When families live abroad and raise their children with multiple languages, their experience rarely follow a linear path. Parents often tell me “My child spoke only German at home, but after starting school in France, suddelny French took over”, or “After a summer with grandparents, my children’s Italian became much stronger again, but then it faded once school resumed”.
What these parents observe is exactly what the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (DMM), developed by Herdina & Jessner (2002), helps us understand: multilingualism is not static, nor is it just a sum of several separate languages. Instead, it is a living, dynamic system, constantly adapting to new contexts, relationships and identities.
In this post I want to unpack the DMM, connect it with the lived reality of multilingual families abroad, and show how it can help us reframe temporary regressions, imbalances, and shifts in language dominance not as problems but as natural and expected processes.
What is the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism?
The Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (Herdina & Jessner, 2002) is a framework that explains how multiple languages coexist and interact in one person. Rather than treating each language as a separate compartment, the DMM views the multilingual mind as a single interconnected system where each language affects the others.
Key principles of the DMM:
Dynamic and non-linear: Language development is never a straight line. Languages can progress, stagnate, or regress, depending on use and context.
Holistic competence: Multilingual competence is not simply “bilingual competence plus one or more additional languages”. It is a unique form of language knowledge, where all languages interact and form a new whole.
Constant change: Internal factors – like motivation, age, identity – and external factors – like schooling, community, family practices – continually reshape the language system.
Attrition and transfer: Temporary weakening of a language (attrition) and transfer of features across languages are natural dynamics of multilingualism.
Metalinguistic awareness (MLA): Multilinguals often develop enhanced ability to reflect on and manipulate language, which supports learning additional languages.
Why is it important for families abroad?
For multilingual families, especially those living across cultures, this model resonates deeply. Parents often expect steady progress in all languages. Yet in practice, children’s languages may grow at different speeds, in different directions and at different times.
The DMM reassures us that change is part of the process. For example:
- A child in an English-speaking school may start favouring English, but heritage languages remain part of their system and can be reactivated at any time! – Heritage language playgroups and schools can be helpful to maintain heritage languages.
- Siblings may develop different language profiles, depending on their peer groups and individual identities.
- A move to a new country or the change of a daycare or school language may temporarily destabilize the balance of languages, but over time the multilingual system finds a new equilibrium.
Instead of viewing unevenness or temporary regressions as failure, the DMM invites us to see them as signs of adaptation in a complex living system.
The role of identity and culture
In my work with families, I see how identity shapes the dynamic process of multilingualism. A child may resist speaking the home language because it feels “different” from peers, or conversely, they may strongly embrace it as a marker of belonging.
The DMM accounts for this: internal factors such as identity, motivation, and emotional connection to a language influence how languages develop and interact. This is especially true for families abroad, where children constantly negotiate between cultural worlds: home, school, community and transnational ties to extended family.
Here, multilingualism is not just about communication, it is about who we are and where we (feel) we belong!
Multilingual competence is unique
One of the most powerful contributions of the DMM is the recognition that mutlilingual competence is different in quality, not just in quantity. A multilingual child doesn’t have multiple “monolinguals” in one. Instead, their languages interact and form a new cognitive and linguistic system.
Grosjean’s Complementarity Principle (2010) adds an important perspective: multilinguals use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. No single language needs to cover all contexts or functions! this means that children may talk about their school subjects in one language, share emotions in another, and play games in yet another. Each language fulfills its role, and together they make up the child’s complete communicative repertoire.
For families, this has several implications:
- Children will not have equal proficiency in all languages – and this is not a deficiency, but a normal reflection of the function each language serves!
- Each language contributes in its own way – to learning, identity, relationships, and worldview. Even if one language appears “weaker”, it remains part of the child’s overall competence and cultural belonging!
- The multilingual system works as a whole: children draw flexibly from all their languages to communicate, to learn and to express their thoughts and who they are.
This interconnected system also fosters metalinguistic awareness: multilinguals notice how languages work, compare structures, and transfer strategies from one language to another. This process can happen more or less consciously, depending on what kind of multilingual one is at a given moment of time. Parents often see this when their children play creatively with words across languages, or when the learn a new language more easily because they connect the different parts (vocabulary and underlaying grammatical rules, eg. how to form a plural or use articles) across languages.
Embracing instability: attrition and transfer
Parents abroad sometimes worry when they notice their children “losing” words in their heritage language, mixing languages, or transferring grammatical structures.
From a DMM perspective, these phenomena are not deficits but signs of a dynamic system at work!
Attrition is the temporary weakening of one language when it is not used as much. With renewed exposure it can be reactivated at any time!
Transfer is the use of elements of one language in another, eg. code-mixing, calques, accent influence. Far from being a sign of confusion, this demonstrates that the multilingual system is integrated and flexible!
Families who understand this are better equipped to support their children with patience and confidence, instead of worrying unnecessarily about “confusion” or “delay”.
What the Dynamic Model teaches us
From my experience with my own multilingual journey, the one of my children and the multilingual families across the globe, I see the DMM as a valuable lens to interpret daily experiences. I usually combine it with the Dominant Language Constellation Model (DLC; Limacher-Riebold, 2025 [in print]) to help families:
- Reframe “imbalances” as normal and temporary.
- Recognize that multilingual competence is fluid and unique, not a competition of which language is “better”.
- Value the role of identity and emootions in language maintenance.
- Support children through transition with understanding rather than anxiety!
Most importantly, it encourages parents and educators to adopt a holistic view: multilingualism is not about perfect balance or equal proficiency, but about nurturing an adaptive system that serves communication, belonging and growth across cultures.
The DMM gives us both a scientific framework and a practical mindset. it aligns beautifully with the realities of international and multilingual families: languages shift, grow and adapt, just as families do when they evolve, move across borders and cultures – either geographically or within the multilingual family setting.
For parents, the key is to stay flexible, to support each language with meaningful use and to trust that temporary instability is not a setback but part of the journey. Multilingualism after all is not a destination: it is a dynamic lifelong process.
References:
Cenoz, J. (2013). The influence of bilingualism on third language acquisition: Focus on multilingualism. Language Teaching, 46(1), 71-86.
De Houwer, A. (2009). Bilingual First Language Acquisition. Multilingual Matters.
Grosjean, F. (2010). Bilingual: Life and Reality. HUP.
Grosjean, F. (1985). The bilingual as competent but specific speaker-hearer. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 6(6), 467-477.
Herdina, P. & Jessner, U. (2002). A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism: Perspectives of Change in Psycholinguistics, Multilingual Matters.
Jessner, U. (2008). Teaching third languages: Findings, trends and challenges. Language Teaching, 42(1), 15-56.
Limacher-Riebold, U. (2025). The dynamic DLC’s of mobile multilingual families. In Aronin, L. and Vetter, E. (Eds.), Dominant Language Constellations for Teachers. A Practical Dimension. (in print)
About Code-Switching and Code-Mixing I invite you to watch this video:
Ute Limacher-Riebold
Ute Limacher-Riebold, PhD, is the founder of Multilingual-Families.com and Owner of Ute’s International Lounge & Academy.
She empowers internationals to maintain their languages and cultures effectively while embracing new ones whilst living “abroad”.
She grew up with multiple languages, holds a PhD in Romance Studies and has worked as an Assistant Professor at the University of Zurich (Department of Italian Historical Linguistics). She taught Italian historical linguistics, researched Italian dialects and minority languages, and contributed to and led various academic projects.
Driven by her passion for successful language development and maintenance, and personal experiences with language shifts, Ute supports multilingual families worldwide in nurturing their languages and cultural identities in the most effective and healthy way.
