Having a new baby, other than busy feeding, burping, changing diaper, and trying to get enough sleep in between, one of the first questions is what language should I speak to the baby in? Should I just use English considering the child receives his education in North America? Should I use Chinese or how about both?
除了繁忙的餵食、拍嗝、換尿布，並試著忙裡偷閒獲得足夠的睡眠外，迎接新生兒的其中一個首要問題是：我該用什麼語言跟寶寶說話？慮及孩子將於北美接受教育，我應該只用英文嗎？還是使用中文，或兩者兼用？
Since the name of our page is the Bilinguallens, I think it’s only fitting that we talk about this topic. Please note that I am not advocating bilingualism nor policies, but merely discussing some and research I’ve encounter. Everyone’s context is different and I think it is a very personal decision how we all choose to raise our children. The information below is for your reference only so take it with a grain of salt.
鑑於我們的專頁名稱是Bilinguallens，我認為討論這個話題非常合適。請注意，我並不是在提倡雙語能力（bilingualism）或相關政策，我不過是在討論一些我所接觸到的研究。我認為，每個人的情況都不盡相同，選擇如何撫養孩子是非常個人的決定。以下的資訊僅供參考，因此請酌情使用。
Bilingualism, the use of two languages in daily life, is increasingly prevalent worldwide. Approximately one in three people are bilingual, with significant numbers in various continents including Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. For instance, over 50% of children in California are expected to be non-native English speakers by 2035, and in some Canadian urban areas like Toronto, about half of the students speak a native language other than English (Canadian Council on Learning, 2008).
雙語能力——在日常生活中使用兩種語言——正逐漸於全球普及。約有三分之一的人口是雙語使用者（bilingual），各大洲（涵蓋了歐、亞、非與北美）都有數量可觀的雙語人口。例如，預計在2035年時，加州將有超過一半的兒童，其母語並非英語；而在加拿大的部分城區（如多倫多），約有一半的學生使用母語而非英語（Canadian Council on Learning, 2008）。
Despite its widespread occurrence, research on bilingualism, especially regarding language learning in infants and toddlers, remains limited. Bilingualism research is a relatively new field with many unanswered questions due to the diversity in family, community, and cultural experiences. However, recent studies have begun to address key questions about early bilingualism (Byers-Heinlein, 2013).
即便此一現象廣泛存在，但雙語學習——尤其是嬰幼兒的語言學習——的研究仍相當有限。雙語研究是一個相對較新的領域，鑑於家庭、社群與文化經驗的多樣性，許多問題仍懸而未決。然而，最近的研究已開始解答早期雙語能力的關鍵問題。
One of the first concerns about bilingualism starting from birth is whether it might cause confusion. However, research indicates that confusion in young bilinguals is not supported by scientific evidence. Bilingual adults, except in cases of neurological disorders (Paradis, 2004), seamlessly switch between languages, showing no confusion. The same applies to bilingual children and infants. A common misconception is that code mixing, or using words from two languages in one sentence, indicates confusion (Pearson, 2008). You can read more on my post about code-mixing here: https://bit.ly/49hOuH9
從出生伊始便進行雙語教育的首要擔憂，是它可能造成混淆（confusion）。但研究指出，尚無明確的科學證據證明，年幼的雙語者會有所混淆。除了神經疾病（neurological disorders）的情況外，熟練雙語的成人可以在不同的語言間流暢切換，而未有任何混淆。同樣的情況也適用於雙語孩童與嬰兒。一個常見的誤解是，在一個語句中混用兩種語言的字彙——即語碼混用（code mixing）——便意味著混淆。大家可以在我先前的貼文中瞭解語碼混用：https://bit.ly/49hOuH9
This behavior of code-mixing is actually a normal aspect of bilingual development (Pearson, 2008). Children often code mix as it is prevalent in their language communities, and due to limited vocabulary, similar to how monolingual toddlers might use a general term like “dog” for all four-legged animals. Bilingual children may use a word from another language when they can’t recall the appropriate word in one language (Lanza, 2004).
