Why you should teach your child a foreign language

Children have such amazing brains! They absorb everything around them at lightning speeds. It is important not to underestimate a young child’s ability. As parents, we certainly want the best for our children, allowing them to reach their potential. Teaching your child a second language, even while he is still developing his first language, has some real benefits. It is good for brain and communicative development and will have lasting benefits that will be seen later in life.

Good for development

Teaching your child a foreign language at a young age is good for his overall development. Some think that if you start too young, it will confuse a child, keeping him from learning English correctly. That is simply not true. Learning another language actually enhances children’s linguistic abilities. They tend to learn faster, with more comprehension than a child learning just one language. Children that are learning or have learned a foreign language when they are real young tend to do better in school and on standardized tests. They also tend to be more creative and better at problem solving. It is never too early to start teaching your child another language. In fact, the earlier you start, the more likely it is that your child will become proficient in that language, being able to speak and understand it like a native speaker.

Exposes child to the outside world

Another benefit of teaching your child a foreign language is the exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking it provides. Along with learning a language, your child will certainly benefit from learning about where that language is spoken and what kind of people speak it. As your child gets older, he will have more of an understanding of cultures other than his own. This will provide a much broader perspective of the world around him. And certainly learning another language will give him additional ways to express himself.

Benefits child later in life

Teaching your child to speak more than one language will no doubt have long-lasting benefits. As people immigrate and cultures are spread around the world, your child will have many opportunities to use his language skills. It is not uncommon to come across native speakers of many different languages wherever you are. Travelling will be far more interesting when your child is going to a place where he can communicate with the locals. And job opportunities for bilingual individuals are more plentiful than ever before.

So start while your child is young and give him the advantage of being exposed to another language. It is much easier to teach children at a young age than to wait till they are older.

Many thanks to Louise Baker for guest blogging today!  Louise  is a freelance blogger who usually writes about accredited online colleges for Zen College Life. Her most recent article ranked x-ray technician degrees.

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A few weeks ago (May 2009), Rep. Rush Holt and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan discussed math, science, and foreign language education. Take a look:

It’s encouraging to hear both Holt and Duncan agree that foreign language education must begin early. Here are some of Secretary Duncan’s remarks (to the best of my ability):

“Finally on foreign language, starting young is absolutely right. Starting in high school is late in the game. Starting three year olds and four year olds and five year olds and six year olds . . . it’s like second nature to them.  So the more we can provide those opportunities early on, the better students are going to do.”

Yay.  Now let’s go do it.

• I visited a French immersion school.  It felt being in France.  The students receive one hour of content-based English instruction each day, and Spanish is taught as a special.  Every school administrator in the country should see an immersion program in action in order to witness the potential of ALL kids.  Awesome!
• Two of my area public school systems offer a taste of foreign languages once per week.  One district has Spanish in grades 1-5 for 25 minutes, and another one offers either French or Spanish for 45 minutes.  Boy, teachers with so many students are energetic and highly organized.  (In fact, one teacher I met sees over 1000 students each week!)  Although no real language proficiency can happen in so little time, there is still real value in getting kids excited about languages and cultures at a young age.
• I visited a Montessori program that offers Spanish once per week in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5.  
• A private academy for gifted students offers languages twice per week for 45 minutes.  Kindergarteners and 1st graders learn Spanish; 2nd and 3rd graders learn French; 4th and 5th graders learn Japanese.  In the 6th grade, students choose a language to study every day for the next three years.  
• Waldorf schools put a strong emphasis on language learning.  I saw students in grades 1-8 learning both French and German.  They receive instruction in the two languages twice per week for 40 minutes.  
• I also returned to the private school where I used to teach.  The students learn French in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 5, 2-3 times per week for 20-45 minutes, depending on the age of the child.
• Another one of my former schools taught one semester of French and one semester of Spanish twice per week in grades 1-5.

It’s really exciting to see the language learning that’s happening in my area.  I’m disappointed that the kids in the school districts where I live and where I teach do not have programs

Does your local school district offer early language learning programs?  What do they look like?  Which languages?  How much time?  Do they offer exposure or do they actually develop language proficiency?  Do the programs continue into middle and high school?  What would your ideal program look like?  I believe immersion is the ultimate, but I’d be thrilled with a minimum of 30 minutes of a language every day K-8.  Actually, I’d settle for just about anything. 

Please comment and tell us about language programs (or the lack thereof) in your neck of the woods.

