Feb 21 2011: Rather than discussing language proficiency in the context of the 0-sum game paradigm, given that there are nearly 10,000 distinct spoken languages in the world (of varying usage and importance, with Papua New Guinea having 800), how do you expose a 0-4 year-old child to a sufficient amount of languages (phoneme and toneme spectra) given resource (time, available speakers, etc.) constraints? For example, if one were to limit the child to being exposed to 2 languages, perhaps Mandarin and American English is good enough; to 3 languages, add a slavic tongue to the mix. For an extreme example, if one were to try to expose the child to 5,000 spoken tongues, the child would be functionally deaf and mute at 4 years old due to the randomness of the sounds to which the child is exposed. In regard to later adult language proficiency as a function of early childhood exposure to multiple languages, are there any studies done concerning this?
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A comment on Conversation: Does this mean that your "total language proficiency" is a zero sum game?