Children rarely have both languages in balance. One language is usually stronger than the other in regards to exposure, use, and proficiency. When this type of language dominance happens, the elements of the other language can quickly be lost. The child can forget vocabulary and even rules of grammar in the language that is not used as often. Many bilingual children lose much of their home language as they go through the U.S. school system and their exposure to English increases. Even when parents continue to use the first language with their children, it may not develop in the same way that the second language does. During this process, the child may appear to have limited proficiency in both languages. Most likely, a child is undergoing a developmental phase during which the lack of use of the first language results in a decline in proficiency, while at the same time, the child's knowledge of the second language is not yet at an age-appropriate level. In time, most children attain age-appropriate levels in the second language, although they may retain an accent and transfer elements of their first language that mark them as non-native speakers. Preschool teachers should realize that this phase in language development is temporary. Even though a bilingual child's performance in either language appears to lag behind that of monolingual speakers, the child may actually possess a total or combined vocabulary and language skills larger than those of monolingual speakers. What looks like deficiencies in both languages should be more appropriately described as language imbalance. At certain points in the development of their languages, bilingual children do not perform as well as do native speakers in either language. Eventually, most bilingual children are able to come up to age-level proficiency in their dominant language, given enough exposure and opportunities to use that language. The age at which a child reaches this more balanced level of bilingualism is dependent on a variety of factors, such as the age at which the child begin acquisition of each language, the quality and quantity of exposure to each language, and the social climate surrounding the use of each language (Ovando & Collier, 1997). A language will be maintained only through exposure to speakers of that language and opportunities to use it. For many children, a significant reduction in use of the home language leads to home language loss. When children are older, many regret having lost proficiency in their first language. If older children and adolescents cannot communicate well with their parents or grandparents the cost to the family can be great (i.e. loss of communication and loss of respect for the parents and relatives who speak the home language). For this reason, families should provide sufficient opportunities for children to speak their home language so that it can be maintained. Some families enroll their child in after-school or weekend "foreign" language classes. These classes can support the development of the home language and connect the child to the culture associated with that language community. Such options are not available in all communities or they may be too expensive for many immigrant families. | 