The first months: what the “silent period” actually looks like

Many parents expect a child to be chattering in the new language within weeks. Some are. Many others spend a stretch of time saying very little at school. Researchers call this the silent period, and it is a widely described phase for children who arrive in a school where they do not yet speak the language.

“Silent” is a slightly misleading word. A 2025 scoping review in the Journal of Child Language by Kan and colleagues looked at 40 studies of young children learning a community language after a different home language. It found that children in this phase were actively communicating in other ways: through gestures and other nonverbal means, through “private speech” (quietly talking to themselves), and through their home language. The review also highlighted the role of teacher support and interaction with classmates in helping children move forward.

At home, your child may come back exhausted simply because listening hard all day in an unfamiliar language is tiring. Quiet evenings and early nights can help more than extra lessons in the first weeks.

Playground language vs classroom language: BICS and CALP

The single most useful idea for parents in this situation comes from the Canadian researcher Jim Cummins. He distinguished between BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills: everyday conversational language) and CALP (cognitive academic language proficiency: the language needed to understand and express ideas in school subjects). In a 2008 overview, Cummins explained that the distinction was intended to draw attention to the timelines and challenges second-language learners face in catching up with classmates in the academic side of the school language.

How long does each take? The best-known research comes from children learning English in English-speaking school systems, so treat the figures below as an indication rather than a promise for Japanese or German.

How age changes the picture

There is no single “best age” to join a local school, and we have not included claims about one because the research is more complicated than popular sayings suggest. What we can say is that age changes how a school system places your child and how much academic content is waiting for them. The official pages we checked show the same pattern: the youngest children tend to go straight into ordinary classes, older ones are more likely to get a separate language class first.

Two practical points follow. First, a teenager joining a local secondary school may face years of subject learning in a language they are still acquiring, just as exams approach. That raises the stakes. Second, older children usually already read and write well in their first language, and that is an asset they bring with them.

What support local state schools may offer: three real examples

Many countries have some form of newcomer language support in state schools. It is called different things, is organised differently and is not always available at the school nearest you. Here are three examples we were able to verify on official pages.

A few things are worth knowing about Japan in particular. MEXT publishes a school-entry guidebook for foreign families in several languages, including English. It says tuition at public elementary and junior high schools is free, textbooks are provided free, and lessons are normally taught in Japanese. Its wording to foreign families is permissive (“if you would like to enroll your child…”), and it notes that in some areas the designated school may be changed so that a child can receive enough Japanese-language instruction. In other words, the national framework exists, but what your local school can actually provide depends on the municipality.

Questions to ask the local school before you enrol

You are not being difficult by asking these. If you don’t yet speak the language, ask whether an interpreter can join school meetings, or bring a trusted person.

A realistic plan for the first year

Rather than asking “is it working?” every week, it helps to agree with yourself (and your child’s teacher) what reasonable progress looks like at different points. The stages below are not research milestones; they are a practical way of organising your check-ins.

Keep homework in proportion. If a worksheet is impossible to read, ask the teacher what matters most and whether it can be adapted. Explaining subject ideas in your home language can help the concepts land while the school vocabulary catches up.

Signs it isn’t working, and when to get an assessment

Immersion is hard for almost every child at the start, so some upset is expected. The question is whether things are gradually getting easier. The table below separates ordinary adjustment from signs that deserve a conversation with the school, and possibly a professional.

Sometimes a child’s difficulties are not only about the new language. A leaflet from the speech-language pathology team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital notes that children growing up bilingual develop language a little differently, but this is not a true disorder; a language disorder is when a child’s skills are significantly poorer than expected in their native or dominant language. The practical point: if you have concerns, ask for an assessment that looks at your child’s first language too, ideally by a professional who can work in that language or with an interpreter. An assessment done only in the new school language, a few months after arrival, is likely to mistake “still learning” for a problem.

Keeping your home language (and English literacy) strong

When a child is working hard to learn a new school language, parents sometimes wonder whether they should switch to that language at home to help. For most families, the advice from child-development sources points the other way. The Australian government-funded Raising Children Network suggests that if a child becomes less willing to use their heritage language as they get older, parents should keep using it with them, especially at home. Cincinnati Children’s leaflet similarly says it is easiest for children to use one language at home as much as possible, and describes the risk of “subtractive” language acquisition, where a first language stops being used and is replaced by the second.

English-speaking families have an extra consideration: many will move again, perhaps back to an English-speaking system. If your child learns to read and write only in Japanese or Dutch, their written English may fall behind their age even while spoken English stays strong.

Local school, international school or online: an honest comparison

Full immersion can be a wonderful experience. It can also be the wrong fit for a particular child, age or family that will move again soon. Here is how the three main routes compare in general.

Some families combine routes, for example a local school plus English literacy at home. An online school does not give your child a local community, so if you choose one, plan for in-person contact through activities.

An online option with bilingual mentors: NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY

NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY (NGA) is an online international school for ages 6–18, run by NIJIN, the company behind this site. We mention it as one alternative for families who are unsure whether full immersion is right, or who expect to move again. Please read the limitations as carefully as the features.

Frequently asked questions

Sources used for this article

A school that moves with your family

If your family expects to relocate again, or your child needs to keep learning in English while the local language grows, NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY offers live online classes across Asia and Oceania time zones. Tuition is yet to be announced; the school opens in September 2027.

Visit NIJIN GLOBAL ACADEMY