BY CARLOS FINLAY

MANY couples believe that teaching their child a second language can cause language delay or confusion. But is this really true?

It is indisputable that English is the world’s lingua franca and Britain is not renowned when it comes to the percentage of people able to speak a second language.

In fact, it sits alongside Ireland at the bottom of the European leader board with Luxembourg taking first place with its surplus of official languages.

Unfortunately, many foreign parents are dissuaded from teaching their native tongue to their children, believing it to cause too many issues to be worthwhile.

However, these adverse effects on a child’s linguistic development have simply been proven false.

Being proficient in more than one language holds a direct link with one’s cognitive ability.

Memory, concentration, problem solving, planning, multitasking and even creativity all benefit greatly from learning a second tongue at a young age.

Linguistically, it is not possible that a child’s language skills develop any later if they are proficient in two languages.

This is because bilingual children undergo the same developmental patterns as a monolingual child and although their vocabulary in a particular language may often be smaller, their collective vocabulary from knowing two languages is comparable to that of an average child.

This is why teaching a child a second language should not be discouraged, but instead fostered and commended.