A few years ago there was a fad to guide children into bilingualism. This was supposed to make children not only gain linguistic abilities, but also strengthen other qualities in them that would facilitate a good start in the future. Such learning would have to start preferably before the age of 3. It would have to be constant and consistent.
Another aspect is that bilinguals create their own unique language system. It is formed on a similar basis as our native language system (first language), that is, through daily spontaneous interaction and playing with words. We acquired Polish by, among other things: listening to our parents, testing formulations, playing with sounds, words and expressions, gradually acquiring a larger and larger pool of names and meanings that were placed in different contexts.
So, wanting to “create” a bilingual person, he or she would have to have daily contact with two languages in his or her standard environment. Two hours of study per week would not be enough.
Second language is not learned the same way
It would seem that learning a language should be the same whether we are talking about a first or second language. This is not the case. If we wanted a child to learn a second language in a similar way to the first one, it would take about 425 years at one hour a week (by the age of 4 we gain about 17,000 hours of contact with the native language). So there’s no time for that, and we have better ways to do it, too.
Unless we have a situation in which a bilingual child has naturally created a mixed language system for himself, a second language is learned by building on the foundation from our first language and working more consciously, namely learning vocabulary words and discovering grammatical structures. For this reason, it is harder for younger children to master another language than it is for teenagers or adults. This is because they do not yet have sufficiently developed first language systems at this stage.
Various studies have shared these conclusions. Younger children take longer to master another language than their older counterparts (or adults) with the same amount of material. In contrast, the later starters’ learning itself was more efficient and used a variety of strategies or mature language mechanisms that only aided the process. The findings are similar for people with different first languages and those learning different second languages.
So in language learning, the statement: the faster, the better doesn’t quite fit.
When to start learning a language?
Unless it is due to the natural context of, for example, a bilingual home, it is not worth starting structured learning before the child has a good grasp of the first language.
If you want to learn a language quickly and effectively, you can safely wait until your teenage or adult years.
For preschool and early elementary school children, language learning will be neither fast nor effective. In addition, the effects of this learning may actually be negligible. However, it is not worth giving up learning a language completely for a slightly different reason.
Young children like to learn
Children approach a new language positively and with an open mind. All those studies I wrote about above also emphasized that the results may not have been stunning in this age group, but they were certainly also the most enthusiastic group to learn something new.
This is very important for the future. If we get a child interested in languages in kindergarten and keep up their enthusiasm for learning languages, then in a few years they will probably continue to want to learn languages. At the age of 7, they will already slowly begin to notice that learning a language is difficult, but the better we keep language learning fun, this further work may not be so scary for them.
Why build a positive relationship for language learning?
Preschool children can be extremely motivated to learn a foreign language. When asked if they liked a foreign language, as many as 96.7% of them answered “yes.” By comparison, in another study, only about 24% of 5th-6th grade students had a low level of anxiety about learning a foreign language. The vast majority had an average or higher level.
Learning a foreign language can create anxiety in students at later stages. It manifested itself most strongly in three situations:
- When they felt that others were doing better than them;
- When they were called upon to speak in a foreign language;
- when they felt they were “behind” with the material presented.
Conclusion: they were mainly afraid of negative evaluation by others and their own inadequate language level in relation to others.
Children naturally adopted different coping strategies. When they approached the problem analytically, allowed themselves to make mistakes and learn from them, were able to take their own education into their own hands or were able to get support and feedback from others, they coped better with the language, but most importantly with their own anxiety.
All this can be learned from an early age, while building a positive image of learning a foreign language from the beginning. Safely – as part of fun or games – children can test vocabulary for themselves. Say different phrases out loud. Look for patterns on their own. Freely ask for details. Above all, they don’t have to worry about being judged or making mistakes. They can always play again.
How play aids foreign language learning
Any way that stimulates memory and emotion will work to your advantage. Just the use of gestures and pictures when learning foreign language vocabulary improved test scores. The effects lasted for up to 6 months after training. After that, just repeat them for consolidation.
Preschool children like it when activities are full of entertainment and motor games (e.g.: play, games, songs, running). They appreciate situations in which they are directly involved, experience recognition and satisfaction for a correctly completed task, and have the opportunity to express themselves in a new language. All this is possible within the framework of play.
In addition, such activities promote cooperation and mutual help without judgment. It also allows people to make mistakes freely and learn from them. You can also easily adjust the difficulty level of the language.
What about computer games?
Like all other fun, games provide excitement and are constructed to inspire engagement and interaction. All research studies seem to emphasize just that. This is important, especially for those children who are afraid to speak up in class or in the context of getting students curious about a topic.
As for the effectiveness of such activities, depending on the different games and how they are used, the level of students’ knowledge will be similar to that of traditional classes or higher. Pronunciation learning, preparation for major tests or vocabulary learning were all tested. However, given the previously mentioned advantages, it is certainly worth taking an interest in this way of learning a foreign language.
Language applications in Knowla
Language learning support activities may soon appear on your device!
They will allow children to play freely with words. They will provide excitement and clear feedback on correctness. With the Knowla Box device, they will engage children in running and throwing balls at various items that appear. Each activity contains vocabulary words in written and read form.
Among them we find:
- Planet Hello! – with English
- Planet Hola! – with Spanish
- Planet Hallo! – with the German language
- Planet Salut! – with the French language
- Planet Ciao! – with Italian
Each planet contains activities for preschool and early elementary school children to urge them to actively play with words in foreign languages.
More details coming soon!
Sources:
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-child-language/article/abs/early-bilingual-development-one-language-or-two/F9CF4211F5AA78CB377A4A7370375BB6
- https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/106afaa9-8f41-439e-a096-c7b25a6c431d/content
- https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1075755.pdf
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-020-09527-z?fbclid=IwAR2k22dJYPqcVC8Wao_oe_benAsrtT_xGtwt75fRYYOc0t6C3O7_SLR2Y_I
- https://www.idpublications.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Full-Paper-SOME-WAYS-OF-LEARNING-FOREIGN-LANGUAGE-AT-AN-EARLY-AGE.pdf
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03004430.2010.485313
- https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/184679
- https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ornella-Mich/publication/233201173_The_effectiveness_of_computer_assisted_pronunciation_training_for_foreign_language_learning_by_children/links/54dc8da10cf282895a3a8f29/The-effectiveness-of-computer-assisted-pronunciation-training-for-foreign-language-learning-by-children.pdf
- https://ijlls.org/index.php/ijlls/article/view/22
