Second
Language Acquisition in Early Childhood
Although interactive parent-child patterns are different around the world, all normal developing children become language users during the same age frame. Despite this fact, the way in which children learn to talk follows a specific pattern. That is, they need to be exposed to language and afforded the opportunity to interact with others. How often and how well parents communicate with their children is a strong predictor of how rapidly their children will develop language learning skills.
For years it has been thought that teaching a foreign language to toddlers and preschool-age children would be a futile effort. However, recent studies indicate that the best time for a child to learn another language is in the first three to four years of life.
Language Learning Is a Natural Process for Young Children
Adults can learn languages, but most of the time, they do so in a non-natural way. Most adult Spanish learners—for example—can recite the verbs and make sentences while in the classroom. However, they often find it more difficult to speak Spanish fluently when they visit a Spanish-speaking country. Nevertheless, people who fully immerse themselves in a language like children do—through play and exploration—can learn a language quickly and easily. So, the more we become childlike in language learning, the easier it becomes.
Research has shown that children who grow up in a well-rounded environment learn to speak at least 2,000 basic words by the time they are four years old. Simple observation of how babies learn to talk proves that they are natural learners. During the first six months of life, babies babble using the basic 70 sounds that make up all the languages in the world. They will then learn to talk using only those sounds and words they pick up from their environment, most importantly from their parents and caregivers. A baby's brain will then discard those sounds required to speak in languages he or she does not hear (Kotulak, 1996).
Early Childhood Years Are Crucial
"During this
period and especially the first three years of life, the foundations for thinking,
language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid
down," says
Between birth
and age four, half of all human intelligence growth takes place, while another
thirty percent occurs between the ages of four and eight. Two-thirds of a
person’s intellectual development, therefore, occurs before he or she
even begins formal education (Bloom, B. 1964). Early childhood programs are
uniquely positioned to encourage early language and development during these
vital years.
The four- or five-year-old’s learning of a second language is a "perfect model for the idea of the critical period." According to Dr. Curtiss: “...the power to learn language is so great in the young child that it doesn't seem to matter how many languages you seem to throw their way.... They can learn as many spoken languages as you can allow them to hear systematically and regularly at the same time. Children just have this capacity. Their brain is just ripe to do this.... There doesn't seem to be any detriment to...develop(ing) several languages at the same time.”
When children wait until high school, however, to start studying a foreign language, the job is much harder. The task now involves learning the rules of grammar, translating, reading, and trying to develop language learning strategies. The chore is a different and much more difficult one than it was for the young child who undertook language learning during that sensitive early childhood period. Brain plasticity has been lost, the number of synapses has been greatly reduced, and the brain no longer has the same facility to restructure itself that it had when the child was young. Later in life, everything the person learns will grow from the information gained during those crucial early years.
How to Teach a Second Language to Young Children
Young children can learn by listening, seeing, imitating, and practicing. Consequently, young children can be immersed in a second or third language through talking, singing, playing, and doing. Most importantly, learning should be made fun.
- the ability to solve problems that one encounters in real life;
- the ability to generate new problems to solve;
- the ability to make something or to offer a service that is valued within one's culture. In his cross-cultural exploration of the ways in which people are intelligent, he has identified seven distinct types of intelligences:
- Verbal/Linguistic: the ability to read, write, and communicate with words.
- Logical/Mathematical: the ability to reason and calculate.
- Musical:the musical ability that is highly developed by composers and top musicians.
- Visual/Spatial: the ability to master position in space. This intelligence is used by architects, painters, and pilots. The ability to memorize visually, and to use the imagination.
- Body/Kinesthetic: the physical intelligence used by dancers and athletes.
- Interpersonal: the ability to relate to others. This intelligence is used by salespeople and motivators.
- Intrapersonal: the ability to know one's inner feelings, wants, and needs.
According to
How to Teach Young Children a Second Language
What’s Easy Immersion?
Nowadays, almost everybody talks about immersion. Yes, immersion is the most effective way to teach second languages. A teacher immerses his or her students in a new language by using it all the time, from the beginning to the end of the class.
However, children who are learning a second language have different "immersion" needs than children who are learning languages from birth. As a result, teachers will have a hard time using materials that were originally produced for native-speaking children. Following such a program is not a successful immersion strategy.
