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 Earlier is Better
Do You Want Your Children
To Learn a Second Language? Start Them Before Puberty!
BY LINDA FOUST
© COPYRIGHT 2003 BY PARENTS'
PRESS
Puberty may be the time of many new beginnings independence,
physical changes, social experimentation but it also marks
the end of a child's window of opportunity for easily acquiring
additional languages. (Some parents insist that adolescence also
means the end of English communication itself but that's
a subject for a whole other article.)
Science suggests that when it comes to ease of learning and
proficiency in a foreign language, earlier is better. So why
aren't second languages taught in every preschool and primary
grade to take advantage of young children's natural capacity
to pick them up?
Good question. As with so much these days, the answer lies
at least partly in financing. Early foreign language instruction,
like art and music, may be deemed nonessential when it comes
to funding. As a result, many children will take their first
foreign language class in middle school or even high school,
just as their windows of opportunity slam shut.
There are exceptions. Private schools usually start foreign
language instruction in early grades. Many public elementary
schools offer languages, too, sometimes as an afterschool fee-charging
activity taught once or twice a week by an outside contractor
like Berlitz For Kids.
In fact, California ranks among the top five states in the
percentage of public primary schools offering foreign language
programs. According to the National Education Association, California
also leads the nation in cutting-edge elementary school immersion
programs, which, as we'll see below, are the most effective for
producing fluent speakers. Finally, privately funded "Saturday
schools" offer another avenue for early language study.
Let's briefly summarize the science behind the "earlier
is better" conclusion. Then, in case you don't understand
why your 4-year-old should speak, say, Mandarin when you don't,
we'll look at the overall benefits of foreign language acquisition.
We'll see how language is taught and explore your options for
taking advantage of your child's optimum language-learning years.
The Brain and Language Acquisition
The "window of opportunity" idea is widely accepted.
Here is a very simplified explanation: From birth until puberty,
the brain literally formats itself to perform various specialized
functions, such as language, based upon the input it gets from
the world. Neural networks gradually form, and they function
more and more efficiently as they are used. If a second language
is part of that input, networks for understanding and using it
grow richer. Therefore, early exposure to a second language actually
causes more connections to grow in a child's brain, and those
connections, in turn, allow for easier additional learning in
the second and first languages.
This
"formatting" process, especially active in the first
six years, ends at puberty, or around age 12, and the brain begins
to shed connections it no longer uses. The capacity to distinguish
and make sounds not encountered in languages the child speaks
diminishes or disappears.
Many scientists believe that a newborn's brain is genetically
"programmed" to learn language, just as a bird is programmed
to sing or a spider to weave a web. No one actually teaches a
child to talk. Rather, parents and others enable her learning
by speaking while they interact with her. The interaction is
a critical part of this process; merely hearing TV or radio is
not enough by itself.
Baby talk by adults is part of this interaction. It involves
simple sentence structure and vocabulary, exaggerated intonation
and sounds, repetition, and questions, all of which help a child
sort out meanings, sounds, and sentence patterns of a language.
During this early period, two languages can be learned simultaneously
as long as the child regularly interacts with speakers
of both languages.
Pronunciation is more like that of a native speaker when language
study begins early. Some experts believe this is due in part
to physiological changes at puberty; by age 15, a child's facial
muscles and bones are nearly mature, and his musculature loses
sensitivity to phonetic distinctions that are not relevant to
the languages he speaks. It is simply harder for the older student
to make new, unfamiliar sounds. A psychological factor may also
be at work: Older children are more inhibited in trying out new
sounds and more concerned about making mistakes.
For further information on language and the brain, an excellent
website is www.1worldlc.org.
Why Should Your Child Learn a Foreign
Language?
Isn't English enough? After all, much of the world's population
speaks it as a second language, so your child can probably get
by with English alone. Why add more academic study to his life?
These are legitimate questions, but the answers all favor
introducing your kid to a second language as early as possible,
preferably in an "immersion" program. The Bay Area
offers many reasonably priced schools and classes and which
language you choose may not really matter, since studying any
one of them provides benefits. Let's take a look at a few of
them.
 Acquiring
a language is effortless for a young child. Getting him into
a class early allows easy, natural absorption of a second language
through play and exploration. I, for one, can vouch for the fact
that starting Spanish in tenth grade is not effortless. Save
your kid the struggle.
Improvement
of overall academic performance. Statistically, children who
study a second language score higher on verbal standardized tests
conducted in English, according to the College Entrance Examination
Board. Language students also perform better in math and logic
skills than children with just one language. There is also some
evidence that foreign language students are more creative and
better at solving complex problems.
