Say ‘Si!’ to 2nd Language
by Marcela Summerville
This month’s guest educator, Marcela Summerville is the director and founder of Spanish Workshop for Children, a suburban Philadelphia Spanish immersion program. She is co-chair of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' Learning for Young Children group and co-author of Play and Learn Spanish and Play and Learn French (McGraw Hill, $15.95 each). MetroKids invites Delaware Valley educators to contribute Guest Educator articles on topics of interest to other teachers and parents. Send ideas to editor@metrokids.com .
In an increasingly diversified and multicultural world, more and more parents are enrolling their young children in language programs. Their aim: to give their children a jumpstart on learning Spanish, French, or even Mandarin Chinese.
Is It Ever Too Early?
Nowadays, we find countless websites targeted to bilingualism as well as books, CDs and programs that claim to teach young children a foreign language. They also advocate “the earlier the better” philosophy, which advises parents that if their children don’t learn a second language before the age of five, the “window of opportunity” will close.
A prevailing idea is that children can learn a new language almost effortlessly. This possibility is exciting indeed, but it can also prove overwhelming to parents who want to bring up bilingual children but have no idea how and when to go about it.
Recent research offers tremendous support of the view that children should start learning a foreign language at a very young age.
“From infancy to age 6 or 7, there is a great deal of neurogenesis — the development of new connections — going on in the brain,” explains George Bush, MD, of the Harvard Medical School. “A child’s brain is shaped by his experiences — what he sees, hears, and touches. When it’s exposed to the sounds of a second language, the brain of a young child will actually grow connections that make a new language easy to learn.”
Parents should be enthusiastic but careful about Dr. Bush’s findings. Eager to expose their young children to a second language as early as possible, parents often don’t focus on the fact that how the language is taught is important as well.
I developed a language learning method in which a second language is taught in the same way any native language is taught. Young children best learn by listening, seeing, imitating, and practicing.
Consequently, young children can be immersed in a second language through talking, singing, playing and doing. Most importantly, learning should be fun.
For example, a mother, caregiver, or teacher jumps and says “Jump,” stops and says “Stop,” runs and says “Run,” and then repeats the action again and again. Through repetition, the child begins to comprehend the command and to see and imitate what is being communicated.
Helps All Subjects
Immersion technique classes, whereby instruction is conducted in only the target language, can help a child become bilingual. Some parents, teachers, and early childhood specialists may be concerned that immersing children in a second language will confuse them or impede their ability to learn English.
Experts have proven, however, that the opposite effect holds true. Bilingual children not only excel in language arts, but they also perform better in all subjects than their monolingual peers. Parents need not worry that a language learning course will confuse young minds.
To provide children with a seamless educational experience, parents and teachers must work together to create links between the home and school. The existing gap in the second language acquisition process requires such a bridge. Parental involvement is crucial.
When parents attend classes with a young child, they also learn the language, which lets them use it in their real-life environment.