Language and Infancy

So let’s imagine an infant called Xi who is born in China and spends the first 6 months of his life there, surrounded, obviously, by speakers of Chinese.

At the age of 6 months, Xi is adopted by a French couple and removed to France where he grows up as a monolingual French speaker with nobody speaking Chinese around him.

But here’s one crucial thing: Xi’s brain will still function as that of a Chinese speaker even though he will not remember a single word of Chinese. In order to speak French – his only language – he will be accessing secondary functions of his brain.

People tend to equate memory with impact and find it hard to understand why the events of infancy and early childhood have such an enormous significance for who they are. It’s precisely before the age of 3, however, that the brain’s extreme plasticity makes it receptive to the environment in a way it will never be again.

This is especially crucial for immigrants to keep in mind. Children of immigrants born in the new country will obviously speak the language of the new country as their native tongue. However, if they are exposed to their parents’ language in infancy, their brain will never be fully set up to process the language of the new country.

What does this mean? That immigrants must expose the child to the language of the new country from birth and, ideally, before birth.

Here is the actual study.

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27 responses to “Language and Infancy”

December 14, 2015

\ he will be accessing secondary functions of his brain.

I looked at the study, but haven’t seen them mentioning practical effects of early exposure to another language. Are there any effects visible with a naked eye, without brain scans? If not, why should we care about brain scans, except for curiosity sake? For instance, will such children do worse in Verbal reasoning part of Psychometric Entrance Test (PET), where one must read fast and have rich vocabulary? (I know PET tests are not everything in life, to say the least. Just gave it as a possible example.)

Another question is what happens with children who have been exposed to two or more languages from birth. For instance, a child of immigrants in Israel whose grandparents speak only Russian, but in kindergarten (started at 3-6 months) everybody speaks Hebrew. I suspect there may be some difference in brain scans compared to monolingual Hebrew speakers since a brain learns to process several languages at once. Have you heard of any studies looking into the issue? If such a study is made and indeed there is a difference in some brain scan, will you say “try to teach your child only one language till age of 3” despite easier language acquisition in infancy?

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Clarissa

December 14, 2015

People can draw their own conclusions but I think that it’s pretty clear that having the neural pathways that produce one’s native language all messed up is pretty heavy stuff. Who cares about some silly entrance exam when there is obviously something much more serious going on?

Children of immigrants carry a burden of their parents’ choice from birth and need to grow up in extra comfortable environments to mitigate it somewhat.

As for the naked eye, trauma becomes more visible the older people get.

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1. el
  
  December 14, 2015
  
  \ People can draw their own conclusions
  
  I am not an expert on language learning, so I asked about yours. I thought Klubnikis knows more than one language, for instance. In Israel my mother saw a small child who spoke 3 languages beautifully and without accent: Hebrew, English (father – immigrant from some English speaking country) and Russian (because of his maternal grandmother). Is it a tragedy and the boy “all messed up”? I thought it was great and that I wished to know many languages as well as somebody who learned them in childhood. Notice that I am for teaching one’s children the language of the country from birth. My question is about teaching two languages from birth and I asked your opinion about the latter approach.
  
  The article says:
  
  \ Thus, individuals who speak more than one language may recruit certain ‘non-language’ regions during the performance of PWM tasks, in addition to the brain regions typically observed in monolinguals. This may provide the basis for some of the cognitive advantages observed in bilingual speakers.
  
  So I wondered whether learning two languages from childhood may confer some advantage(s). If something has not been usually done in formerly non global world, why conclude w/o further investigation that studying 2 languages from birth will hurt more than help? With the world becoming more global, more people will deal with similar dilemma.
  
  \ Children of immigrants
  
  If my family immigrated in my early teens, am I an immigrant or a child of (since I haven’t made the decision to immigrate)? Or both? Because the group “children of immigrants” seems to be extremely diverse, including both people born in the new country 15 years after parents’ immigration and people like me. The experiences of those two sub-groups are extremely different.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    December 14, 2015
    
    “Is it a tragedy and the boy “all messed up”?”
    
    It’s a great burden for the child. I don’t envy him at all. My sister, by the way, made sure she spoke English, the baby’s native language, with her from Day 1. And Klubnikis is a speaker of English, period. She does understand some Russian and some Spanish but she is an English-speaker. If she now (or at any time in the future) decides to learn any of these languages to the point of fluency, that’s great because she’s now way past the crucial stage of infancy. And if she chooses not to, that’s also great.
    
    “So I wondered whether learning two languages from childhood may confer some advantage(s). If something has not been usually done in formerly non global world, why conclude w/o further investigation that studying 2 languages from birth will hurt more than help?”
    
