Should I add a fourth language to the mix?

[theyownus]

TL,DR: OPOL (native English and heritage language), Spanish school, should we add French (mostly for parent's sake)?

My 3.5 year old has been attending a bilingual (Spanish -English) school for 13 months. I am skeptical about how much Spanish input she is getting though. Only one of her two classroom teachers speaks Spanish (the other understands) and my kiddo doesn't seem to speak much Spanish herself (She tries! She babbles in fake-Spanish sometimes, which seems like a good thing). On the other hand, her mastery of the community language, English, is excellent. I'd even say advanced for her age. I try to supplement by reading her billingual (English-Spanish) books, audiobooks, and music. I myself have only a very basic understanding of Spanish but I supplement to increase her chances of getting admitted to a competitive billingual elementary school next year.

Also a year ago, I added my heritage language (native). We are mostly OPOL now, with my spouse being the English input. I also provide media in this language. She speaks a little and her comprehension is pretty good.

Now the challenge is this: I am actually an intermediate speaker of French and getting better at it is very valuable for my career and personal goals. Since having a kid it's been hard to find time to practice. I kinda want to start doing a time-and-place approach for French, Spanish, and heritage language but I worry that she won't get enough input in any of them.

My husband only speaks English. We're in the U.S.

Should I add French to the mix?

 

[katrina2017]

@theyownus your child has no need to speak spanish, so they probably won't. i suggest trips to spanish speaking countries or neighborhoods depending on where you live and to let your child play with other children who speak spanish.

 

[theyownus]

@katrina2017 Fully sgree. We are working on setting up Spanish playdates And I hope she will speak more if she gets into the bilingual elementary school, their goal is bilingualism and biliteracy in Spanish and English.

 

[relle25]

@theyownus In theory you can, but I'd be worried frankly that the effort of being a primary arbiter of two languages already plus reinforcing the Spanish, especially since you're the sole parent already doing all three, might be a bit much right now. Being a working parent is tough and if you're already putting in a lot of energy and mental capacity with the heritage language and Spanish at home with very little outside reinforcement- added to the fact you're not at high-fluency level yet- I dunno, I'd maybe either go with a super duper relaxed just-for-fun approach to French with the odd song/book/TV show with low expectations for actual fluency, unless there's some viable way for it to be a regular part of their lives via native French speaking babysitters or things of that nature.

My oldest kid is trilingual and gets a fourth language at his school (he is in second grade now). FWIW if it's interesting to hear, he gets roughly 6 hours a week of lessons in this fourth language. After a year and a half he can say some basic sentences and has a nice accent, can read all the words in the language and write in cursive in it. But he is nowhere near fluency. He would likely need at least double the amount of immersive insruction in it, coupled with the fact that his teacher of this language at school admittedly reverts a lot to the community language with the kids, so it's not super immersive when they do lessons.

 

[theyownus]

@relle25 This would be for me to get practice so I can get ahead in my career and less for her to get fluent in French. I was actually wondering whether it would simplify my life if I were to combine career development with parenting. But I'm also juggling two other languages with her...and concerned how it might impact her progression in those languages.

 

[ricky777]

@theyownus Not the person you’re answering to, but I really doubt speaking French with your toddler occasionally would improve your French in a way that would be helpful in a work context. The difficulty in a work context is mostly understanding and producing language at a high level and vocabulary. With a toddler you’d be the one producing most of the output and the level of language would be low. Not sure what it would bring you.

 

[relle25]

@theyownus I think as long as you're not putting any additional stress on yourself career-wise, you could have laid-back fun with it if you think it would be a fun activity for you and your daughter, but as you say you're already juggling 2 additional languages with her. When I was trying to immerse and acquire the community language for myself, the most helpful things were putting myself in immersive situations where it was near-impossible to revert to English, watching English TV shows that I was familiar with dubbed in the community language with community language subtitles on, reading light-hearted or parenting magazine in the community language, and language exchange partners.

 

[aldredian]

@theyownus

but I worry that she won't get enough input in any of them.

Valid concern.

I think the first question you need to ask yourself, what are your language goals?

Heritage language was only added a year ago and you're slowly amping it up so that you could do OPOL. In other words, your child is still on the journey of getting your heritage language on par with community language. At around the same time, Spanish is also added to the mix. So there's already 2 languages that's not on par with community language that I'm guessing you're trying to amp it up so it could be on par, or close to anyway, to English.

Further to that, the reason you're thinking of adding French doesn't sound like it's really for your child, but rather for yourself. You've said that you're struggling to find time to practice so you want to speak to your child to give yourself time to practice. So it's almost like, you're utilising your time with your daughter in order to fulfill your own language goals. Is there any other reasons beyond that to teach her French? And further, if it's to push ahead your career goals, will speaking to your daughter basic, child appropriate French language going to help with the language you require for your career goals? Just a thought.

I think first set the 4 languages a priority. e.g. Is it Englisha nd Spanish must be fluent, then your heritage language and French is....doesn't matter really? Or you do want some fluency in French?

Set that priority because then you will be able to decide how much effort and time you spend in each language.

As for her not getting enough input in any of them, draw up a timetable and figure out what percentage of exposure she's getting in each language. Apparently, at least 30% is needed. So play with her schedule and then you might figure out if it's too hard for you to add French into the mix.

But I think you still need to answer the question for yourself what your priorities are. Because to your point, if you're kind of just adding languages for language sake without clear priorities, your child will probably not learn any of them to an adequate degree.

Perhaps you should focus on your heritage language first. As for Spanish, I think you need to ask daycare and figure out whether she is getting enough exposure for her to get into that school you want her to attend. And if not, then you will need to get outside help given you guys can't really speak it. Once she's in that bilingual school where English and Spanish is taken care of, then I'd say you will have more headspace for French.

At this point, it sounds like you're covering English, Spanish AND your heritage language AND you want to add French. If you're fluent in all of them, that's one thing. But since you're not, the question comes down to do you have the time and headspace to be able to provide adequate support and exposure for your child.

 

[littlerock888]

@theyownus This is a late reply, but I'll add that I've introduced 4 languages to the kids for similar "selfish" reasons. I'm fluent in Spanish and so mostly talk Spanish with the kids, but have been learning Korean and Hebrew for professional reasons. I have a 1yo, 2yo, 3yo, and 6yo, and we mostly watch tv now in Korean/Hebrew in order for me to practice. It's a bit frustrating that when I'm in "Korean"/"Hebrew" mode I often don't know the vocab of what I want to say and have to switch to Spanish, but the kids role with it fine and are pretty excited about all of these languages. I do sometimes wonder if I should drop Korean or Hebrew and only do one of those languages with the kids, but I'll probably keep with it.