Languages help children develop cultural understanding to live in a multi-lingual society. There is no denying the fact that we live in a pluralistic society and a global community. According to the National Virtual Translation Center, we are far from a being monolingual country. There are, in fact, 311 different languages spoken in the U.S. A language other than English is spoken in 14 million U.S. homes, and one fifth of the population over the age of 5 speaks a language other than English. English-only households account for just 82.1% of the population. Cultural understanding is a vital skill children will need throughout their lifetimes. Piaget found that at about the age of ten, children begin to perceive nations and groups as “other.” Information received before this time is more easily accepted. (Lambert and Klineberg 1967.)

Exposing learners to new cultures is the most fascinating, valuable, and enjoyable part of being a language teacher. A quality foreign language course can drastically broaden a student’s worldview, compassion, and understanding. At the elementary level, children have the opportunity to experience culture in a hands-on way: holidays, crafts, foods, music, picture books, and authentic stories. I like to include what I call “kid culture,” such as jump rope songs, hand clapping games, and playground games that I picked up from kids in France and Quebec. My young learners practice greeting people in France by kissing a puppet or shaking its hand. They learn about geography by playing on a shower curtain map. Simulations are another powerful way to bring culture to life. Tapping into kids’ natural propensity for imaginative and pretend play is a powerful tool. Countless students have traveled to France with me solely in their imaginations.

Language and culture are intertwined. Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Native American educator and social activist, expressed it well: “Language and culture cannot be separated. Language is vital to understanding our unique cultural perspectives. Language is a tool that is used to explore and experience our cultures and the perspectives that are embedded in our cultures.”

Here’s the third installment of the Case for Early Language Learning series.  In my research, I tried to zero in on a topic that might perk the ears of school administrators:  test scores.  I’ll let the data, facts and figures speak for themselves:

Elementary language programs allow for long sequences of foreign language study, resulting in higher SAT, ACT, and AP scores.  The College Entrance Examination Board consistently reports that students who study languages score higher on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT.  The more years of language study, the greater the results.  In fact, four or more years of language study has a greater impact on SAT scores than four or more years of any other subject.  Consider these gains of 2-year and 4-year language students versus those with no language background: (College Board, 2002)

Likewise, students who study a foreign language achieve higher reading and math scores on the ACT (Olsen and Brown, 1979.)  AP French, German, and Spanish exam survey data also indicates a strong connection between a long sequence of language learning and higher AP scores.  (Baum, Bischof & Rabiteau 2002.)

I’m thinking that my decent ACT score all those years ago was due to my four years of French.  In my case, it certainly wasn’t because of my passion for math and science!  It’s sad that so many high school students stop studying a language after two years, and many more choose not to study one at all.  As a parent, I want my boys to receive the benefit of many, many years of language study.   Don’t you?

Early language learning leads to denser brain development and higher cognitive ability.   Several studies indicate that learning a second language as a child increases cognitive ability.  One researcher, D.W. Robinson, concluded, “. . . a youngster whose experience with two language systems seems to have left him or her with a mental flexibility, a superiority in concept formation, and a more diversified set of mental abilities.”  (Robinson, 1992.)  In 2004, Andrea Mechelli and other researchers from London’s Wellcome Department of Imaging Neuroscience studied the brain densities of bilingual people.  They found that bilingual speakers had greater gray matter density in the areas of language, memory, and attention than did monolingual study participants, particularly in the brain’s left side.  The earlier the second language learning, the denser the gray matter in the brain’s left region.  These findings suggest that the actual structure of the brain is altered by the acquisition of a second language.  (de Vries 2004).

Anyway, I’ve spent the last week slaving away and researching a rationale paper for early language learning.  I think it might make a nice series here on Foreign Language Fun.  Today I’ll make my Case #1:  Higher Standardized Test Scores.  Here’s an excerpt from my fascinating paper:

Children who receive instruction in two languages typically score higher on standardized tests.   Dr. Ellen Bialystok of York University found that bilingual children scored twice as high on language tests than their monolingual peers. (Bialystok 2991) Another researcher, C.M. Saunders, studied the performance of third graders from the Georgia Elementary School Foreign Language Model Program.  These students received four years of foreign language instruction five days per week for 30 minutes.  Their Iowa Basic math scores were significantly higher than students one year older who had not been exposed to foreign languages. (C.M. Saunder 1998.)  Even more compelling is a study in which experimental groups of third graders received 30 minutes of Spanish three times per week for one semester, instead of the equivalent amount of extra math time in the control classes.  Even after that short amount of time, one of the Spanish classes outperformed the control classes in math.  (Armstrong and Rogers 1997.) 

I could go on!  There was so much research backing up the standardized testing statement I was amazed.  I don’t have my full bibliography published here, but if you’re interested in more detailed information about the sources, feel free to contact me.  Next, I’ll give you the good news about just how much long-sequence language learning can positively impact SAT scores. 

Ciao