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We use language every day without thinking much about it, but how do we learn to speak and does it change if we are in a multilingual environment? Is learning and speaking in several languages at a time keeping us from mastering one? Tonight we’ll hear about the problems that might be associated with language development in children in multilingual environments and how to help them overcome these. This event will be held in the basement and does not have disabled access.
Speaking in two or more languages at the same time
Dr. Sean Pert
(Senior Lecturer in Language Therapy)
Children who hear two or more languages when growing up were thought to be at risk of being confused by bilingualism as they use bilingual sentences using words from all the languages they know. Rather than being a sign of confusion, bilingual spoken sentences show that a child’s language is developing normally. Those who can’t code switch might need of speech and language therapy as they struggle to form spoken sentences of any kind. Find out about the completely normal and everyday phenomenon of code switching and why it’s nothing to be afraid of. No verbs will be harmed during this talk.
Bilingual Language Development
Dr. Kamila Polisenska
(Lecturer in the School of Health Science)
Children usually speak their mother tongue by 4 years old. And globally, the norm will often be for children to effortlessly speak 2, 3 or more languages by then. But some children do struggle, and there are extra challenges when a child has already started with multiple languages: Is there really a language problem? Or does the bilingual child just need more language exposure and time to catch up with classmates who had more input because they only had one language at home? And how do you assess language ability in a 4-year-old who is already struggling with their language?
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