Likewise,
Chris Clark, director of Contra Costa's immersion preschool,
Kids Into Speaking Spanish (KISS), notes that "no one expects
the very young to master complex points of grammar, but the program
seeks to make the children open to exploring other languages
and cultures, Spanish or otherwise."
Retention
of family heritage, culture, and language as the younger generation
assimilates into mainstream American culture.
Ability
to communicate with non-English speakers in travel abroad or
at home. If your French, say, is weak, your fluent child can
keep you from mistakenly ordering "a barrel of your house
wine," as one of my friends did recently in Paris!
How Foreign Languages are Taught at Home
Where at least one parent speaks another language, a young child
can learn it easily and naturally at the same time he learns
English. One parent speaks to him and demands responses in English
only, and the other does the same in the target language. The
child learns two languages simultaneously and magically absorbs
the structure of each so that he does not mix them up. This method
can also work with a nanny or babysitter who speaks to and interacts
with the child only in the foreign language.
And in Schools
There are three major types of language study programs in primary
schools: FLES ("foreign language in elementary schools"),
FLEX ("foreign language exploratory"), and immersion.
FLES is what comes to mind when you think of a traditional
language class. Sometimes called "sequential," this
method treats the foreign language as a separate subject, like
math or reading, and meets for class from two to five days a
week. Explanations may be in English, but the students hear,
speak, and read the target language. Proficiency obviously depends
to some extent on the frequency of classes, the opportunity to
practice, and the accent of the teacher.
FLEX
teaches language and its accompanying culture as a concept. Rather
than trying to produce proficiency, the teacher emphasizes the
nature of language, and he or she may explore one or more languages
as examples. You shouldn't expect a child in a FLEX situation
to become fluent, but the program can provide a basis for later
learning and for appreciating other cultures.
Immersion programs come in three flavors: full, partial, and
dual.
Full immersion produces the highest degree of second-language
proficiency. In fact, Chris Clark of the KISS preschool, maintains
that "a child can ... be bilingual by the end of one year"
with full immersion. Using this method, children learn all their
subjects math, science, reading, social studies in
the target language, which is just the vehicle for teaching and
is not taught as a separate subject. Curriculum with younger
children focuses on games, songs, rhymes, cooking, holiday celebrations,
and so on.
At each grade level, the percentage of time devoted to teaching
in English increases, with the ultimate goal of instructing in
each language half the time by around fifth grade. San Francisco's
Alice Yu Alternative Elementary, for example, begins in kindergarten
with about 85 percent of class time in Chinese and ends with
50 percent in fifth grade, at which point the students can communicate
effectively in both languages. (Fortunately for these students,
San Francisco has an immersion middle school where they can continue
their
Full immersion was pioneered in Canada's bilingual (French/English)
provinces and has been well studied for thirty years. Children
in immersion programs do not experience any long-term delay in
speaking English, but they do suffer an initial, temporary lag
in English achievement. Research also shows that, ultimately,
immersion students do as well as or better than other students
on math and verbal skills.
In Canada, immersion programs have begun as late as grades
4, 7, and 9, but overall achievement levels of these students
were lower than those of children who started younger. In the
U.S., most immersion programs begin in preschool, kindergarten,
or first grade. (Some, like Valley View Elementary School in
Pleasanton, allow children to enroll as late as second grade,
but only if they are native speakers of the non-English language.)
Immersion
classes usually contain a mix of children whose families do and
do not speak the second language at home. At KISS, for example,
about two-thirds of the students come from non-Spanish-speaking
families. Fifty-two percent of the families at the French American
School speak only English, 28 percent speak French, and 20 percent
speak a third language at home. Berkeley's Centro Latino, an
afterschool program, says 99 percent of its parent population
does not speak Spanish.
Partial immersion programs, as you might guess, teach only
half of the curriculum in the foreign language, and reading and
language arts are taught in English from the beginning. These
students do not experience the same initial lag in English as
total immersion students, researchers say, but partial immersion
is not quite as effective in producing foreign language proficiency.
Nevertheless, the students do absorb accent and vocabulary and
obtain the other benefits of language study.
"Dual," "mutual," or "two-way"
immersion is designed for schools with a large percentage of
children whose mother tongue is, say, Spanish. Half the class
time is in Spanish, thus "immersing" the English speakers,
and half is in English, immersing the Spanish speakers.
Home Schooling
Home schoolers face a problem if there is no native speaker of
the second language in the house, as the child needs to hear
correct native pronunciation. Audio or video tapes may help.
