Consider…Nathalie and Catherine

Nathalie and Catherine are two-year-old cousins. Nathalie is growing up in a busy francophone (French-speaking) household in rural Quebec – with grandparents, parents and five siblings – where French and a little English are used. Catherine lives in a similar Francophone household in Montreal, Canada, but unlike Nathalie, her family regularly uses both French and English.

In the first few months both Nathalie and Catherine could make all the language sounds associated with French, English and all other languages spoken by humans. After six months, Nathalie gradually stopped making sounds other than those associated with the French language. At age two, Nathalie is beginning to speak in French only, while Catherine has quite a few words in both English and French.