Babies Learn to be Bilingual Even Before They Turn One

Babies learn to be bilingual even before they reach their first birthday. In a study conducted by doctors from the University of British Columbia, it seems that skills for different languages are gained as early as seven months old.

Using their listening and memory skills, the babies observe the duration of the words being said as well as the pitch when the words are spoken to be able to discern the differences in the two languages. This was revealed by one of the authors of the study, Janet Werker, who is also a University of British Columbia psychologist.

Grammatical differences
This ability to discriminate and differentiate two different languages by babies holds true even if the two have opposite word orders or have different rules of grammar. For example, in English, the content word follows the function word. However, the opposite is true for other languages such as Hindi or Japanese.

Babies who grow up bilingual are able to assimilate this knowledge and are able to perform code-switching, wherein they are able to identify what rules of grammar is appropriate for a given language.

How the babies do it
The study shows that what is important is the frequency of the words in speech that helps the babies determine the differences in the two languages.

Babies raised in bilingual homes have an advantage because of the early exposure to two different languages. According to Judit Gervain, a linguist and co-author of the study from the Paris Descartes University, the babies are able to cope with the exposure to two languages at the same time.

This should put to rest some concerns of parents wondering if they are confusing their baby when they speak more than one language at home. Rather than hinder the language skills development of a baby, early exposure to being bilingual can help enhance the baby’s language skills.

Benefits to the child
Unlike monolingual babies, bilingual babies have to develop “new strategies” to help them learn the two languages. One way that babies adapt is through “code-switching” wherein they are able to reverse the rules of grammar when needed.

This means that the babies who are exposed to being bilingual are able to have cognitive advantages over monolingual babies. Also, by the time these babies become toddlers or are 2.5 to 3 years old, they would be able to go back and forth between the two languages they were exposed to.

Aside from auditory sensitivity, the babies who grow up bilingual are also able to further develop their visual sensitivity. The babies tested can distinguish between two languages when watching people speak it even if they cannot hear the words.

The results of the remarkable study are published in the February 14 issues of the journal Nature Communications. It will be further discussed at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) to be held in Boston.