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Why study so young?
At first sight, the idea of teaching babies a SECOND language, when they haven't even mastered
the FIRST, would seem to be a daunting task! However, it is common knowledge that children who
are lucky enough to be born into bilingual families, can easily learn to communicate with ease
in both languages at a very early age.
When is the best age to learn?
Educators don't agree when to introduce the second language. Some recommend starting at birth.
Others say that can put a child at a disadvantage with both languages for a short time, and
recommend waiting until two and half or three years old to introduce the second language. On
the whole though, expert opinion seems to confirm that children can learn languages most easily
up until the age of three. After that, it's downhill as other factors come into play.
For example,
when they wait until High School to start studying a foreign language they find that they have to
physically study grammar and sentence structure. They also have to get used to translating
everything. A baby can do this naturally. The reason for this is that children who learn two
languages simultaneously experience no first-language interference - they don't have to worry
about pre-conceived ideas!
Physically, the brain appears to be more receptive to language learning at a younger age. A
child's brain differs to an adults because it is developing so rapidly. In fact, a two-year-old
child has twice as many connections (synapses) in the brain as an adult. The young brain must use
these connections or lose them. It makes sense to take advantage of this time to give the child
as much knowledge as possible - a second language is the ideal medium.
In addition, when considering the best age at which to start this extra language training it's
important to remember one very important factor. Learning to talk does not begin with the child's
first words, but long before that. Understanding is always one step ahead of talking. If we are
learning a foreign language then we find that we can understand what is being said way before we
are able to formulate phrases and actually talk in that language ourselves.
With babies, it is generally accepted that their understanding is about six months ahead of their
speech. Therefore, the younger the better - in theory. Ideally, a good age to start formally
teaching a young child is probably around 6 months or more. At this age they are taking some
notice of their surroundings and can usually sit up. Obviously, if they can be exposed to the
language before this age then it can be of great advantage. However, this article is looking at
the concept of teaching a child in an actual classroom type situation and a baby younger than 6
months would find it difficult to be comfortable with this.
How can they learn?
Children acquire language in stages. Coos and babbles, the language of babies, comes first. Then
around 10 months old, babies begin to say one word; soon after, the baby can say two words.
Once the two-word stage is reached, the child's language ability explodes. The child puts together
more than two words but only uses nouns, verbs, and adjectives, not speaking in complete sentences.
The best way to prepare an actual program for teaching babies is to think about how they learn and
to adapt these ideas to create suitable activities. The two main facts to consider are:
1) Babies learn from listening to other people - they use their hearing powers to pick up sounds.
2) Babies learn from looking at other people - they watch what people do and try to imitate them.
Any program then, must be based upon both sounds and activity.
The next important thing to consider about babies is - parents make the best teachers! At least,
they do initially. This makes the concept of attempting to teach somebody else's baby a little
difficult. Naturally reserved and suspicious of strangers, it can take a long time to forge a
relationship with this particular type of 'mini student'.
Home or school?
For many parents, the idea of taking their babies to a language school to learn to speak a foreign
language is an alien concept. They feel that their offspring will learn best in their home environment
with people that they know well. Besides, having a baby and looking after them is hard enough -
without the added problem of getting them to classes on time! In fact, having a teacher come to the
house can be a viable option if the parents are really keen. The child will be much more relaxed for
a start.
However, there is another side to this coin! The parents will feel obliged to have the house tidy,
there may be outside interruptions and other people may be around to distract from things.
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