| Despite numerous individual differences, all internationally adopted (IA) children have one common task: they must learn a new language. From a school's perspective, IA children belong to a large and diverse category of students called “English Language Learners” (ELL). This group consists mostly of children who were born outside the U.S. and arrived in the country with their families or were born to language-minority families who live here. These are bilingual children who normally use both English and their first languages within a developmentally appropriate and socially expected range of language skills. Most importantly, these children continue to use their first language in their families. Although part of the ELL group, IA children differ significantly from the rest of the ELL population. They are not bilingual. They are monolingual upon arrival and after several months are monolingual again, only this time in English. With few exceptions, there is a tendency in school settings to consider IA children bilingual and to apply to them the accumulated insights, knowledge, and practices regarding language acquisition in bilingual persons. This is an erroneous approach. Additive and Subtractive Language Learning Models in IA Children Internationally adopted children learn English in a different way from "typical" members of the ELL group. A new language is usually acquired based on one of two models: "additive" or "subtractive." When the second language is added to child's skills with no substantial detraction from the native language, it is called the additive model of language learning. When and if, in the process of second language acquisition, the first language diminishes in use and is replaced by the second language, we call this the subtractive model of language learning. The subtractive model is characteristic for IA children, who are "circumstantial" language learners: individuals who, due to their circumstances, must learn a different language in order to survive. They are forced by circumstances to acquire English, and they do so in a context in which their first language has no use at all. This means that while learning English for the traditional ELL population is akin in many aspects to learning a foreign language, for IA children English language acquisition is more akin to the natural ways in which first languages are developed. An IA child is completely immersed in the language and acquires English as a by-product of meaningful interaction in joint activities in the new family. The motivational urge to acquire the new language is much more intense in adopted children than it is in immigrant families and bilingual children. Most internationally adopted children live in monolingual English-speaking families. This means that a child needs functional English for survival and does not need his/her first language for any practical purposes. The child’s adoptive family is the primary source of patterns of proper English but this family cannot be a sustained source of the first language. In this situation, the first language quickly loses its functional meaning and personal sense for an adopted child. It results in a peculiar situation where an English language learner has the English language as the home's only language, and it leads also to a rapid attrition of the first language. Within the first year in the U.S. the English language becomes the only language of an IA child. Communicative Language and Cognitive Language Adoptive parents are usually amazed and pleased by their child's progress in mastering basic communication skills and see no apparent reason to worry about language development. As early as first grade, however, problems might emerge. Unfortunately, neither teachers nor parents are equipped to understand that the child's conversational proficiency in English is not sufficient to ensure mastery of the English language needed for successful school performance. There are two domains of language usage: communicative language and cognitive language. Communicative language refers to the language skills needed for social interaction in everyday communication within a practical context. It includes basic skills in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar and is supported by gestures, facial expressions, intonation, and body postures. Cognitive language refers to language as a tool of reasoning, a means of literacy, and a medium for academic learning. This language function emerges and becomes distinctive with formal schooling and developing literacy skills. Mastery of cognitive language requires specific conceptual and semantic knowledge of the language itself. Developmentally, communicative language emerges first and much earlier than cognitive language. Thus, the quality and quantity of a child's early communicative experience is crucial for forming the foundation of cognitive/academic language. Certain properties of cognitive language, such as grammar structures and lexicology patterns, are embedded in the psychological make-up of native speakers through frequent repetition when they are infants and toddlers and their parents talk to them or near them or read to them. In other words, children are predisposed to cognitive language mastery through their earlier experiences with the language. Unfortunately, this experience with language is what the majority of IA children miss in their early development. Moreover, as toddlers they experienced an abrupt and profound loss of their first language and an interruption in their language development. Research, clinical practice, and adoptive parents’ surveys show that IA children quickly and seemingly without effort achieve conversational proficiency. However, it is much more difficult for the same child to obtain age-appropriate mastery of English in the cognitive-academic domain. Chances are that an adopted child will struggle with cognitive language acquisition and might need educational help in this respect. Consequences of Rapid First Language Loss One of the most stunning discoveries about IA children is the swiftness with which they lose their mother tongue. It is typical for a 5-year-old IA child to lose most expressive native language within the first three months here. Receptive language skills might last a bit longer, but within the next six months all functional use of the native language will disappear in an exclusive English-language environment. The overall toll paid for the abrupt loss of the first language depends on the child's age and a host of individual differences. For most internationally adopted children there is no easily detectible damage, though for some this abrupt loss might intensify cognitive weaknesses and contribute to Cumulative Cognitive Deficit. Also, language is a powerful tool for regulating behavior. When this tool is taken away from a child, a set of inappropriate, immature, or clearly maladaptive behaviors may be observed. The most popular means of maintaining bilingualism is to hire a tutor or native-speaking nanny, to send the child to a bilingual pre-school program or Sunday school, or to enroll the child in an ethnic summer camp. With an IA child, families have to exercise extra caution in using these methods. Experience shows that in the majority of cases, such attempts to preserve the first language are doomed to fail. There are exceptions, of course, but exceptions only confirm the rule: bilingualism and international adoption are not compatible unless the child’s native language is the functional tool of everyday life within the family. Any attempt at external reinforcement of the first language for a child who has language delays, is emotionally and behaviorally immature, or has learning disabilities may lead to undue strain on child and parents alike. As with almost everything in life, this issue is a matter of personal choice and priorities. On arrival, the priorities for your newly adopted child are health, attachment, and initial adjustment. Everything is mediated, of course, by your child’s progress in new language acquisition. Preservation of native language is not usually a first-order priority for most adoptive families. Unfortunately, by the time families are ready to consider language issues, the child’s native language is gone. The bottom line is that bilingualism is not an option for the majority of internationally adopted children. It is more productive to concentrate on developing and facilitating mastery of their newly found mother tongue – the English language. Boris Gindis, Ph.D. received his doctorate in developmental psychology at the Moscow Academic Research Institute of General and Educational Psychology and his post-doctoral training in School Psychology at the City University of New York. He is a licensed psychologist in New York and a certified bilingual school psychologist. Dr. Gindis is chief psychologist at the Center for Cognitive-Developmental Assessment and Remediation located in Suffern, New York. (www.bgcenter.com) Dr. Gindis is a member of FRUA’s advisory board. | 
