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ENGLISH FROM THE CRADLE.

The baby’s brain is affected by early experiences every moment of the day. The little baby responds to the new sounds, the voices, the words and effortlessly absorbs them with interest. The young child mimics accents, intonation, behavior and reproduces them after experimenting with them.

 

It goes without saying that learning starts well before the formal educational system. The information reaching the children concerning their natural, cultural and social environment draws from the stimuli provided by the family environment. Baby Steps in English suggests that part of this stimuli should be in English. The sooner the children are immersed in the foreign language in a systematic and playful manner, the more effectively they will respond to it. “Immersing children in the foreign language in their early ages offers invaluable linguistic and intercultural experiences which can play a beneficial role in the mental, social, cultural, emotional, language and personal development of children” from Parents’ and Teachers’ Guide to Bilingualism, Baker 2000, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

 

Research has recorded that the capacity of children to hear new sounds and to distinguish them culminates in the first two years of their lives. After the 2 nd year, sounds start losing their acuteness but the structures and vocabulary in the foreign language are conquered equally effortlessly and spontaneously as with the first one. At this stage little children are “sponges” with a capacity to retain information easily. Every task inside or outside the house is a new learning experience and some of these experiences can be dressed in English.

 

By their 3rd year, children have built their personality and the way they view the world. By their eighth year, they have acquired their mother tongue. After this age, new information is processed mentally. When learning a foreign language, the child analyses and compares it to his/her mother tongue. This process inhibits rather than helps learning. According to research, after the eighth year, the mother tongue is the only means of expression and thought. Subconsciously it functions defensively and rises as a wall in the presence of a foreign language.

 

Of course, as the child matures, more skills are recruited to assist and reinforce learning in general. Despite these added skills though, the learning of a second language requires greater effort at a later age. A grown up will need to put in a lot of effort to learn a foreign language. Immigrants for example, take far longer to pick up the language of the country they have immigrated to, whereas their preschool age children, readily pick it up. Children know how to spontaneously distinguish sounds and repeat them, something that an older person can’t do easily. ‘At preschool age, the learning of the mother and other tongues is easy because the natural mechanism of obtaining languages, innate in children, is activated. (Johnson & Newport, 1989).

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WE START ENGLISH AT PRESCHOOL AGE BECAUSE

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  • It is fun, offers creative engagement and lays the foundations for future learning.

  • Research shows that children of preschool age are receptive of and benefit from the early introduction to a new linguistic environment. The learning of a second language starting with toddlers is achieved more easily and effectively when it starts in the eighth year of the child. According to linguist Patricia Kuhl, “a baby has the potential to learn any of the world’s languages simultaneously to the mother tongue and in a similar manner. The earlier the child is involved in the learning of the second language, the more natural it is to understand and speak in this language”. Patricia Kuhl bases her conclusions on (MEG) magnetoencephalographic readings which record with millisecond and millimeter accuracy the magnetic responses of a toddler’s brain when receiving sound stimuli.

  • Parents can offer learning experiences in English, during daily routine occupations, in and outside the house.

  • Immersing in the foreign language through playing, painting, singing, tales, puppetry, and movement facilitates the future formal introduction to language learning.

  • Early immersion helps children pick up other languages in the future and develop linguistic, emotional, psychokinetic, cognitive and social skills. Jeanette Vos, author of the book The Learning Revolution, studied the development of the brain and supports something which the teachers of foreign languages have always known; “that the earlier we involve children in the learning of a second language, the more natural it is for them to understand and speak it”.

  • Learning a second language at an early age helps children develop a positive attitude to other civilizations and languages.

  • There is evidence of the benefits of learning support before the children’s formal entry to the educational system.

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The European committee supports the early start in learning a foreign language and has presented the PEAP program of Linguistic training in the early years with an award. Also “Poliglotti4.eu”, a project of the European committee, has earned distinction by the European committee for its good practices for the teaching of foreign languages to little children. The German speaking community of Belgium offers, with very good results, lessons in foreign language learning to three-year-old children in the framework of the crusade for the learning of foreign languages at a very young age.

 

Wrapping it up, it must be said that little children benefit from their early immersion in a new linguistic environment as long this becomes part of their daily routine and is done in a vivid, entertaining, and experiential manner. We internalize better what we experience. Parents and early year educators, embarking into this venture, must never forget this pedagogic advice.

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