I apologize for the roughness of this post. I posted this comment on Galloping Cats Blog (on this entry) and wanted to share what I'm thinking about language acquisition here.
Exactly what Deborah said re: any exposure is good. I know a little about language acquisition and 2 languages (Cognition and Development was what I studied in my doctoral program). Your baby may not speak as quickly if he hears two languages as a baby who only hears one language, but that's okay. He's learning a lot and trying to sort it and understand before he begins generating.
In addition, when L leaves, you can throw in Spanish when you want. In double addition, there are lots of programs (at least where I live) for school aged children to be in an immersive environment after school in another language. I think the literature suggests that language acquisition is much easier up to age 6 so you do have a few years, but might as well start now since L is around.
Oh, here's a good paragraph from...
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Papers/Py104/pinker.langacq.html
Excerpt from a chapter by Pinker...(very famous experimental/cognitive psychologist)
"The chapter by Newport and Gleitman shows how sheer age seems to play an important role. Successful acquisition of language typically happens by 4 (as we shall see in the next section), is guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter. Maturational changes in the brain, such as the decline in metabolic rate and number of neurons during the early school age years, and the bottoming out of the number of synapses and metabolic rate around puberty, are plausible causes. Thus, there may be a neurologically-determined "critical period" for successful language acquisition, analogous to the critical periods documented in visual development in mammals and in the acquisition of songs by some birds."
End quote...
Pinker also says...
"Most adults never master a foreign language, especially the phonology, giving rise to what we call a "foreign accent." Their development often fossilizes into permanent error patterns that no teaching or correction can undo. There are great individual differences, which depend on effort, attitudes, amount of exposure, quality of teaching, and plain talent."
and ....
"There is no evidence, for example, that learning words (as opposed to phonology or grammar) declines in adulthood."
Okay... done quoting... Go for it with L. It can't hurt. My philosophy is to maximize positive exposures for learning as much as possible! There are also videos you can get to help with language acquisition in both English and Spanish. And yes, there is scientific evidence that kids can and do learn from videos (though I don't like to do videos before a year if possible, but some kids do like them earlier and my first born actually started watching at 4 or 5 months and loved them. She’s now 4 and I think she’s doing great in terms of cognitive development.) (And yes I am aware of the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations re: video and screen time for kids under two and I think they need to rethink them and they admit that the research just hasn't been done yet.)
Again sorry for the roughness... I know me though and I'll never get around to publishing this or something based on it if I don't do it this way.
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