This is how it works in our house
by Shifty (2019-06-22 18:52:15)

In reply to: I've seen this work out when one parent  posted by starburns

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My wife will only speak to our daughter in Japanese. And she will only respond to my daughter if my daughter speaks to her in Japanese.

Daughter (7) is completely bilingual.

Writing is a different story. She knows her Japanese characters, but written Japanese also uses a lot of Chinese characters. My daughter does not know these as well as a 7 year old in school in Japan does.

That's common with "heritage" speakers.
by starburns  (2019-06-23 16:29:55)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

They not only can't read or write the language, but also often have trouble passing professional speaking tests if they haven't complemented the home speaking practice with formal study.
It’s why my kids are still “Language acquisition.”
by ewillND  (2019-06-23 17:46:45)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

They are 100% fluent conversationally (Germans recognize their Munich accents) but would have difficulty with things like literary analysis in German because they don’t have the cultural background like a native German with German parents. They do all read and write very well, though.

I would estimate that 60% of my students are fully bilingual. Another 20 % are at least trilingual (2 non-English native parents, plus education in English). G16’s best friend is native proficient in English, Turkish, and German, and proficient in Mandarin. I have another student that is Turkish, Hungarian, English, and German fluent. English-Spanish-German. The list goes on. My students amaze me every day. But the key to that is mother tongue development. Additional languages are easily acquired if mother tongue skills are good.
If I've learned anything over my career
by starburns  (2019-06-23 19:22:07)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Reply to Post

and lots of language study, it's that people toss the word "fluent" around much too freely. People seem to think being able to generally understand a news broadcast or a newspaper article connotes fluency.

And you're exactly right about having true fluency in a native language. It's nearly impossible to learn another language properly without a full grasp on grammar and syntax in your native language.