Dr. Meir talks about a study that dethroned several myths associated with the development of speech in Israeli children-bilingual.

Dr. Natalia Meir graduated from the Moscow State Pedagogical University (Faculty of Foreign Languages). Arriving in Israel, she defended her thesis at Bar-Ilan University at the Faculty of English Literature and Linguistics. Natalia is the mother of two pairs of twins (13-year-old boys and 5-year-old girls).

By the time Natalia got to Bar-Ilan, the first twins were 3 years old, and the problems of child bilingualism were extremely relevant for her. During the second degree, Natalia wrote a thesis entitled Discursive Markers in the Narratives of Bilingual Children, and later defended the thesis "Speech profiles of Russian-Hebrew-speaking children: the impact of bilingualism and general speech underdevelopment (OHP)" (Linguistic Profiles of Bilingual Russian- Hebrew Speaking Children: Effects of Bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment (SLI) on the topic of bilingualism and the general underdevelopment of speech among Israeli children aged five to six years.

In a conversation with a NEWSru correspondent. Co. Dr. Meir talked about a study that was conducted in the laboratory of Professor Sharon Armon-Lotem (the scientific adviser of Natalia), and debunked several myths related to the development of speech in Israeli children-bilingual.

Interviewed by Alla Gavrilova.

Let's start with how today define bilingualism or bilingualism.

There are many definitions. Often bilinguals are called those who are fluent in two languages, but this is too narrow a definition and such people are generally rare. As a rule, one of the languages ??is dominant or at least dominant in a certain context. For example, in the context of professional activities or studies - if adults. In children, if it is, for example, Hanukkah, then, most likely, "sufaniyu" they will not be called a donut. And, in the same way, they will not know how the Hebrew frying pan. I got a call from my Hebrew mother-in-law and asked what the "raisins" my kids ask for. Because my bilingual children such words, as a rule, are used to speak in Russian.

Even if the child is a balanced bilingual and he has strong both languages, depending on the context, one of them will outweigh.

Let me remind you, we are now talking about child bilingualism. There is synchronous bilingualism - when a child hears two languages ??from birth. Usually this happens in mixed families. And there is a consistent bilingualism, which is more common in Israel - when at first the child hears the Russian language, and then he is sent to a Hebrew speaking garden.

Why in your research did you focus specifically on children aged 5-6 years?.

Because the latest age in which children have a second language in Israel is 5 years, when children go to the preparatory group of the kindergarten. 5-6 years is a very important period, children have to go to school, and in Israel, unlike countries such as Canada or the US, there are no bilingual schools.

Tell us what exactly you wanted to check in your study.

The fact is that the percentage of bilingual children in special classes and special kindergartens, the so-called "Ghana Sfati", is very high. Disproportionately high in relation to the number of bilingual children. The same thing happens in Europe. Therefore, we wanted to check whether there really is a link between bilingualism and general speech underdevelopment.

General hypoplasia of speech is a syndrome that occurs in 5-7% of children. It is important to know that this is a deficit in the development of speech in children with normal hearing and intelligence. That is, we are not talking about children who have hearing problems and other aspects of development.

Our research, as well as studies conducted in other countries, showed that bilingualism in no way is an additional risk factor for the occurrence of general speech underdevelopment. That is, bilingualism and general underdevelopment of speech are not connected in any way. And a high percentage of bilingual children with this diagnosis, unfortunately, is caused by improper diagnosis. Screening tests are designed for monolingual children, existing norms are norms for monolingual children.

We wanted to show that we need separate speech standards for bilingual children. After all, if you look at the vocabulary of a bilingual child in each language separately, he will know fewer words than a monolingual child with the same development for the reason that I already mentioned - he will only know the word "sufganiya" in Hebrew, and "frying pan "- only in Russian. But if you combine words that a child knows in both languages, then the conceptual vocabulary of such a child will either be the same as that of a monolingual child, or even more.

As I understand it, in your work you analyzed the mistakes made by bilingual children with a normal development of speech. Tell us more about this.

Yes. This is a small price that we pay for bilingualism. The fact is that in bilingual children the influence of languages ??is two-way, and sometimes this is a plus, and sometimes a minus. In some cases, such children acquire language constructs better than monolingual children. It is a question of those cases when these constructions are identical in both languages. For example, in Hebrew and Russian verb endings are equally constructed. "I sleep / sleep / sleep / sleep". Therefore, bilingual children quickly understand that in both languages ??it is necessary to show the gender, number and time. This is a plus.

The problem begins when the constructions and grammatical categories are not alike. Russian-language bilinguals often omit a definite article in Hebrew that is not in Russian.

And vice versa - our bilingual children, as a rule, misuse the cases, since in Hebrew there are no case endings. "Peel" (elephant) is always so and will be "saw". Therefore, in Russian, such a child most often will say "I see an elephant". Of course, we are talking about the average children.

