We want our child to be bilingual. He seems to be catching on to both Spanish and English. However, when it comes time to go to school, I do not want him to be confused with the two languages. He turned 2 years old in August. Is it too early to be teaching him both?
Leida Brooks, Phenix City, Ala.

When children learn a language, they learn the grammar of that language as well as the words or vocabulary. No one teaches them these rules; children just "pick them up." The language is acquired in stages. Before children begin to produce words, they produce sounds. After the one word stage, the two-word stage arises. Then comes the telegraphic stage with short sentences. Then the child will gradually expand his language knowledge to the adult level of language.

A number of theories have been suggested to explain the acquisition process. Neither the imitation theory, which claims that children learn their language by imitating adult speech, nor the reinforcement theory, which hypothesizes that children are conditioned into speaking correctly by being negatively reinforced for "errors" and positively reinforced for "correct" usage, is supported by observational and experimental studies. Neither can explain how children form the rules that they then use to produce new sentences.

A critical age hypothesis has been proposed which suggests that there is a biological period during which the child may acquire his native language without overt teaching. The acquisition of a second or third language parallels the acquisition of one's first native language. If a second language is learned early in life, it is usually acquired with no difficulty. The acquisition of a second language operates by the same principles as the native language.

According to the critical age hypothesis, second language acquisition after puberty operates by learning mechanisms rather than principles specifically linguistic, which means the language is not "picked up," but consciously learned. The earlier a child is exposed to a second language, the better. However, to become truly bilingual, a child must also be exposed to reading and writing in the second language.

Unfortunately, in most homes one language becomes dominant, and many times young children will experience dominant language interference when communicating in the second language. For example, if Spanish is spoken more than English in the home, a Spanish interference (sentence structure, grammar issues) can appear when the child is in an English-speaking environment. This is minor as long as the child has good language models.

If a mistake occurs, do not point it out; rather model the correct language in your response to the child. Also, set rules for language use: if the mother is a native Spanish speaker, then she should speak Spanish to the children. When the entire family is together, English should be used. Children pick up very fast whom to address in a certain language and are much more flexible than adults.

The benefits of second language acquisition outweigh the few negative possibilities. In these times, countries and people are no longer isolated - we are dealing with global politics and global economics. The more languages a person speaks, the better he can adapt to this new "global" environment, or as my mother used to say, "It widens your horizon."

Doris Brown serves as lead teacher for the Muscogee County School District ESOL where she has worked for 10 years. A native German speaker, Brown also speaks English, French and Spanish, dabbling in Ancient Greek, Swahili and Arabic. She holds degrees in foreign language studies both from her native country and from Columbus College.