Immersion can be hard and frustrating if it is used in the wrong way. Imagine yourself sitting in a classroom where the teacher starts speaking in Italian or Chinese and makes little effort to be understood. How would you feel? Confused, bored, angry? Maybe you’d make an initial effort to understand, but if you continued to have no clue of what was being said, you’d quickly disconnect and give up.
Now imagine that
same teacher telling you “I’m walking” as he walks and “I’m
jumping” while he jumps. You can manage comprehension of that, right?
The teacher can then invite you to walk or jump along. These techniques,
known as Total Physical Response (TPR), were first proposed by
We easily immerse our students in a second language when we help create an immediate connection in their brain between what is being said and its meaning.
How to Apply the Easy Immersion Methodology
1. Divide your time into segments. Preschoolers and kindergarteners have short attention spans, and the intensity of that attention depends very much on the type of activity in which they are involved. Sitting-down activities that require focused attention on the teacher are most difficult for them to stay attentive to. Although primary school children can sustain longer periods of attention, they can easily get distracted when learning second languages. A good formula is to calculate timeframes according to age. That is, if a child is three years old, the maximum attention span will be around three minutes. Likewise, if a child is two, that attentive timeframe will be around two minutes. With older children, you can calculate between ten and fifteen minutes for each segment. Every child is unique and some children in your class will be more mature or advanced in some areas than others. Some kids will be able to sit for longer periods of time and some for less. It depends on the days too. Although age is not a magic number, it’s a good reference point when preparing activities. With experience, you will be able to prolong or shorten activities on the spot, depending on the student “demand” you observe in your classes.
- Establish routines and traditional activities. Young children are very attached to routines. Routines make them feel safe because they know what is coming and how to behave in that situation. A familiar structure allows young children to take ownership over their acts. While your goal is always to advance in the learning process and, therefore, to introduce new things each day, a familiar framework helps ground the new over the old.
Older children also need some structural foundation (routine), but they’ll be able to adapt to newer situations more quickly. For all children, younger and older, a structural framework helps promote a disciplined classroom.
3. Work on all levels of language. Your students are starting from scratch. As a result, they need to learn everything in the new language: the sounds (phonemes), the words, the sentences, and the intonation of the new language when spoken. When preparing your activities, think about ways to emphasize certain sounds or words. That way, you’ll be working on various language levels at the same time.
4. Create activities that combine different learning modalities and which support multiple intelligences.
All students have their own way of learning, which is as unique as their fingerprints.Everybody has preferred learning modalities. Some children are visual learners, some auditory, some kinetic (i.e., they need to move, touch, or perform). All children assimilate the received information in their own way. The solution to this dilemma: make sure there is “something” in each of your lesson plans for every type of learner.
So, how do you link all of these intelligences into effective teaching of a second language?
- Learn by doing. Dramatic play is very effective. Play grocery store, make a snack, or take a walk, al the while talking in the second language.
- Learning should be fun.The more fun it is to learn a language, the more a child will want to stay with it. Learning while playing is the best way to learn because it creates emotional attachments, and emotion is the door to learning.
- Learn with music. Music is one way of using the entire brain. Do you still remember the songs you learned in early childhood? Most people do because when lyrics are combined with music, they are easier to learn (Lozanov, 1978; Campbell, 1997; Brewer & Campbell, 1998).
- Learn with lots of movement.Think of the brain and the body as one. We know that we learn more when we move as we are being taught. Encourage children to dance and move to the rhythm when learning a second or third language (Gardner, 1983; Doman, 1984; Dryden & Vos, 1997).
- Learn by talking to each other.Having students practice a language by talking to each other over a meal, for example, is a great way to learn (Gardner, 1983; Dryden & Vos, 1997).
- Learn by reflecting.It is important to let children take time to "simmer." There is a dormant stage to language learning. First, children absorb the language; later, they begin to speak it (Krashen, 1992).