Another big problem is a perfect and imperfect look. Eating - ate. Since this is not in Hebrew, our children will most often be mistaken in this.

I often hear an opposite opinion about when a child should be taught a second language. Some say that ideally the child should hear both languages ??from birth, others - that it is necessary as long as possible to hold the child in the "Russian" language environment, because he will learn Hebrew.

The balance is difficult to achieve in both cases, and experts have not yet agreed on this topic. Indeed, some say that it is better for a child to hear both languages ??from birth, while others say that a second language should be added in three years, when the first language is already rooted and probably will be preserved. But we know perfectly well that besides theories there are circumstances and personal abilities and preferences of each child.

Language is stored in a passive?.

Yes. For example, in Canada, a study was conducted with children who were adopted by Canadians in China and who speak French from a very young age. At the same time when scanning the brain it turned out that the brain of these children reacts to Chinese language.

Is it true that it is easier for a bilingual child to learn other languages?.

Of course, and studies confirm this. When a child already has several languages ??in the asset, it is much easier for him to understand how languages ??are generally arranged. The child does not repeat what he hears, but creates new sentences on the basis of lexical units and his grammar. And the child is easier to learn a new language, when he already understands the mechanisms of the work of other languages.

Bilingualism has other advantages, it positively influences the child's cognitive functions. For example, on the area of ??inhibition, that is, the ability to suppress external stimuli and focus on one thing. Because children have to unconsciously, of course, always suppress one of the languages. This is a constant verbal training, which helps to better perform non-verbal assignments.

But most importantly, we must remember that bilingual children are going through the same stages, including temporary, speech development, that I have monolingual children. Therefore, if a bilingual child does not start talking for a long time, you should not write it off in two languages, and you should consult a specialist.

What is "long"?.

About a year the child should have the first words, which will not necessarily be full. The so-called "children's words". "Sosa", "bibi", "av-av" and so on. Up to two years the child should have some word combinations and simple sentences of two words ("give suck"). At the age of 3-4 years the child uses simple sentences, gradually moves to more complex. In 5 years can participate in conversation, tell short stories and fairy tales.

In our study, we applied a test for the repetition of a sentence. The child is asked to repeat the offers of varying difficulty. For example, "I see a girl who was combed by my mother". This test very clearly identifies children with speech underdevelopment. The fact is that when a child repeats a sentence, he uses his inner grammar. A bilingual child can repeat this sentence, confusing cases and distorting words. But a child with a general underdevelopment of speech will always make from a complex sentence a simple. "Mother combed my girl". Such children do not even try to save a complex sentence.

Another important test is the repetition of quasi-words, non-existent words. This is a test of verbal (phonological) memory, since it is this mechanism that is associated with the study of new words.

In addition, children aged 5-6 years fully possess almost all sounds. If the child has a general underdevelopment of speech, it is difficult for him, for example, to pronounce words with two consonants. Instead of "bird" - "tichka". If in three years this is still normal, then at 6 points to a clear problem.

Previously, noticing the bilingual child problems with speech, many even professional speech therapists advised to remove one of the languages. But I will repeat that special children slowly learn both two languages, and one. And in any case, you should not abandon one of the languages, because it does not give anything at all. I know many families who, in such cases, were asked to give up their mother tongue, and not all these families could go with the child to Hebrew, and this is a huge trauma for both the child and the parents.

And how do two languages ??perceive children with autism, for example?.

There are studies that have been tested in connection with the bilingualism of children with autism and children with Down syndrome. And the scientists came to the conclusion that even in such children, bilingualism does not negatively affect the speech development.

I find myself doing practically missionary work, constantly lecturing and conducting seminars that we need special norms for bilingual children.

This is not just Israel's problem. My supervisor, Professor Sharon Armon-Lotem, was in charge of a large European project whose purpose was to find out the influence of bilingualism on the speech skills of children. Migration within the EU is constantly growing, and together with it the number of bilingual (as well as trilingual and more) children is growing in European countries. This large-scale research has reached the same conclusions - a high percentage of bilinguals in special schools and kindergartens is associated exclusively with outdated diagnostics.

Unfortunately, for the most part, bilingual Israeli children (of course, there are exceptions, but I'm talking about the majority) are practically unable to remain balanced bilinguals due to the lack of a language environment. If English-speaking children are much easier, because in schools there are usually even English classes for native speakers, nowhere is there any teaching in Hebrew and in Russian or Hebrew and Amharic. Few parents have enough time, energy and patience to give their children everything that the school does not give them. And not all children have a sufficient ability for languages ??

(the fact that children like a sponge and absorb everything are also a myth, and each child has his own ability to learn languages) in order to fully master the language outside the language environment. But while we, as in the USA, where there are schools with teaching in English and Spanish, in order to preserve the second language, there is no clear recognition of the importance of preserving the language of the family, most of our children will not speak Russian as they speak Hebrew.