雙語學習：年齡小有優(yōu)勢，年齡大效率高

True bilingualism is a relatively rare and a beautiful thing, and by “true,” I mean speaking two languages with the proficiency of a native — something most of us will only dream of as we struggle with learning languages in school and beyond.

真正的雙語能力是一種相對少見而美好的東西，這里的“真正”指的是能像講母語那樣說兩門語言——對我們這些在學校以及后來的語言學習中磕磕絆絆的多數(shù)人，這都是很遙遠的。

Highly competent bilingualism is probably more common in other countries, since many children growing up in the United States aren’t exposed to other languages. But the steps along the road toward bilingualism can help a child’s overall facility with language. And early exposure to more than one language can confer certain advantages, especially in terms of facility with forming the sounds in that language.

高超的雙語能力可能在其它國家常見一些，因為許多在美國長大的孩子不會接觸到其它語言。但在獲取雙語能力的過程中，對一個孩子的整體語言能力是有幫助的。盡早接觸超過一種語言，也可以帶來某種優(yōu)勢，尤其是形成這種語言的發(fā)音的能力。

But parents should not assume that young children’s natural language abilities will lead to true grown-up language skills without a good deal of effort. Erika Hoff, a developmental psychologist who is a professor at Florida Atlantic University and the lead author of a 2015 review article on bilingual development, said: “For everybody trying to raise a bilingual child, whatever your background and reason, it’s very important to realize that acquiring a language requires massive exposure to that language.”

但是父母不要以為，兒童天生的語言能力，不需經過艱苦的努力就能轉化為真正的成人語言技能。佛羅里達大西洋大學(Florida Atlantic University)教授、發(fā)展心理學家艾麗卡·霍夫(Erika Hoff)說：“任何人要想培養(yǎng)一個雙語孩子，無論你的背景和動機，都一定要認識到，要想掌握一門語言，必須大量接觸這門語言。”

Pediatricians routinely advise parents to talk as much as possible to their young children, to read to them and sing to them. Part of the point is to increase their language exposure, a major concern even for children growing up with only one language. And in order to foster language development, the exposure has to be person-to-person; screen time doesn’t count for learning language in young children — even one language — though kids can learn content and vocabulary from educational screen time later on. “For bilingual development, the child will need exposure to both languages,” Dr. Hoff said, “and that’s really difficult in a monolingual environment, which is what the U.S. is.”

兒科醫(yī)生向來建議父母盡可能多地對孩子說話，朗讀、唱歌給他們聽。這樣做的一個原因是增加他們接觸語言的機會，即便是對從小只使用一種語言的孩子，這都是非常重要的。要想促進語言發(fā)育，這種接觸必須是面對面的;看著屏幕的時間對幼兒的語言學習是無效的——哪怕只是一種語言——不過再過一段時間，孩子可以通過屏幕播放的教育節(jié)目來學習內容和詞匯。“就雙語發(fā)育而言，孩子需要接觸到這兩種語言，”霍夫說，“這在單語環(huán)境里是很難實現(xiàn)的，美國就是這種情況。”

Pediatricians advise non-English-speaking parents to read aloud and sing and tell stories and speak with their children in their native languages, so the children get that rich and complex language exposure, along with sophisticated content and information, rather than the more limited exposure you get from someone speaking a language in which the speaker is not entirely comfortable.

兒科醫(yī)生建議非英語父母用自己的母語朗讀、唱歌給孩子聽，給他們講故事，對他們說話，這樣孩子就可以得到豐富而復雜的語言接觸機會，同時還有細致的內容和信息，這樣的效果要比使用一種你不能自如使用的語言好得多。

Parents come up with all kinds of strategies to try to promote this kind of exposure. Some families decide that each parent will speak a different language to the child. But the child will be able to sort out the two languages even if both parents speak them both, Dr. Hoff said. “There is certainly no research to suggest that children need to have languages lined up with speakers or they get confused.” On the other hand, that rule could be a way of making sure that the non-English language is used.

父母為了促進這種語言接觸可謂絞盡腦汁。有的家庭決定兩人分別對孩子講兩種不同的語言。不過霍夫說，即便父母都是兩種語言同時使用，孩子也是能應付的。“沒有任何研究能證明，孩子需要說話人持續(xù)使用一種語言，否則就會搞混。”不過另一方面，這樣的規(guī)則也許有助于確保非英語的語言得到使用。

If a child grows up with caretakers who speak a foreign language — perhaps a Chinese au pair or a French nanny — the child may see some benefits down the road in studying that language. But if a child grows up speaking that second language — Korean, say — with cousins and grandparents, attending a “Saturday School” that emphasizes the language and the culture, listening to music and even reading books in that language, and visits Korea along the way, that child will end up with a much stronger sense of the language.

如果一個孩子成長期間有一個說外語的看護人——比如一個寄住的中國互惠生，或一個法國保姆——對孩子將來學習相應語言是有益處的。但是如果你的孩子兒時會和表親、祖父母說第二語言——比如韓語，去上強調這門語言及文化的“周六班”(Saturday School)，聽使用這門語言的音樂甚至讀它的書，到韓國去走走，那么孩子最后會對這門語言具有穩(wěn)固很多的理解。

It does take longer to acquire two languages than one, Dr. Hoff said, and that, again, comes back to the exposure.

