Learning in the tender pre-school age is multifaceted due to the active curiosity and need for communication the little ones have. Pre-schoolers use all their senses in their play and are eagerly curious to find the meaning of what is going on in a story, a dialogue, a situation. The young ones like to experiment in their learning, and this expands their thinking. When they are exposed to rich visual and auditory stimuli through pictures, cartoons, video clips, realia, songs, music, movement, gestures and body expression, the children produce sensory images, mental inferences, emotions and of course language. Through experiential learning, observation, game like exercises, tales and songs the little ones reinforce their auditory processes, visual perception, attention skills, memory capacity, imagination and motility.
When exposed to sounds, words or phrases in the foreign language, the little children strengthen their cognitive and social level. Children copy language chunks effortlessly, learn through singing and moving to the rhythm, through playing, constructing, talking initiative, and communicating their own notions. Their creativity, self-confidence, linguistic, emotional, cognitive and social skills are awakened especially when they role play or act out characters and various situations. Eventually, children learn to react positively to learning through sounds or rhyming phrases and to internalize them. They earn interesting listening experiences, even when they do not understand the words. The meaning is of secondary importance and is acquired at a later stage. Along the lines, they understand communication codes because the tales provide a frame where social behaviors are codified and so the emotional and moral code of the child is gradually formulated. Eventually, the kids realize that they belong to a wider world from the one they know. It goes without saying that their vocabulary skyrockets.
“The stories which are read aloud are effective sources of vocabulary for young children and they acquire fantastic accent since they are wonderful mimes”. (Beck & McKeown, 2001)
“Children internalize the sequence of events, absorb the meaning of language and process the information better with frequent listening of stories and through getting involved in dramatization”. (Lewis 1994, Sullivan & Winner 1991).
Bilingual children.
Researchers studied images of the brain of bilingual children, under neurologist Dr. Andrea Mechelli’s supervision, and came to the conclusion that the learning of a foreign language does not only benefit the cultural and communication skills of children but also the “grey” matter of their brain, in a long lasting manner. The grey matter allows us to process information and monitors sensory perception, memory, creativity and speech while the “white matter” controls involuntary functions like breathing. When parents teach their kids a foreign language from very early, little do they suspect that they are strengthening the child’s grey matter or delaying dementia by four years as indicated by neuroimaging data. They do, however, know that they reinforce brain functions as they have read some of the many articles published on language acquisition.
According to Dr. Ellen Bialystok, doctor of psychology at the University of York, in Toronto, and researcher in the section of bilingualism and perception, “Bilingual children view things in different ways and they can more easily switch from one language to the other something which is a very good preparation for the modern world of multitasking”. The S.A.T. entry tests (Scholastic Aptitude Test), are proof that the children who have been learning a foreign language for over four or more years outperform the others at least in the lingual part of the exams.
Further recommended reading and viewing
https://youtu.be/MMmOLN5zBLY TED TALK. Τα οφέλη ενός δίγλωσσου εγκεφάλου, Μία Νακαμούλι
What speaking two languages does to the brain, 13 Jan 2015, weforum.org, Christos
Pliatsikas, A world Economic Forum article on google search.
Bilingualism “boosts your brain power”. Learning a second language could lead to an
increase in brain power, by WalesOnline, BBC, on google search.
Bialystok E, Craik FIM, Freedman M. Bilingualism as a protection against the onset of
symptoms of dementia. Neuropsychologia 2007; 45:459-464. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Chertkow H, Whitehead V, Phillips N, Wolfson C, Atherton J, Bergman H. Multilingualism (but not always bilingualism) delays the onset of Alzheimer disease evidence from a bilingual community. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2010;24:118-125. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
Learning Another Language Makes Your Brain Grow Bigger – Literally | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites, larryferlazzo.edublgos.org, google search
The Best Resources for Showing Students That They Make Their Brain Stronger By Learning