In any American office where two Russian-speaking employees work, you can hear something like this: «I’ll send you the file by email; there’s all the statistics there, you just need to resubmit it.» None of the speakers considers themselves to have speech difficulties. The colleagues at the adjacent tables don’t think so either.
But when five-year-old Grigory is told by his grandmother over video conference, «there was such a big tortoise there, he walked very slowly, and I petted him,» a worrying message appears in the parent chat in the evening. The child is having trouble with his tongue; is this normal, should I see a speech therapist?.
The difference between the two situations exists only in the minds of adults. The mechanism in both cases is the same, and it has been described for a long time.
What happened in the phrase about the turtle
There are specific terms for the phenomenon that parents call «language switching»; however, there is no unified terminology. The transition from one language to another between utterances is usually called «code-switching.» Some authors distinguish it as «code-mixing»; others consider it to be the same type of switching, only within a sentence. The boundaries are drawn differently; the essence of both processes is the same. Both processes are characteristic of both children and adults, and the more fluent they are in both languages, the stronger the effect is.
For Grisha, the situation is clear to the point of simplicity. He hears the word «slow» twenty times a day in kindergarten, but at home it rarely comes up, because at home hardly anyone comments on the speed of the turtles' movement. The brain chooses the wrong word; it chooses quickly. If the English word is activated first, it will take its place in the sentence.
It is important to distinguish two different phenomena that often get lumped together. The insertion of a ready-made English word into a Russian phrase and the translation of an English rule into Russian are handled differently. «I petted him» is an insertion; «I am waiting for you,» the child says, and that is already a translation of the rule, a translation from English into Russian "wait for you." The first occurs naturally as the Russian vocabulary grows. The second requires work on grammar and involves methods for teaching bilinguals; it is this, and not the English words in the phrase, that shows where the child has a real gap.
The mixture obeys grammar, and this was checked.
The most interesting thing about this area is that the mixing did not turn into chaos. Linguist Jürgen Maisel, who studied grammatical constraints in code-mixing among small bilinguals, showed that children insert foreign words into strictly defined positions, following the rules of both languages at once.
Grisha said «he walked very slowly,» placing the English adverb exactly where it belongs in the Russian sentence. He did not say «he walked very slowly» and did not throw out the Russian frame of the sentence because «petted» had acquired a Russian context and a Russian word order. The child who is supposedly confused actually maintains two grammatical systems and stitches them together according to the rules.
On this basis, linguist Fred Genesie called the idea of a overloaded bilingual brain a myth about a monolingual brain. He relies on three lines of evidence: the basic milestones of speech development in bilingual children are the same, their language systems are divided, and blending is subject to grammatical constraints. Mastering two languages does not prove to be a more difficult task for the nervous system than mastering one.
This leads to the conclusion, repeated in dozens of studies and included in the position of the American Association of Speech, Language, and Hearing. Bilingualism does not cause delays in language development. In itself, mixing languages does not indicate any impairment.
A dictionary that cannot be considered to be one language
This is where the mistake lies; families get scared in a safe place, and sometimes they even become more anxious instead.
The vocabulary of a bilingual child is not evaluated based on just one language. Experts use conceptual counting and take into account the concepts that the child knows, regardless of which language they are stored in. Knowing «dog» and «dog» counts as one concept. Knowing "tortoise" only in Russian counts as one concept. Double knowledge does not give extra points; unilateral knowledge does not take anything away.
Early vocabulary acquisition in bilingual children is at the same rate as in monolinguals, and milestones in a single word and two words are reached approximately at the same time. The situation when the overall score in both languages is behind that of peers prompts us to think about it, and the evaluation should be done by a specialist rather than a parent with a notebook.
The practical point here is simple. Grandma recognizes Russian words and gets terrified. The teacher recognizes English words and writes in the report that there is a lack of vocabulary. Both are right in their own way and both are wrong together because no one has thought of compiling lists.
Silence in the new school
A separate story is familiar to families who recently moved. A child who used to talk incessantly at home ends up in an English-speaking kindergarten and becomes silent. He does not respond to the teacher, does not approach the children, returns home and remains silent for another hour.
This state is described as a silent period, in English «silent period», and is a normal feature of learning a second language. It can last several months. During this time, the child works: he listens, accumulates, integrates, and begins to speak when the accumulated material is enough to form a sentence.
Parents find this part of the process difficult because silence can seem like a step back. Understanding what is happening and not pressing is helpful. Asking «just say something in English» prolongs the silent period.
The caveat here is fundamental. The silent period applies to a new language. If a child stops speaking immediately in both languages, including the home language where they spoke fluently, that’s a different matter.
The principle on which all diagnostics is based
There is one rule that forms the basis of the assessment of speech in bilingual children, and it is useful for parents to know it by heart. True impairment of speech development occurs in both languages. The difficulty that is noticeable only in one language is almost always caused by the volume of contact with that language in particular.
A child who speaks English fluently and stumbles in Russian shows a distribution of language practices, and this is not a violation. A child who has the same difficulties in both languages deserves an evaluation.
What are considered signs that require examination
Below are the guidelines that provide professional recommendations for working with bilingual children. They are not diagnostic criteria, and you should not make any decisions about your child based on them on your own. Here is a list of observations that warrant a consultation.
It is worth starting with the linguistic milestones that have not been reached in both languages at the same time. The threshold used by speech specialists looks like this: fewer than fifty words and the absence of two-word combinations by the age of two. For a bilingual child, counting should be done in both languages at the same time.
Fifty words for two years or two and a half years
The discrepancy arose due to a change in principle. The previous control points noted what is available to half of the children of a certain age; the new ones note what is available to the majority, seventy-five percent. The milestone tied to the majority inevitably falls at a later age, while the children’s development itself has not changed in a single day.
