• New child / person in a classroom
  • Foreigner
  • National / ethnic / minority multicultural family
  • Living abroad
  • Multilingual #2
  • Insufficient majority language proficiency
  • Multilingual child with no language deficits

Multilingual child with no language deficits

According to the most recent research, we use the term “multilingual” in a broad sense, to describe a person who speaks more than one language.

Proficiency, usage frequency and age of acquisition of each of the languages may be different. It is crucial to remember that to be considered multilingual a child does not necessarily need to speak both/all languages at a native speaker level.

As we know very well for experimental and observational data, a multilingual person cannot be perceived as “two monolinguals in one body” because multilingualism creates an unique quality of linguistic competences and identity, which we need to remember about, especially working with multilingual children and teenagers.

They may – and in fact should – use all their languages in their daily life to learn, interact with the others and express themselves and should be supported in these by their school environment.

You need to remember that even most proficient multilingual speakers do mix languages and have their preferences when it comes to using specific language for specific needs, which is a natural phenomenon and should not be perceived as a deficit.