    How can you “study” from birth? Infants don’t study, they poop and sleep. 🙂 I’m not talking about studying or learning. I’m talking about the formation of the native language in infancy. This is a crucial process, given that language is what makes us human. As for learning, everything people need to learn will happen eventually. Infancy is a time when different tasks are fulfilled. Immigrants must understand that their child will be a native speaker of the new country’s language and act accordingly.
    
    “If my family immigrated in my early teens, am I an immigrant or a child of (since I haven’t made the decision to immigrate)? ”
    
    You are a native speaker of Russian and will never be anything else. These things are decided in infancy.
    
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    1. Amelia
      
      December 14, 2015
      
      “and Russian (because of his maternal grandmother)”
      
      Why am I not surprised that a Russian-speaking grandmother had to be involved. You can take a grandma out of the USSR. . .
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        Yep. This is a culture where children are seen as trained poodles who have to perform for the audience, making parents and grandparents look good. They are not people but objects of prestige. 😦
        
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      2. el
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        \ Why am I not surprised that a Russian-speaking grandmother had to be involved.
        
        I was raised by my mother and her parents and am very glad my great grandmother was involved in my life and invested into me (with my grandfather too) as much as she did. If I had a father, I think having a close relationship with grandparents wouldn’t have hurt either.
        
        A grandmother being involved by having a close relationship with a kid does not have to be a bad thing. Your word choice implied it was – “Had to be involved”. Not had to be, but “cared enough for the kid to be.”
        
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        Clarissa
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        “A grandmother being involved by having a close relationship with a kid does not have to be a bad thing.”
        
        WE are not talking about A grandmother. We are talking about a Russian-speaking person from a culture and a generation that is known for cruel and inhuman child-rearing practices.
        
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        el
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        \ WE are not talking about A grandmother. We are talking about a Russian-speaking person from a culture and a generation that is known for cruel and inhuman child-rearing practices.
        
        My grandparents were not like that one bit. My mother thinks Jewish Russian-speaking families were different in their child-rearing practices, based on how her parents and grandparents were raising her vs what she saw in non-Jewish families around. My experience confirms her theory.
        
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        Clarissa
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        “My mother thinks Jewish Russian-speaking families were different in their child-rearing practices, based on how her parents and grandparents were raising her vs what she saw in non-Jewish families around.”
        
        Let’s not make me laugh too hard, shall we? 🙂 I have both Jews and non-Jews in the family plus I have seen the families of relatives and friends. Soviet legacy is what it is.
        
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        Clarissa
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        I have also got to say, since you keep bringing it up, that your mother’s dismissive comments about Russians that you keep referencing are both tactless and cruel given that you are half-Russian. Talking about cruelty to children, you don’t have to beat them with a shovel to be excruciatingly mean.
        
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    2. el
      
      December 14, 2015
      
      \ It’s a great burden for the child. I don’t envy him at all.
      
      Because the process of the formation of the native language in infancy was disrupted or for other reasons too? Does knowing several languages make a child feel not fully belonging to Israeli society?
      
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      1. Clarissa
        
        December 14, 2015
        
        Because he is being paraded like trained poodle. I always feel so sad for these poor kids who are burdened with constantly proving their parents’ worth. Instead of the 3 adults making an effort to speak his language, he is forced to service them by speaking all of their languages.
        
        “Does knowing several languages make a child feel not fully belonging to Israeli society?”
        
        Having parents who are different is already a burden and a child is saddled with negotiating that from an early age. This is not something immigrants can avoid but they can be understanding and grateful for the hard work the child is doing because of them.
        
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Amelia

December 14, 2015

When do you think is a good time to start learning a second language?

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Clarissa

December 14, 2015

I started learning Spanish at the age of 23 and the results have been great, as we can see. 🙂 There is no hurry, especially in infancy. When school age comes and if a child is interested, that might be a good time.

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December 14, 2015

I apologize for being tactless to you here.

As for me, I asked my mother about the issue after reading you saying all Russian-speakers were like that. She wasn’t mean or cruel. Should she have lied to me because of my father’s nationality? I am glad she feels free to be truthful with me about her view of the world, no matter the subject.

