Exploring Assumptions of the Bilingual Delay in Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 66(12). https://pubs.asha.org/doi/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-23-00117