Examples:
1. Use the song "La sopa loca" ("Crazy Soup") when teaching the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Bring plastic utensils and "act out" the song with your students.
| La sopa loca El mantel, los platos hondos, los platos, la sopa, el cucharón… ¡Ya está! ¡A comer! En la casa de mi tío comen sopa con cuchillo. ¿Qué haces? ¿Comes sopa con cuchillo? ¡Ay, ay! ¡Qué loco estás! ¡Ay, ay! ¡Qué barbaridad! En la casa de Ramón comen sopa con tenedor. ¿Qué haces? ¿Comes sopa con tenedor? ¡Ay, ay! ¡Qué loco estás! ¡Ay, ay! ¡Qué barbaridad! En la casa de mi hermana comen sopa con cuchara. ¡Menos mal! ¡Una cuchara! ¡Ay, ay! ¡Qué rica está! ¡Ay, ay! ¡Quiero un poco más! ¡Más sopa, por favor! |
Crazy Soup Tablecloth, bowls, plates, soup, big spoon… All set! Time to eat! In my uncle’s house, they eat soup with a knife. What are you doing? Do you eat your soup with a knife? Ay, ay! How crazy you are! Ay, ay! What a foolish thing! In they eat soup with a fork What are you doing? Do you eat your soup with a fork? Ay, ay! How crazy you are! Ay, ay! What a foolish thing! In my sister’s house, they eat soup with a spoon. Good thing! A spoon! Ay, ay! How tasty it is! Ay, ay! I want a little bit more! More soup, please! |
Source: "La sopa loca" is included in our books Play and Learn Spanish and Play and Learn French, which are published by McGraw-Hill 2005.
2. Cook a crazy soup in class.
· Fill a big pot with cold water.
· Put the pot on the fire (a red circle).
· Add normal soup ingredients: oil, salt, chicken (plastic), pasta letters...
· Or add crazy ones: a boot, a block...
EASY IMMERSION TIPS
v How to Create Thematic Units
1. Select topics that can be tied to a story.
2. Decide on the most important vocabulary words and expressions to be learned and focus on them.
3. Choose themes that teach everyday vocabulary.
4. Develop the units over long periods of time.
5. Smooth the transition between units by connecting topics.
v How to Introduce New Vocabulary
1. Mix activities that use vocabulary words alone with activities that use them in context.
2. Introduce a few vocabulary words at a time.
3. Introduce new words and expressions each day.
4. Use the target vocabulary words in different contexts during long periods of time.
v How to Use Storytelling
1. Divide the story into short episodes.
2. Introduce one episode at a time and leave the students in suspense until the next class.
3. Start the story from the very beginning again.
4. Reduce the narration, and make it highly descriptive.
5. Use a lot of dialogue; make the protagonists speak.
6. Use puppets or disguise yourself (a simple wig will do!).
7. Make a stage of your classroom whenever possible.
8. Involve your students in actions.
v How to Use Movement
1. Use actions that will occur within the story or the thematic unit.
2. Develop a logical sequence.
3. Act out the actions with the students while narrating what you are doing.
4. Create a funny ending.
v How to Use Music
1. Tie music to a drawing or a movement to aid in understanding.
2. When creating or using long songs, introduce regular speech.
3. Choose highly repetitive songs.
4. Use the "easy" parts of traditional songs.
v How to Use Arts and Crafts
1. Work on very small projects that require few materials.
2. This is not about YOU doing all the work. Allow the students to get actively involved.
3. Use the opportunity to help the students learn how to draw, cut, paste, etc. Focus on the process, not on perfect results.
4. Teach the students the vocabulary words and phrases for the actions being performed.
5. Arts and crafts projects are great "lifesavers" in difficult classes.
Bibliography
Arnberg, L. (1987). Raising children bilingually: The pre-school years. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Bloom, B.S. (1964). Stability and Change in Human Characteristics. New York: Wiley.
Curtain, H. A.
& Pesola,
Genesee
Genesee
Kotulak, R. (1996).
Inside the Brain.
Krashen, S. (1992). Fundamentals of Language Education. Beverly Hills: Laredo.
Krashen, S. & Terrel, T (1983) The Natural Approach. Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Hayward, CA: Alemany Press.
Lomba,
Lomba,
National Clearinghouse
for Bilingual Education. “Two- Way Language Development Program.”
Omaggio,
Omaggio,
Smith,