• ar
• cs
• de
• en
• es
• fr
• el
• it
• ka
• nl
• pt
• ro
• si
• sq
• ta
• tag
• tr
• uk

Mohamed, who speaks English and Arabic, XueXue, who speaks Chinese and French, and Pablo, who speaks Spanish and English, are all bilingual children. To help them improve their language learning, it is important to pay attention to the quantity and quality of language input, which is the language they listen to and read. If children are frequently exposed to a variety of input in two languages, this will make a huge difference! But what are the sources of language input?

The first source of language input is family.

Parents are usually the main source of native language input.

Mother (In Spanish): How was your day?

Pablo (In English): Very good, mum!

Siblings are also an important source of language exposure, often for both first and second language acquisition. Interestingly, they can sometimes change the language used by other family members, for example if they start speaking their second language at home.

Pablo’s brother (in English): Let’s go to play.

The second source of language input is teachers.

Schools play a key role in second language learning. The more the teachers speak, the more words the children learn! However, especially when children are still young (4-5 years), teachers should avoid using sentences that are too long and complex. At the same time, however, they should not oversimplify the way in which they talk to foreign children who are still learning the language.

Teacher: Everything is clear?

The third source of language input is peers.

Research has shown that, compared to teachers, peers can be even more helpful when learning new words in a second language.

Andrew (In English): This is a ball.

Pablo: B.a.l.l.

The fourth source of language input comes from the child’s own language production.

Pablo (in English): My name is Pablo.

Pablo (in Spanish): My name is Pablo.

Listening to yourself speaking is a unique type of language experience and when children speak it encourages people to talk more to them. More specifically, bilingual children’s language production can influence the quantity of input they are exposed to. For example, if Pablo spends more time speaking to his parents in Spanish, he is likely to receive more Spanish input in response.

Pablo (in Spanish): Today I got 8 at school.

Parents (in Spanish): Great!

However, if Pablo talks to his parents half of the time in English and the other half in Spanish, then his parents will probably talk to him in both Spanish and English, in a balanced way.

Pablo (in Spanish): I am happy.

Pablo (in English): I take an eight.

Mother (in Spanish): Great.

Father (in English): We are happy!

To sum up, every day bilingual children like Mohamed, Xuexue and Pablo are exposed to language input in two languages. This language input comes from a variety of sources, the main ones being their families, teachers, peers and themselves. To reach the best results, bilingual children should be exposed to a lot of different language sources and a good balance of both languages.