Table of Contents
ToggleThis is an ongoing post about the most persistent misconceptions and misunderstandings about raising multilinguals and multilingualism. I have shared some of them in this post on my Multilingual-Families website, and I will explain and debunk some of them here.
If you came across a misunderstanding you would like me to discuss here, please let me know in the comments.
“You need to speak the school language with your child”: what this really means
When a teacher or another professional tells you that you should speak the school language with your child it usually means that your child needs more exposure and practice in the school language. It should never mean that you should replace the home languages with the school language!
We can create opportunities for our children to practice the school language at home and outside of home. However, we should also make sure that our home languages don't shift into the background for a longer period of time for our children to keep practicing and learning them too.
Studies by Jim Cummins and others show clearly that a strong development in a child's home language provides a solid foundation for learning additional languages. Thanks to the Common Underlying Proficiency (CUP), the skills our children learn in one language can be transferred to the other languages. This is effective in both ways: what our children learn in the school language can be transferred to the home language and vice-versa.
For this mutual benefit, teachers would ideally support our home languages in the classroom to foster deeper understanding whilst our children are still learning the school language, and we, parents, would support our children's school language by creating bridges to our home languages.
Further readings:
Bridging Languages and Learning: A Short Guide to BICS, CALP, CUP & CALS for Multilinguals
I invite you to watch my short video about this topic:
“Only those who speak both or each language perfectly are true multilinguals”
This is one of the most persistent misunderstandings about multilingualism and multilinguals, and one of the most damaging for both children and adults. The idea that multilinguals must speak each of their languages like "native speakers" (watch our interview with Prof. Jean-Marc Dewaele about why the term of "native speakers" is misleading), without any influence from the others, ignores decades of research on how multilingual competence works.
In reality, multilinguals use their various languages differently, depending on the context, the topic and the people they interact with. Like François Grosjean pointed out in his studies, multilinguals are not "two monolinguals in one person". Instead, they have a unique language repertoire, where each language covers different domains of life. For example, we might discuss professional topics in one language and family matters in another, and express emotions more easily in a third.
Perfection is not the goal – communication is!
Multilingual proficiency is dynamic and flexible. Research by Li Wei (2016) and Cook (1992) shows that multilinguals often have uneven competence across their languages. This is normal and natural. It reflects their lived experiences, not a deficiency. What matters is the ability to use the available linguistic resources effectively to communicate and understand.
This myth is particularly harmful to children in multilingual families. Parents may feel pressured to "drop" or "neglect" (!) a heritage language if their children are not developing it or the school language "perfectly". But maintaining and nurturing all languages our children need to function every day – at home, with friends, at school, in the community etc. – even with different levels of proficiency, supports their overall cognitive flexibility (Bialystok, 2001; Cummins, 2000 etc.), their identity, family bonds and connection with the closer and broader community they grow up in.
Let's reframe what "true multilingualism" means:
You can be multilingual if you use more than one language regularly, even if your skills differ across them.
Your accent, grammar, vocabulary etc. range does not define your status as multilingual – your ability to navigate between languages and cultures dos.
Multilingualism is not a static badge of perfection – it is a lifelong, evolving skillset.
Therefore, the next time someone says "you are not really bilingual / multilingual unless you speak both perfectly", remember: multilinguals are successful when they can live, function, work, and connect with others across languages – not when they match a mythical monolingual ideal in each.
References:
Bialystok, E. (2001). Bilingualism in Development: Language, Literacy, and Cognition. CUP.
Cook, V. (1992). Evidence for multicompetence. Language Learning, 42 (4), 557-591.
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy: Bilingual Children in the Crossfire, Multilingual Matters.
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality. HUP.
Li Wei (2016). Translanguaging as a practical theory of language. Applied Linguistics, 39 (1), 9-30.
(a video about this topic will follow)
Next post about another misconception coming soon
