How useful was the investigation of Basque children?

Even in the 1970s, it was said that bilingual children were going through a phase of confusion. Some studies from the 1980s, both in our work and in other researchers, showed that this was not true. Obviously, bilinguals change language at any time, even within the same sentence. It's normal. In the case of monolingue it is impossible. The fact that the bilingual takes a leap from one language to another does not mean, however, that it does not separate languages, but uses a concrete communication strategy. Children of the year and a half are also able to do so, using components of both languages in the same statement, but they do not do so when the person in front of them does not know the two languages.

What is the result of this?

That boys and girls are aware of two languages, whatever they are. I had seen that in Canada, a colleague with French and English, and another with Irish, English. We, with the German-French… But they were always similar languages, of the same stem. So we decided to investigate a case in which two languages were totally different.

And the result…

It is the same as the child learns the two languages at stake, even if the contrast is small or large.

Are all bilinguals equal?

Yes.

You certainly told us that.

Yes. For children, since birth, there is no hard language, all languages are the same. In the last 30 years, there has been a significant increase in research activity. I remember, for example, the study on the Inuit Finnish, and the result is always the same: children are able to distinguish languages from the very beginning. Today, we are able to conduct much more rigorous research, and we know, for example, that at birth the child reacts differently in one language and another. Why? Because she listens in the womb before she's born. They don't understand it, but the baby's phonological system of the uterus distinguishes the two languages it listens to.

We talk about bilingualism, but the impact of the day is multilingualism: How many languages could be acquired at once?

It's hard to answer. Our cognitive system would have no limits, unless I know, but I could hardly give tests. However, there are practical limits: exposure time. An exposure time is required. Unfortunately, I am not able to set the limit for this exhibition, which is what we are working on now. And I tell him it's hard to know. There are studies on monolingual children, and there's a 10-point difference in the exposure. In other words, some parents talk to their children ten times more than others. How, therefore, is the standard defined, the amount that this exposure needs?

Right now, he tells us that they're researching that topic ...

Yes… As for the exhibition, if there are two languages at stake, both have a time of 50%, there is no problem. Where the exposure is 30%, i.e. in the case of three languages at stake, this percentage of exposure would also be sufficient for the child to discover these languages as if they had a mother tongue. I think the exposure limit can be 20-25%. If the exposure is lower, you have to see it! And on the other hand, there are quite significant differences between some children and others. Some learn easier and faster than others, although everyone gets to speak well.

Therefore, three languages at the same time, four languages would be too many.

The border seems to be there. The problem is exposure time, not the child's ability, because it seems that our cognitive system has no limits. There are people who speak 20 languages. I don’t know if they will speak well in all languages…

What has the research on Euskaldunes children meant for linguistic empowerment?

The Basque language has taught us that being a non-Indo-European language is not a problem of bilingualism. All languages are the same and reaching this conclusion is not free, but very important. It is different if we are talking about grammar, morphology or other things, because the Basque language is different from the Indo-European languages, at least as far as this complex verbal system is concerned.

Is the Basque verbal system complex? I would think it was very easy!

Easy for the Basque! Complex for me! I tried to learn, but it was impossible for me. that agreement between the verb, the subject and the object direct or indirect! I couldn't learn. On the contrary, Basque children have no problems. Marijo Ezeizabarrena has an interesting research in this regard.

I've heard researchers here and there say that not enough importance is recognized for research on language empowerment.

I agree with this protest ... Look, in the world, most men and women are bilingual, as defined by UNESCO, they use two languages in their daily lives. The psycho-linguistic coworkers also tell us that on the margins they speak as monolinguals. In any case, the assumption is changing. Today, we are better off in that conviction than we were twenty years ago. Speaking with language, talking to the psychologist, and everyone will recognize the importance of bilingualism, but they don't really act accordingly. Anyway, I tell you that things are changing.

Where and where do you think language research should go in the future?

For example, you should investigate that input from the exposure to language. Research into bilingualism is also imposing the need to be politically correct. They take monolinguals as a standard, but why do they always have to compare all things to monolinguals? Standards are not monolingual, but bilingual and multilingual. I, first of all, am working on it until 30 years ago, with parents who want bilingual education for their children. However, they are always in doubt, they always ask the same questions: “Won’t he mix languages? Won’t he stay behind?” And you have to say: “Look, compared to monolinguals, bilingual boys and girls are better at working, have better results in languages and in every subject.” Today, however, in Europe, the problem is not bilingualism, but multilingualism.

Bilingualism before, multilingualism now?

Yes. The questions my parents ask me tell me: “I am a Turkish woman, I have a Russian husband, we live in Berlin, you have to know German, I know, but we want our children to speak with their parents in their languages.” They know that they must also know German, because they live there, but also the languages of their ancestors. Therefore, the eternal question: “What is the minimum exposure time?” and we do not know how to answer this question correctly. We need more research on the factors, what makes language acquisition easier, what makes it difficult to acquire it.

We know that when the cognitive system is flexible, in childhood we have a great ability to acquire languages, we know that we are able to do much more than we thought 30 years ago. However, there are aspects that we must tighten up. We know, for example, that intelligence doesn't matter, whether we're smart or not, that we can learn two or three languages in the same way. The factor is exposure time, although we don't know how to specify the minimum time. In the case of bilingual people, there is no problem, but in the case of multilingual people? It is one of the issues, of course.

It's amazing, and it's not, parents, here and there, have the same concerns, the same questions.

Yes, and many times the parents who ask these questions are up to date, have answers to the questions, but when they start “some friends have told us”, then it is over! The worst are pediatricians. It seems that doctors have to have an opinion about bilingualism. But because they know nothing about linguistic empowerment, when there is a problem of linguistic development, “because at the same time they speak with two languages,” they say. However, linguistic development problems are the same for monolingual children as for bilingual children. In a monolingual environment, when bilingualism comes up, parents live in doubt. When the environment is bilingual, there are no questions, they have their own evidence!