Cactus Language Blog

There is no such thing as too early for learning a second language

Posted by Sarah under Cactus Languages Abroad

For monolingual parents who can’t offer their child a bilingual upbringing, it would be money well invested to enroll their children in a foreign language course as early as kindergarten.

I, for example, was raised bilingually - my mom spoke my native Bulgarian and German to me, and I started learning English at a pre-school age. I have no memory whatsoever of how I learned German or English, all I know is today I can speak both with near-native proficiency and I am so grateful that my mother decided to give me this invaluable gift for life.

For kids that grow up speaking two or even three languages, it is the most natural thing in the world, so parents, there is no need to worry that you will confuse your kids if you introduce them to foreign languages at a very early age. A child’s brain is like a sponge and the sooner it is challenged with foreign language acquisition, the bigger the chance to reach a native level in the particular language. Another important factor is that in middle school, students would worry about how they sound and their accent. Young children on the other hand don’t care, which allows them to experiment more with the language without being inhibited about making mistakes.

More and more Americans are considering the ability to speak a foreign language an essential talent. Unlike many Europeans and Asians who learn languages in primary school, most Americans do not get the chance until high school or in the grades just before - at too advanced an age to soak in quirky words and syntax with the nimbleness needed for fluency.

But with an economy that is becoming more and more globalized, and with people from all over the planet becoming our next-door neighbors, more Americans are demanding language instruction earlier in school.

Since September 2006, all students in grades one through five in Loudon County, Va., have been given 30 to 60 minutes of Spanish instruction each week. Last year, officials in Fairfax County, Va. - which, with 165,439 students, is the nation’s 13th-largest school system - decided to expand the study of foreign languages to all 137 elementary schools over a seven-year period. Twenty-five Fairfax schools provide 30-minute lessons twice a week in Spanish, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese or French starting in the first grade. Ten schools have ambitious “immersion” programs where math, science and health are taught in a foreign language.

Paula Patrick, the Fairfax system’s foreign language coordinator, said Americans have for too long had a “mind-set that everyone else in the world should learn English.” Her district is receiving appeals from businesses that need global-ready travelers and from a health care industry that needs translators.

The growth in language instruction is also taking place in college. A survey by the Modern Language Association found a 13 percent increase in language-course enrollments between 2002 and 2006, with a 127 percent increase in the number of students taking Arabic.

In some school districts, where Latinos make up approximately half of the students, learning Spanish is also a strategy for weaving together a community divided by class, race and language. Under the new regimen, where almost everyone studies two languages, teachers are noticing that Hispanic and white children are more likely to play together and that parents from different cultures are more willing to approach one another. It’s not easy to harbor stereotypes when it’s about who your children chose to play and mix with. If you yourself do not speak any foreign languages, through your child you can experience new cultures that you normally would have never come in touch with!

Tags:america, children, English, German, kindergarten, learning, parents, school, second language, Spanish