“But won’t my child (the kids) get confused?”  “Don’t the kids get confused if they are learning more than one language at the same time?” I am often asked various versions of this same question as parents and educators worry about placing children in Dual Language Education classrooms.  

This question suggests that learning multiple languages is somehow a detriment to learning, yet bilingualism is the norm throughout the world.  Social scientists estimate that half of the world’s population is bilingual.  In fact, in many countries, such as in India and China, multilingualism is normal and often, with people commonly speaking more than three languages.  In my own case, I am trilingual (Tamil, Spanish, and English), a fact that impresses many people in the United States, yet compared to my family members, who on average speak five languages each, I know the least number of languages.  There’s nothing impressive about my linguistic prowess in my family’s eyes.

The human brain is not only designed to acquire language, it is designed to acquire multiple languages.  When monolingual children begin to learn language, they too will get confused and make mistakes.  For instance, a child who is learning only English who has learned the word “dog,” may call a cat a “dog” as well.  After all, they are both furry animals with four legs and a tail.  However, the child will not grow up continuing to call cats “dogs” forever.  The brain eventually creates a new category for “cats” and their language becomes more refined.

Similarly, any “confusion” between or amongst languages will also clear up as the brain creates  structures for both or multiple languages.  While accidental translanguaging may occur in the beginning, sooner or later, the brain’s grasp of the languages becomes so sophisticated that not only can they speak both languages  as well or better than monolingual speakers of each language but will have the power to translanguage purposefully rather than accidentally.

For example, when my daughter was little, she was learning both Tamil and English.  I taught her Tamil at home, but she started picking up English in our mommy and me classes.  When we were in our mommy and me yoga class, the teacher gave each of the kids a sticker.  My daughter wanted me to have a sticker as well, and not yet proficient in English, asked her teacher, “Mommy-k?”  This question demonstrated that she had understood that the word for Amma in English was “Mommy;” however, she had not yet learned that to ask if someone could get something, she would have to use the word “for” in English instead of the ending “k,” used in Tamil.  Was she confused?  Perhaps.  But fast forward a few years, and she was not only proficient in English but purposefully translanguaging even in monolingual settings.  She would ask, “Can I have that for my Amma?” when speaking to monolingual English speakers.  She made this choice in spite of knowing the word, “mommy,” although she used “mommy” when referencing her friend’s mothers.  When asked, she explained to me, “You are my Amma, not my Mommy.”  She was making a deliberate claim on her family identity by choosing to translanguage in a monolingual space by using Amma in lieu of Mommy.  This is a choice she continues to make when referring to all family members even as a teenager, demonstrating a sophisticated use of both languages… a far cry from her original confusion.  

So do students get confused while learning?  Sure.  But the brain figures it out.  In fact, learning anything requires engaging in productive struggle and making mistakes.  Students get “confused” when they learn to add and when they first learn to read.  If we are doing a good job, students are challenged as they engage in novel learning in middle and high school.  So why shouldn’t they get confused when learning languages and be allowed to work through it just as we hopefully allow students to work through challenges in other subjects?  

Multilingualism is a skill that people all over the world have; let’s give the same skill to our students.