實際上，語碼混用是雙語發展的常態（Pearson, 2008）。孩子之間經常語碼混用，因為這普遍見於他們的語言社群（language communities）。而且，由於他們的詞彙量有限，這便好比單語幼兒可能會使用「狗」來指稱所有四隻腳的動物。當雙語兒童想不起某個語言中的適當詞彙時，他們便會使用另一種語言的詞彙來表達（Lanza, 2004）。
Far from indicating confusion, this demonstrates linguistic resourcefulness. Bilingual children also adjust their language use based on their conversational partner’s language, and their code mixing follows predictable, grammar-like rules (Paradis, Nicoladis, & Genesee, 2000).
這絕非混淆，而是語言靈活（linguistic resourcefulness）的展現。雙語兒童還會根據對話者所使用的語言，調整自己的語言使用。而他們的語碼混用，也遵循著可預測的類文法規則（Paradis, Nicoladis, & Genesee, 2000）。
Regarding bilingual infants, studies show they can distinguish between their two languages without confusion. They are attuned to perceptual differences like rhythm, allowing them to differentiate between languages such as English and French from birth, and even similar languages like French and Spanish by four months old (Byers-Heinlein, Burns, & Werker, 2010). Bilingual infants are even adept at discerning languages through silent facial movements, a skill that persists beyond the capabilities of monolingual infants by eight months (Sebastián-Gallés et al., 2012). This indicates that bilingual infants are particularly sensitive to language-specific information, further dispelling the notion of confusion in early bilingualism.
又研究表明，雙語嬰兒可在不混淆的情況下，區分兩種不同的語言。他們對差異（如節奏）很敏感，這使他們能夠從出生伊始便區分英語和法語等節奏不同的語言，甚至在四個月大時就能區別出法語跟西班牙語這樣節奏相近的語言。雙語嬰兒更是善於透過無聲的臉部變動來辨別語言，這項能力在八個月大時將超過單語嬰兒。這表明，雙語嬰兒對語言的特定訊息格外敏銳，廓清了早期雙語使用或將造成混淆的觀點。
Now, the next question is probably how we, as parents and teachers, should speak to toddlers and infants. Or, whether we can still create a bilingual environment for our toddlers, children, teenagers, etc. if we are not fluent in one language? There are many more questions regarding bilingualism and I will try to address them in future posts. Meanwhile, if you need the bilingual version of this post, please leave the comment: Tell me more about bilingualism.
至此，下個問題或許會是——身為父母跟老師該如何與嬰幼兒交談。或者，若我們並不精通某種語言，是否還能為我們的幼童、孩子、青少年等創造雙語環境？雙語能力尚有許多問題，我將試於之後的貼文裡回答這些議題。
References
Byers-Heinlein K. Parental language mixing: Its measurement and the relation of mixed input to young bilingual children’s vocabulary size. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 2013;16(01):32–48. doi: 10.1017/S1366728912000120.
Byers-Heinlein K, Burns TC, Werker JF. The roots of bilingualism in newborns. Psychological Science. 2010;21(3):343–348. doi: 10.1177/0956797609360758.
Comeau L, Genesee F, Lapaquette L. The modeling hypothesis and child bilingual codemixing. International Journal of Bilingualism. 2003;7(2):113–126. doi: 10.1177/13670069030070020101.
Canadian Council on Learning. Understanding the academic trajectories of ESL students. 2008 Retrieved from http://www.ccl-cca.ca/pdfs/LessonsInLearning/Oct-02-08-Understanding-the-acedemic.pdf.
Lanza E. Language mixing in infant bilingualism: A sociolinguistic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2004.
Paradis M. A neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company; 2004.
Paradis J, Nicoladis E, Genesee F. Early emergence of structural constraints on code-mixing: Evidence from French–English bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 2000;3(03):245–261.
Pearson BZ. Raising a bilingual child. New York: Random House; 2008.
Sebastián-Gallés N, Albareda-Castellot B, Weikum WM, Werker JF. A bilingual advantage in visual language discrimination in infancy. Psychological Science. 2012;23(9):994–999. doi: 10.1177/0956797612436817.