second language learning delay
It generally takes approximately 2 years for a child’s conversational ability or surface fluency in a second language to develop, but it can take 5 to 8 years or more before all the academic skills required to cope with classroom language and curriculum content are developed. Consequently, bilingual students may have highly developed conversational skills in, for example, English, yet still perform poorly in school if their academic language skills remain underdeveloped. This is known as the second-language learning delay.
