Multi-lingual Children Tips

Learning about options

Children learn about options when they learn a new language. Where before they may have known only one way to say "cat" and now they know two or three, they will be open to finding other options in other areas of their lives.

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Learning about our world

In the same way that a good book can take a child to exciting places, so can a new language. When language study is combined with social studies of that culture, your child will learn about new and exciting places.

Your children will learn that children in other countries play and eat and go to school just like they do. They will also get to explore what the differences are: different games, foods, and study habits.

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Learn creatively with language

Learning a new language not only gives a person a new way to communicate, but it also promotes creativity. Children become more open to finding new and creative ways to solve problems, just like they've found new ways to express their thoughts with language.

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Explore Other Cultures

What fun to go to a museum, or the zoo, or the park and explore with your children.

Find more fun by exploring another culture with your child! Visit ethnic neighborhoods, taste new foods, try toys from another country.

This experience will not only be fun and educational, but will give your children a window to the world outside their own heritage and culture.

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Why a second language?

Most of us had to take a foreign language class in highschool, but did you know that it's actually easier for a younger child (preschool age) to learn a second (or third) language?

Exposing your young children to foreign languages will do a number of things:

*help them become better listeners
*improve their problem solving skills
*improve math and music skills
*increased tolerace of societal differences
*increased sensitivity to differences in others
*and of course, the edge on college admissions!

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Building listening skills

Just as with music, languages build listening skills. Studies have shown that children in language immersion programs have superior listening skills in all of their classes.

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When to teach a new language

Most experts agree that it is easier for a very young child (preschool age) to learn a language than for an adult (or even an older child) to learn.

There are a few reasons for this:
*Younger children have very open minds. They repeat what they hear.
*Younger children do not have the "hang-ups" of older children and adults about "sounding foolish".
*When we learn languages before age 12, all of that information is stored in the same place as our first language. After age 12, this new material is stored in a different place in our brain. Because of this, even children who are taught a second language early on, but have forgotten it, can often pick up the language again later in life and have fluent pronunciation with no tell-tale accent.

While timing isn't critical, it is something to think about as far as ease of learning goes.

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