How is it possible for someone to understand a foreign langauge but be incapable of speaking the language?

Question

Ex. A child grows up speaking english but their parents speak a foreign language. The child can fully understand the second language but they can't speak the second language well, How so?

Answer 1

The short answer is that they lack oral practice and parents have not demanded it.

The natural process of acquiring language begins with listening. It's the easiest. Even infants understand more than they can say with their first language. The 2nd step is speech. But this occurs when they are confident that what they will say will be understood. Many Spanish speakers born in the US, but surrounded by English speakers in their social circle outside the home will resort to English because they are more confident of their skills. Parents often want to encourage their children to speak English because it is so important for their success in school. Thus, they aren't required to speak in Spanish and in some cases are discouraged from speaking it. If you don't practice it you can lose confidence and the skills to carry the conversation. Reading and writing are higher skills but can help confidence too. Ultimately he/she may need to put him/herself in an environment where English is not an option to develop the necessary speech skills.

Answer 2

That's because the foreign language remains passive. It means that you have a passive vocabulary, you understand things, but when it comes to "activate" it, it doesn't go so well. In order to speak a language, you must actively use it.
There are people who speak more than 1 language well, because they are using them all.
Take me for example: My mother language is Hungarian, and I speak with my family in Hungarian, my husband is Romanian, and with him I speak Romanian, and we both live in Italy, where we have to use Italian. And, I'm using the English language on Yahoo Answers, for example.
I've also learnt German, and studied it at the University, but for 3 years I haven't been using it.Now, I understand everything in German, but it has become a little bit harder to speak - it has become passive. But I know, if I would stay 1 month in Germany, I would speak German fluently again.

Answer 3

I can't explain it, but I understand. I took a foreign language in school. I went to that country for 10 days & understood the "gist" of what they were saying, but my language skills were not good enough to speak back in coherent sentences. I could speak words here & there enough to be understood. Children can learn languages more easily than adults.

Answer 4

Lots of people are better at speaking a language than understanding it, and vice versa. Me, I can understand most languages better than I can speak them, because I can recognize the words when they are said but I don't seem able to string together the words on my own into a comprehensible sentence. Conjugated words are especially tricky for me: I know them when I hear them and can understand them, but I have trouble just remembering the conjugations and often will pick the wrong one when trying to speak. Is it "heisses Wasser" or "heisser Wasser" or what? But to hear someone else talking I will recognize immediately what they say because I recognize the base words.

Answer 5

u grow up learning the words, and understand sentences in context. but if no one actually taught u the language or expected u to answer, then there's no way u can speak until u understand the grammar.

i grew up speaking 2 languages, and learnt a 3rd last year. but most older people in my family also speak an Indian dialect (based on marathi, i think) that i grew up hearing and understand in general, but i can't ever reply!

Answer 6

they can understand the second language the same way you could understand english or whatever language you speak now when you were little...for example if your parent asked you if you want something you could maybe say yes when you were little but you couldn't say i want such and such...but you did understand what they were saying...its the same thing...but without ever learning the language...and just sticking with another language...but understanding the other language never goes away...

Answer 7

this actually happened to me my grandmother speaks Spanish to me all the time so i totally understand and i can say a few words but i never took the time to figure out how to actually put the whole sentence together so when i do speak it i end up speaking Spanglish

Answer 8

yeah i think it's interesting too...
i can read and listen to french fairly well, but when it comes for me to speak it, or even write it, it gets a little tricky.

i guess it takes practice. it's much easier for me to translate something from french to english, than from english to french.

weird?

Answer 9

limitations on vocabulary (we understand by context but don't necessarily know the words individually to compose thoughts) and limitations on understanding the grammars. I can understand most hebrew and occasionally dream in hebrew but I don't dare try to speak it.

Answer 10

The kid might not get the pronounciation right, he may only be able to read the language...lotsa reasons.