Speech specialists have criticized this adjustment; their argument is practical. A parent who sees thirty months on the list calmly waits another six months. The appointment itself and the evaluation take an additional week, and the postponement obtained on paper results in a real loss of time.
For a bilingual family, the conclusion is simple. It is wise to base decisions on the earlier date, to count words in both languages at once, and to remember that consulting does not cost anything, whereas waiting sometimes comes at a cost.
What is most worrying is the loss of what was already there. The child spoke and stopped speaking, used the construction tools and lost them, responded to speech and stopped responding. Regression always requires attention, regardless of the number of languages in the family.
Regression is closely linked to understanding, because loss often begins with it. If a child does not fulfill simple requests in the language they hear at home every day, it is not a matter of being bilingual.
By the age of four, a child should be able to understand what another person is saying. Many children struggle with certain sounds at this age, and even though recommendations allow for this, a four-year-old is already being listened to without a mother acting as a translator. The other situation is worrying when it is impossible to understand what is being said in either Russian or English, and the same is true in both languages. In this case, the child needs to undergo an examination.
The latter refers to communication itself. A lack of interest in interaction, difficulties with the order of conversation, and the inability to maintain simple exchanges of responses do not depend on how many languages the child hears.
There is no mixing of languages in any of these points. There can be no such thing there.
Why an assessment in English only distorts the picture
If a consultation is necessary, it is important to understand one technical aspect that parents rarely discuss in advance.
An examination of a bilingual child conducted in one language yields a skewed result on both sides. It finds nonexistent problems because the child demonstrates proficiency in the language he speaks less of. And it misses existing problems because part of the difficulties are attributed to the status of being a second-language learner.
It is wise to seek the help of a specialist who works with bilingual children, or one who conducts an assessment with the help of a translator and takes into account data in both languages. It makes sense for the parent to come to the appointment with observations: what the child says at home, in what language, what constructions have emerged recently, what he understands without translation. Such records are more useful to the specialist than general statements about the child’s lack of speaking.
The advice that is given most often and that harms
Almost every Russian-speaking family sooner or later hears a recommendation to switch to English at home so that it will be easier for the child. Educators, neighbors, and sometimes doctors utter it.
The council does not have any support staff. Refusing to use the native language does not speed up the learning of English, but it cuts off the connection with the family and with that part of life that cannot be translated into English. A parent who has switched to a language they understand less well begins to speak to their child more easily and less fluently, and the child receives less language instead of more.
Separately, regarding children with already established diagnoses. Systematic reviews of research on autism spectrum disorders all reach the same conclusion that a bilingual environment does not impair language development; however, parents of such children regularly hear the opposite from specialists. The recommendation to eliminate the native language in order to focus on one language is outdated.
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Where Russian grows further
Confusion goes away as each language strengthens. The difficulty with Russian is that there is nowhere for it to strengthen, because at home they talk about food, clothes, and schedules, while things like the seasons, feelings, and causes of events are taught in lessons, and those lessons are in English. Hence the familiar picture where a child speaks fluently in Russian, but their vocabulary remains at the level of a five-year-old. Grisha will soon forget the word slow with his turtle. But the «big turtle» will not go away if the size, habits, and structure of the world at home are discussed in passing, and only seriously in school.
This vocabulary expands where Russian serves tasks that are more complex than everyday ones, whether it’s reading, analyzing a film, discussing what you’ve read, or talking with peers for whom Russian is also a native language. The confusion itself diminishes without any special struggle against it.
What can be done at home and what to take to a specialist
The two lists live separately, and each has its own progress. The first is useful for any Russian-speaking family and does not imply a diagnosis. The second is only necessary for those whose symptoms match those described in the article, and there is no need to dismiss it entirely without such a reason.
Homes, regardless of whether there is cause for concern
It works at any age and at any time
If you decide to go to a specialist
Open only when the signs match
And finally, without which this text would be unfair. What you read here does not replace the advice of a speech specialist. If the observations from the section on signs match your situation, you should start with an examination.
Frequently asked questions about language mixing
At what age does a child stop mixing languages?
There is no exact date. Interjections in a second language remain with most adult bilinguals, including those who speak both languages fluently; this is not considered a pathology. It makes sense to watch to see if the child’s interlocutors understand and whether they are performing what is appropriate for their age in terms of speech.
My husband and I speak different languages to each other; does that affect the blending?
Strict separation of languages by parents is not a mandatory requirement. Researchers do not find convincing evidence of the superiority of the «one parent, one language» method. Studies comparing families with strict separation and families with mixed immersion did not show the benefits of separation. What matters is the amount and frequency of contact with each language. Russian is kept where it is regularly interesting for the child.
Is it necessary to correct a child when they insert an English word?
The direct correction spoken ten times during the evening leads to the child completely shutting up. A rephrasing with the correct form within the answer works. The child says «he walked very slowly,» the adult replies «yes, he walked slowly, turtles are generally slow.» The word was said, and the remark was unnecessary.
The child speaks Russian with an English accent; is that also a mix?
This is a different phenomenon: the transfer of prosody, that is, the melody of speech, tempo, and accents. It is not directly related to the vocabulary and grammar and does not itself indicate speech difficulties. The intonation is adjusted by the volume of live Russian speech around, and special exercises provide some help here.
The teenager is embarrassed by Russian and switches to English; what should I do about it?
In adolescence, choosing a language ceases to be a matter of convenience and becomes a matter of belonging to a group. Pressure works the worst here. Russian helps, tied to the idea that it is interesting for the teenager to speak in Russian on its own, and the peer environment where speaking in Russian is the norm.