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Clarissa

December 14, 2015
“I apologize for being tactless to you here.”
- These comments are tactless to you not to me. 🙂
“As for me, I asked my mother about the issue after reading you saying all Russian-speakers were like that. She wasn’t mean or cruel.”
- We are all Russian speakers: Russian, Ukrainian, Jewish, Estonian, etc.
“Should she have lied to me because of my father’s nationality?”
- A person who loves her child, loves her child’s ethnicity as well. My Jewish father, for instance, is a fanatic of the Ukrainian culture and does not know any “truth” that would lead him to be dismissive of Ukrainians.
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valter07

December 14, 2015

Sorry, I must admit I’ve only read the abstract, but does the article make any clear connections between bilingual children having to use different neural pathways for linguistic information processing and any kind of trauma?
I suspect that human brain is such a complicated machine with so many different cause and effect relationships, that it is difficult to claim based on changes to the blood flow to different parts of the brain (that is what fMRI is actually detecting, the rest is interpretation) that X constitutes “trauma” and not one of several possible paths to normal development.
I personally believe it is much more important why the parents are doing this or that thing than what exactly they are doing. If the parent is inclined to parade the kid’s achievements for the benefits of parent’s pride or of proving something to some real or imaginary people – the parent will find the way. 😦 There are things other than languages. Sciences for example 🙂 Or athletics. Or a dozen other things. These are motivations that are damaging, since the child subconsciously perceives that he/she is being used and not being properly loved and accepted… Loving the child for who she is is the most important thing. The rest is just prioritizing – by making this choice I reduce one trauma but create another one later on. Or vice versa… One can argue that by communicating with the immigrant child only in the language of the new country the parent is depriving the child of important connections with her heritage. Some anthropologist may believe this is more important than linguistics. 🙂 I do not know, I am just teasing you. But in truth – nobody knows for sure.
Trauma-free life is impossible. The goal should not be total elimination of trauma, but learning to handle age-appropriate trauma (for the child) and being supportive (for the parents).

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Clarissa

December 14, 2015
“One can argue that by communicating with the immigrant child only in the language of the new country the parent is depriving the child of important connections with her heritage. ”
- What heritage can anybody access in infancy? This is all very specifically about infancy. Besides, if one’s heritage is such a great thing, then why did one leave in the first place?
“does the article make any clear connections between bilingual children having to use different neural pathways for linguistic information processing and any kind of trauma”
- These are neurobiologists, not psychoanalysts, although their results support psychoanalytic theory about the crucial nature of infant experiences.
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1. valter07
  
  December 14, 2015
  
  For what it is worth, the paper does not contain the word “trauma” even once. 🙂 So we are dealing with your psychoanalytic interpretation of the paper. 🙂 Which may be correct. Or may not be.
  
  —What heritage can anybody access in infancy? T
  
  There is a special region of hypothalamus for that. 🙂
  
  —Besides, if one’s heritage is such a great thing, then why did one leave in the first place?
  
  I very strongly hope we are not going to have a discussion on relative merits of political and “sausage” immigration. 🙂 🙂 The world is not black and white.
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    December 14, 2015
    
    “For what it is worth, the paper does not contain the word “trauma” even once.”
    
    That’s what I said.
    
    “So we are dealing with your psychoanalytic interpretation of the paper. 🙂 Which may be correct. Or may not be.”
    
    And now let’s raise our eyes to the top of the page and read the header. 🙂
    
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valter07

December 14, 2015

—And now let’s raise our eyes to the top of the page and read the header.

Ma’am yes ma’am! 🙂

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December 15, 2015

Lots of immigrants don’t teach their children the mother tongue so they can learn English and it doesn’t really work — they just learn deficient English from others who do not speak it well, and miss out on the other language. Very many of my students have not acquired any language completely.

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Clarissa

December 15, 2015

Everybody has a native language, even people who come from modest backgrounds and have very limited linguistic competency.

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1. Z
  
  December 15, 2015
  
  Yes, but it becomes that deficient English in this case. I would rather they learn a language their parents know more of. I think this would make it easier to acquire another language.
  
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2. cliff arroyo
  
  December 15, 2015
  
  I’m not sure, the concept of “native language” is I think an outgrowth of the nation state and applies to those people who use the same language from birth, through school and at work. That’s a situation largely created by the nation state but of less applicability outside of it.
  
  In lots of places and circumstances and hundreds of millions of people have no single “native language” but rather two or more. Also, there might not be a single language that they have full competence in (as in being able to talk and write about all areas of life in).
  
  There are also weird cases that come up from immigration. Maria Callas, the opera singer, seems to have had no single native language (both her English and Greek, while completely fluent sounded a little weird to native speakers) and most of her working life was singing and speaking in Italian…
  
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  1. Clarissa
    
    December 15, 2015
    
    Truly bilingual people are so rare that they might actually be a myth. I can’t think of a single really bilingual person I ever met. Other people say they’ve met one or two, so maybe they do exist. I’d definitely love to meet such a unicorn. As a philologist, I’d definitely enjoy such an experience.
    
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