{"id":66760,"date":"2015-09-04T23:28:30","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T21:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?p=66760"},"modified":"2025-10-21T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T19:59:09","slug":"a-plea-for-multilingualism-among-the-children-of-immigration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/2015\/09\/a-plea-for-multilingualism-among-the-children-of-immigration\/","title":{"rendered":"A plea for multilingualism among immigrant children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted by Barbara Abdelilah-Bauer on January 18, 2011<\/span>
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\n\"Barbara
\nBy Barbara Abdelilah-Bauer, author of \u00ab Le D\u00e9fi des enfants bilingues. Grandir et vivre en parlant plusieurs langues \u00bb (\u00ab The Challenge of bilingual children. From childhood to adulthood speaking more than one language \u00bb), La D\u00e9couverte, 2008.
\nwww.enfantsbilingues.com<\/a><\/em>
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\nSpeaking foreign languages is an unquestionable asset anywhere in Europe, and mastering at least one in addition to a mother tongue has even become mandatory. Thus public opinion acknowledges the command of a prestigious language like English as an achievement to be pursued, but what about the languages of immigration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In France, nurseries and schools include a large number of children whose mother tongue is not French. Despite this significant linguistic potential (with over 200 languages spoken there thanks to the migration influx), bilingualism within these structures stems both worry and enthusiasm. The multilingual backgrounds of these children are clearly undervalued, and sometimes even rejected on the pretence of a so-called \u00ab linguistic handicap \u00bb. In fact, unless they speak a language that is socially valued, any non-French-speaking parent is exposed to the negative stereotypes their home language and culture remain saddled with.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The French society has yet to give up old myths regarding a certain type of bilingualism:<\/p>\n

First of all, according to a well-spread notion among education professionals, the time children spend studying their language of origin is time they won\u2019t spend studying French, the only language essential to academic success. Only a full immersion into French<\/strong> (at home and school) insures a proper-paced education. The practice of a mother tongue prevents improvements in French, and as a result, children grow unable to fully master neither. They are considered \u00ab semi-lingual \u00bb instead of bi-lingual. And despite numerous recent studies showing that the so-called linguistic handicap leading to \u00ab semilingualism \u00bb can only originate in circumstances of extreme withdrawal, beliefs of the past have a hard time disappearing.<\/p>\n

The country of monolingualism is also home to the very naive theory according to which the human brain is only meant to develop one language at the time, and the simultaneous acquisition of two different languages leadsto overload.<\/strong> Yet it is no secret that the human brain is well capable of processing and memorizing several linguistic systems at the same time, such that nowadays some researchers even claim the human brain is actually meant to be multilingual.<\/p>\n

The outcome speaks for itself: all these myths come as a \u00ab justification \u00bb for non-French-speaking parents being advised to give up their mother tongue to the benefit of French.<\/strong> Which reveals the unawareness that linguistic and cultural heritage have an impact on children and their family\u2019s psychic well-being.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Speaking with her child, a mother hands down universal as well as specific linguistic knowledge. Children must be able to find out where they fit within the history of their parents, language and culture. They need both the knowledge and acknowledgment of their parents\u2019 language.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides, early immersion into a second language at the expense of the \u2013 stigmatized \u2013 mother tongue causes weaker skills in the second language, as proven along numerous studies. Nowadays it is accepted that education programs allowing pupils to develop their skills in mother tongue as they learn the local language of education are the only ones to bear positive results on the command of the latter.<\/strong><\/p>\n

So long as the value of any language spoken within families as a structuring element of a child\u2019s identity<\/strong> remains unrecognized, so long as education policies fail to take the chances offered by such presence of living languages to benefit young pupils \u00ab of migrant background \u00bb, thousands of children will remain forbidden to be bilingual or multilingual, and stereotypes will keep giving a hard time to anyone wishing to promote multilingualism in France.