Will Teaching French Affect Children's English Skills?
A growing number of British nurseries have begun teaching French and Mandarin Chinese to toddlers, while some programs are privately teaching French and other second languages to children from the age of six months. Children learn new languages from their own home, attend after-school programs, and an increasing number now become acquainted with a second language in the classrooms of their primary schools. Just who are these precocious prattlers? In large part, they are the sons and daughters of astute English-speaking parents who have learnt that acquiring a second language may be, when young, mere child's play.
Despite the growing numbers, some parents still demur when thinking about teaching French to their children early; they worry about introducing them to a second language before they are in full control of their first. Are there any negative results common in children who embark on a second language early on in their development? Will it delay their ability to master English?
Many studies have demonstrated that teaching French or another second language to a child at a young age dramatically increases the possibility that they will achieve fluency and a native-like accent in their second language. And certainly the advantage of viewing the world from a broader and richer perspective is a fantastic thing for any child. In short, all of the scientific evidence indicates that there is nothing to lose and everything to gain by teaching children French or another second language.
Let's look, however, at three common misconceptions about how teaching French or Spanish or Mandarin Chinese or any additional language may affect children.
Will teaching French or Mandarin Chinese "mix up" my child's English?
Some researchers have found that, in many cases, young children raised with a second or third language will sometimes "mix up" words among the languages during the early days of learning to speak. This effect is sometimes referred to as language "code-switching," which Dr Penelope Gardner-Chloros of Birkbeck, University of London, defines as "the use of more than one language or variety in the same conversation or sentence." Dr Gardner-Chloros asserts code-switching is "considered by many to be the most common form of multilingual communication."
We at Early Advantage often receive anecdotes from parents teaching French or another language to their children. Particularly memorable was Kathleen's story. Kathleen, the mum of then three-year-old Sydney told us that one evening Sydney had her puzzled by asking Kathleen for "glass." Her parents, confused by the odd request, soon realised that Sydney was requesting an ice cream! (It's 'glace' in French.)
Teaching French or Mandarin Chinese or any other second language allows children to demonstrate new skills they are picking up, boosting their self-confidence. A popular American parenting magazine, Cookie, spoke with psychologist Ellen Bialystok PhD of Canada's York University, a prominent authority on the cognitive effects of second language learning and bilingualism. Dr Bialystok emphasised that sporadic intermixing of the two languages does not indicate that the child is incapable of knowing the difference. Rather it seems to be the case that, when they do intersperse words from one language into the other, the bilingual children are showing off.
"They show how clever they are in taking advantage of all the things they know how to communicate," Bialystok stressed.
Can teaching French or another language to toddlers result in a speech delay?
According to linguistic experts Kendall King, PhD, and Alison Mackey, PhD, both of Georgetown University in the US, "one of the most common misconceptions about early language learning is that it will result in language delay." A wide range in age is natural for children learning to speak for the first time—anywhere from 8 to 16 months. Teaching French to your child, or some other second language, does not change this time frame. Dr King and Dr Mackey state, "There is no scientific evidence to show that hearing two, three or more languages leads to delays...On average, bilinguals and monolinguals enter the one-word and two-word stages, for instance, at around the same time."
Dr Johanne Paradis of the University of Alberta, a specialist on early bilingual education, also finds no reason to worry about bilingual education causing speech delay. She notes, “This is something we hear all the time--that parents are often worried about raising their kids bilingually because the kids will face some sort of an impairment… But there is no evidence to suggest that is the case.” The Institute of Child Health at the University College London concurs with this assessment, asserting that “there is no reported evidence that this [bilingualism] contributes to language delay or that language delay occurs more frequently in the bilingual population. In fact there is evidence that bilingualism has a positive effect on linguistic and cognitive development.”
Will teaching French to young pupils inhibit their ability to read English?
This past March, the BBC reported on a study from Goldsmiths, University of London which tested whether bilingual children who took classes in both English and their home or ancestral language were affected in their schoolwork. The study found that, rather than holding back their learning development, it actually improved their academic performance. A report compiled by CILT, the National Centre for Languages, found that multilingual 11-year-olds in Hackney were outpacing their monolingual peers in many academic areas, including reading in English. Also from that report, Portuguese-speaking students from London found that being able to continue their education in both English and their native language correlated with improved grades at GCSE. Teaching French or other foreign languages in primary school or earlier seems to help pupils develop skills more quickly and more completely.
Dr Charmian Kenner of Goldsmiths emphasised the advantages of instruction in more than one language, asserting that such an opportunity granted pupils the ability to consider a problem or an assignment in two ways. "Learning a mathematical concept in Bengali and English, for example, deepens understanding as ideas are transferred between languages. Or children can compare how metaphors are constructed in a Bengali poem and its English equivalent," she elaborated.
Teaching French or another language to children gives them a tremendous gift—it broadens their horizons and multiplies future opportunities. Centuries ago, the renowned Roman playwright and philosopher Seneca remarked upon the connection between a person's words and the world he makes around himself: "As was his language, so was his life." The chance for a deeper and richer life, then, begins in the language our children learn and use—or rather, one hopes, the languages.
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