Children’s brains will never be better at acquiring a second language than when the child is between 0 and 3 years of age, according to Dr. Patricia Kuhl. Language immersion programs provide the priceless opportunity for children to learn another language at an early age and become bilingual or multilingual. The bilingual experience has been shown to improve cognitive skills, especially problem-solving ability. For children raised by bilingual families, this bilingual learning is almost effortless. But how can children in monolingual families develop these skills?
Naja Ferjan Ramirez, a researcher at the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences (I-LABS) at the University of Washington, says that researchers studying early language development “often hear of how parents are eager to give their children the opportunity to learn another language”. The problem is that many of them cannot afford a nanny that speaks a foreign language, and they can’t speak a foreign language themselves. This is one of the reasons why language immersion programs for children have gained popularity in the last few years.
A new study by researchers at I-LABS is one of the first to investigate how children can acquire a second language outside the home. The researchers intended to answer a fundamental question: Can children learn a second language if they are not exposed to a foreign language at home and, if so, what type of exposure to a foreign language and how long does it take to trigger this learning?
I-LABS method is based on research on children’s brains and language development, and it focuses on social interaction, play, and the quality and quantity of language for teachers. The approach uses “child-directed speech,” often referred to as “parenthesis,” the style parents use to talk to their children, with simpler grammar, higher pitch, exaggerated tone, and long vowels.
The researchers developed an intensive English language program and a play-based method in four public preschool education centers in Madrid, Spain. Sixteen graduates and recent graduates of the University of Washington served as study tutors. They completed two weeks of training at I-LABS to learn the teaching method and program before traveling to Spain. The country’s extensive public education system enabled researchers to enroll 280 infants and children from families with different income levels.
Children aged 7 to 33.5 months received one hour of English lessons per day for a period of 18 weeks, while a control group received the standard bilingual curriculum in schools in Madrid. Both groups were assessed in Spanish and English at the start and end of the 18th week. The children also wore special vests fitted with tape recorders that recorded the learning of English. The records were analyzed to determine how many English words and sentences each child spoke.
Children exposed to the UW method showed a rapid response in English comprehension and production and significantly outperformed their control group peers at all ages on all English tests. By the end of the 18-week program, each child in the UW program produced an average of 74 English words hourly, while children in the control group produced an average of 13 words hourly.
Follow-up tests 18 weeks later showed the children were maintaining what they had learned. The gains in English were similar between children attending the two schools serving primarily low-income neighborhoods and the two serving middle-income areas, suggesting that wealth was not a significant factor in their ability to learn a foreign language. The children’s mother tongue (Spanish) continued to grow as they learned English and were not affected by introducing a second language.
Ferjan Ramirez said the results showed that even children from monolingual families could develop bilingual skills at this age. “With the right scientific approach, which combines the known characteristics of children’s speech development, it is possible to give young children the opportunity to start learning a second language … This has significant implications for the way we think about language learning.”
According to Dr. Patricia Kuhl, professor of speech and hearing sciences at the University of Washington and co-director of I-LABS, “Science shows that children’s brains are the best learning machine ever and that children’s learning is time-dependent. Their brains will never be better at acquiring a second language than when the child is between 0 and 3 years of age”. Language immersion programs for children offer young children the chance to make the most of this window of opportunity to learn another language at an early age and become bilingual.
The findings of this study, said Kuhl, can transform the way early language education is approached in the United States and around the world. “Parents in Madrid, the United States, and around the world are eager to give their children the opportunity to learn a foreign language from an early age”.
The United States Census shows that 27% of American children under 6-year-olds learn a language other than English at home. Although these children are perfectly capable of learning their parents’ language and English, they often do not have sufficient knowledge of English until they are ‘enter kindergarten and therefore often fall behind when their peers enter school,’ she said. “The new work of I-LABS shows that we can create an early bilingual learning environment for children learning two languages in an educational setting, and in one hour a day, children can start learning a second language much easier than expected. It’s doable for everyone, “Kuhl said.
Resource:
To learn more about our immersion programs for children, visit https://myfirstacademy.com/programs/
