Being in a Spanish-speaking home doesn’t hamper American kids’ ability to learn English, new research shows.
The first-of-its-kind study included 126 U.S.-born 5-year-olds who were exposed to Spanish at home from birth, along with varying amounts of English.
Researchers found that the kids not only learn English reliably, their total language knowledge is greater to the degree that they also acquire Spanish.
“We found that early in development, children who hear two languages take a little longer to acquire each language than children who hear only one language; however, there is no evidence that learning two languages is too difficult for children,” said study leader Erika Hoff, director of the Language Development Lab at Florida Atlantic University.