The Muzzy films, produced by the BBC Language Course for Kids
in various languages, constitute one of the world's most respected
children's language courses. Its mix of video, audio, and CD-ROM
is formulated for the childhood brain, ages 1 to 10 (www.early-advantage.com.
The Rosetta Stone software packages, (800) 788- 0822, provide
interactive elements. You can buy or download this and other
language software on the internet. Following are some useful
sites:
www.gomilpitas.com/homeschooling
(free trials of language learning software).
www.speakeasy.org.
www.geocities.com/jardinresources/resources/recursos.htm.
www.californiahomeschool.net/resources/subjects/foreign.asp.
Saturday Schools
Despite the label, Saturday schools sometimes meet on Sundays
or on weekdays after school, usually for one to five hours a
week. Most operate during the school year and cost in the neighborhood
of $200 a semester.
When looking at Saturday schools, you need to distinguish
between two types.
One seems to be aimed at children who already speak the foreign
language or are in danger of forgetting it for lack of
practice. The school provides the child with a place to speak
her native tongue and remember its culture, and classes may not
be set up for teaching a child who speaks only English.
Other Saturday schools do teach beginners, and kids are usually
grouped by age and level of proficiency.
The Right Instruction for Your Child
Your child's age will play a part in deciding what is right for
him, since most full immersion programs start in preschool or
kindergarten. Look for full immersion if your child is young
enough and your goals are fluency and impeccable foreign accent.
Ask yourself if you are comfortable with her learning to read
first in a foreign language. If not, look for partial immersion,
FLES, or FLEX programs, or Saturday schools.
A Saturday program can serve your purposes if you want your child
to be exposed to another culture and get some of the benefits
of language study. This may be your only choice if you can't
find a beginners' class for his age group or you want him to
learn a particular language not taught in local schools.
If English is new to your child or you don't speak it at home,
perhaps you want a dual immersion program where he can refine
his English.
Meet the people who actually teach the children and, because
accent is all-important, make certain they are native speakers.
Watch some classes. These should be lively and interesting and
address a variety of learning styles by incorporating speaking,
listening, games, music, movement, visual aids, and reading and
writing (where appropriate to grade level).
If
your child is a rank beginner and is beyond early primary grades,
finding a beginner's language course can be tricky. Karl Pfeiffer,
the head of the German School of the East Bay (GSEB), told me,
"One of the most complex challenges for all Saturday schools
is to create somewhat homogeneous classes in terms of age and
proficiency while trying to get the best possible educational
experience for the students.
"At the GSEB, we take the following approach: At the
kindergarten entry level, we have two tracks: one for (near)
native speakers ages 4 to 5 with high fluency in German, and
one for non-native speakers with no or some prior knowledge of
German. The tracks are not completely separate; the children
will meet during recess, at various events throughout the year,
and often also outside of school in a neighborhood setting. Both
tracks consist of two or three class groups according to age.
"By the time the children are about ten years old, both
tracks will merge into common groups, one for preteens and one
for teens.
"You may not find a beginner's class for an older child.
He wouldn't be put with kindergartners, because the teaching
approach is always geared towards a particular age group and
their developmental stage. [A] fifth grader would feel uncomfortable
with the 'baby games' of the kindergartners, and the kindergartners
would feel uncomfortable with the 'big kid' among them."
In that case, the GSEB would suggest that the older child
come back in her early teens, when she is old enough for the
adult beginner classes.
If you don't find what you're looking for, take the initiative.
For a Saturday school, consider recruiting enough kids of your
child's age to make up a beginners' class. GSEB, for example,
is open to creating beginners' classes on demand if there are
sufficient numbers.
If your child's school has no language program, consult the
principal and teachers for ideas on bringing one to the school.
At my son's school, language instruction starts in second grade.
Last year, however, a kindergarten mom familiar with the brain
research initiated a request to add Spanish as a fee-based after-school
activity for younger children and 100 percent of the kindergarten
class enrolled.
On the other hand, some kids can't get enough of language.
Although my 12-year-old son took FLEX- and FLES-style Spanish
in elementary school with moderate interest, he fell in love
with Latin and the idea of languages after a week in middle school.
Now he's teaching himself Welsh with a computer program and an
Linda Foust lives
in Oakland and is a former attorney turned artist and writer.
She is the author of three books, including The Single Parent's Almanac (Prima Publishing) and
has written fiction and nonfiction on a variety of subjects for Parents' Press and other publications.
Her last article for Parents'
Press
was "Choosing
the Right Martial Arts Class for Your Child" in the January,
2003 issue.
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