霍夫說，比起習得一種語言，習得兩種花費的時間的確更長，而這又是關乎跟語言的接觸。

“A child who is learning two languages will have a smaller vocabulary in each than a child who is only learning one; there are only so many hours in the day, and you’re either hearing English or Spanish,” Dr. Hoff said. The children will be fine, though, she said. They may mix the languages, but that doesn’t indicate confusion. “Adult bilinguals mix their languages all the time; it’s a sign of language ability,” she said.

“正在學習兩種語言的孩子掌握的每一門語言的詞匯量，少于只學習一種語言的孩子;一天只有那么多個小時，而你在聽的要么是英語，要么是西班牙語。”霍夫說。不過她說孩子們會適應得不錯。他們或許會把兩種語言混合起來，但這并不意味著他們感到困惑。“成人雙語者就總是混用語言;這其實是語言能力的標志，”她說。

Dr. Hoff works in South Florida, where there is a very educated and affluent population raising children in Spanish and English. “The children start out as baby bilinguals, but the older they get, the more English overtakes Spanish,” she said. “The ones who are successful bilinguals as adults are still much better in English than they are in Spanish — they didn’t go to school in Spanish, they don’t read books in Spanish, and when you actually measure the size of their vocabularies, or the grammar they understand, or the coherence of the narrative they produce, they are not as proficient as they are in English.”

在霍夫的工作地南佛羅里達州，一些教育程度很高又很富有的人會在養(yǎng)育子女過程中同時使用西班牙語和英語。“孩子起初是雙語嬰兒，但隨著年紀漸長，他們的英語水平會日益超過西班牙語，”她說。“即便成為優(yōu)秀的成人雙語者，他們的英語水平還是會比西班牙語高得多——他們沒去過用西班牙語授課的學校，沒讀過西班牙語書籍，如果你真的去評估他們的詞匯量，或者他們懂得的語法，或者他們敘述時的連貫性，會發(fā)現(xiàn)他們對西班牙語不像對英語那么精通。”

Gigliana Melzi, a developmental psychologist and associate professor of applied psychology at New York University who studies language in Spanish- and English-speaking Latino families, agreed. “Parents will need to be mindful about introducing the child to literacy in that language,” she said. “They will need to be thoughtful about ways they will encourage the child to maintain the language.”

發(fā)育心理學家、紐約大學(New York University)應用心理學副教授吉格利亞納·梅齊(Gigliana Melzi)，致力于研究說西班牙語和英語的拉美裔家庭的語言問題，她對霍夫的觀點表示贊同。“家長需要留意，引導孩子習得那門語言的讀寫能力，”她說。“他們需要多想想，用什么辦法鼓勵孩子保有那種語言技能。”

It’s also important, she said, to watch the individual child and make sure the child is not overloaded with demands because of parental expectations and ambitions; maybe three languages on top of a musical instrument and a serious sport is just too much.

她說，還有一點很重要，要觀察孩子的情況，確保孩子不會因為父母的期望和雄心而負擔過重;三門語言外加一種樂器和一項充分參與的運動，或許會讓孩子不堪負荷。

The languages you learn as a child are important, but so are the languages you learn later in life. “We all know people who make great contributions and do great science in English and are not native speakers,” Dr. Hoff said. “The human brain is amazing, and the human capacity to acquire language is amazing.”

小時候學的語言很重要，但你在生命中晚些時候學的那些也很重要。“我們都知道有些人用英語做出偉大的貢獻，從事偉大的科學研究，但其母語卻不是英語，”霍夫說。“人類的大腦是不可思議的，人類習得語言的能力是不可思議的。”

So what should parents do if they want to give their children a bilingual boost? “Find a native speaker and have that native speaker have fun, interesting conversations with your child, and your child will learn something,” Dr. Hoff said. “Don’t expect it will turn your child into a perfect balanced bilingual, but that’s O.K.” Whatever you do is an advantage.

那么，如果家長想要推動孩子成為雙語者，該怎么做呢?“找一個說母語的人，讓這個人與你的孩子進行好玩有趣的對話，孩子會學到些東西，”霍夫說。“這并不會把你的孩子變成完美平衡的雙語者，但也沒關系。”不論你做什么都是有好處的。

Dr. Melzi said that often, a child who has been fluent in two languages in the preschool years goes to school where English is spoken, and starts using English to describe what happens there.

梅齊說，通常情況下，精通兩種語言的學齡前兒童如果去上用英語授課的學校，就會開始用英語描繪在學校里發(fā)生的事情。

“There is a push worldwide where English becomes like the lingua franca, so it’s important that the child be exposed to the other language early, and the younger you are, the more nativelike you’re going to sound,” she said. On the other hand, older children may learn more easily: “The younger you are, the more head start you have,” she said. “The older you are, the more efficient learner you are, you have a first language you can use as a bootstrap.”

“全世界都有一種趨勢，英語好像成了通用語，因此孩子早早接觸其他語言是很重要的，接觸其他語言的年紀越小，你聽上去就會越像母語使用者，”她說。另一方面，年紀大一些的孩子學習起來會更容易：“年紀越小，就越是有領先優(yōu)勢，”她說。“年紀越大，學習效率就越高，你可以把自己的第一語言當作自助工具。”

So true bilingualism may be rare, but parents shouldn’t be discouraged on that account, since all the skills that children acquire along the way are very valuable, Dr. Melzi said. “It’s worth it, but it’s a lot of work.”

所以，真正的雙語能力或許頗為稀缺，但家長不該為此而氣餒，因為孩子一路上習得的所有技能都非常有價值，梅齊說。“一切都是值得的，但要付出大量努力。”