A Level English Language Website
If children try to learn two languages simultaneously, i.e. to grow up bilingual, will this mean that they don't learn either language properly?
By Sally Johnson
The answer to this question depends very much on what you mean by learning a language 'properly'. Does this refer to the ability to speak both languages with a native speaker-like accent and/or without grammatical errors? Is it the ability to discuss complex specialised topics in both languages such as computers, marine biology, or aeronautical engineering? Or do you mean the ability to speak and write both languages equally competently? These kinds of questions are important because most people who use more than one language tend not to be able to do all the same things in each language. In addition, many bi-/multilingual people reserve one language for certain purposes (or 'domains of usage'), e.g. talking to friends or family, use at school or in church, or when dealing with authorities etc.
But to try to give a more direct answer to your question, research seems to suggest that growing up bilingually does not really lead to the inability to learn either language properly (so-called 'semilingualism'). How well a child learns each language will depend on many factors, e.g. which family members speak which language to the child (and how often), in which language/s the child is formally educated, whether there are frequent visits to a country where the other language is spoken, and ultimately the extent to which the child itself identifies personally with each language. Whatever happens though, as I said before, it is usually the case that bilinguals will have differing abilities in each language - but this does not have to mean the inability to learn either language properly.
If you would like to know more about raising children bilingually, you could read one of the many books or articles by George Saunders such as 'Bilingual children. From birth to teens' (1988), which outlines many of the theoretical issues and also describes the author's own attempts to raise his three children bilingually in English and German. There is also a quarterly international magazine called the Bilingual Family Newsletter which acts as a forum for bilingual families to share their experiences and get in touch with one another. (For details contact Multilingual Matters, Victoria Road, Clevedon, Avon, BS21 7SJ, UK.)
Finally, it is worth noting that the idea of bilingualism as a 'problem' or potentially harmful to a child's learning is particularly prevalent in cultures which consider monolingualism to be the norm (which includes many parts of the English-speaking world). The majority of the world's population, however, uses more than one language on a daily basis, and does not consider this to be anything unusual or problematic. Nor do such people worry particularly about whether they speak each of these languages 'properly'.