Offering French for Younger Children May Improve Fluency, Success

Quite simply, in the words of Education Secretary Alan Johnson, “The earlier you start learning a language, the better.”

There are many ways to make French accessible for children. Children have a native enthusiasm for learning, and, in general, are unconcerned about making mistakes or sounding silly. As any parent who has ever sung Frère Jacques with a four-year-old can tell you: embarrassment is not a big impediment when it comes to French for children!

For British adults, however, embarrassment is cited as the primary reason they fail to exercise their language skills, according to the BBC poll. After years of disuse, most of us struggle to recall the most basic phrases. On average, we only remember seven words, such as “hello” and “goodbye” and “beer” and “lavatory.” Of course, when traveling abroad, many of us can – in a pinch! – come up with that ever-helpful locution: “Parlez-vous anglais?”

Being bilingual in French is, for children, an achievable and realistic goal, given the right language programme. With continued exposure to the target language, children who achieve true fluency will, in turn, be more likely to retain and use those skills as they grow older.

Research supports an early start in French for children

Some recent scientific studies have suggested that “hearing” the unique phonetic sounds of French or other languages is easier for pre-adolescents, than it is for teenagers and adults. “At first, baby’s brain is an empty slate,” writes MSNBC science and health correspondent Robert Bazell. “But by the time they’re 6 months old, most babies respond only to the sounds they hear repeatedly from parents and others — usually just one language.”

These scientific findings help explain why many teens and adults struggle with a new language – whereas learning French, for children, can seem almost effortless. Moreover, it confirms what many of us know from personal experience. Many late-in-life learners who’ve taken an introductory French class – and struggled in vain to differentiate “vous” from “vu” – would argue that deliberately delaying foreign language instruction is decidedly not in a child’s best interests.

The lifelong value of French for children

Most parents who consider enrolling their toddler in a French programme for children do not need to be convinced of the language’s many merits. In the international sphere, French retains its allure of impeccability, sophistication and high culture. Along with English, it shares the honor of being one of two official working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. From rich truffles to François Truffaut, and Le Petit Prince to Les Misérables—learning French, for children, may be the best thing to happen since they graduated from nappies.

Undoubtedly, fluency in a second language like French opens doors for children and adults. There are exciting possibilities of world travel, international business, and global engagement. But some of the best benefits of being bilingual can be experienced at an early age:

"Learning languages also has another important effect: Experience shows that when undertaken from a very early age, it is an important factor in doing well at school,” declares the European Commission in its "Europa: Education and Training" report, released earlier this year.

Monolingual adults, meanwhile, may find themselves somewhat restricted in an increasingly globalised world. “It’s a real shame that Brits are avoiding visiting certain countries around the world due to language barriers,” said Virginie Hopstein, the French teacher on the celebrity quiz programme “School’s Out,” when interviewed by the Daily Mail.

Though some Brits may wish to ignore the limitations of monolingualism – shrugging it off, perhaps, with causal “C’est la vie” – there is a growing advocacy in the UK for increased early-age language learning among parents, educators, and members of the government. Last year, Lord Dearing’s report on language learning announced: “[T]he common, but mistaken view that English is enough must be challenged at every level...”

In the three years since the British government decided against making foreign language classes compulsory for 14-year-olds, the numbers of students who take foreign language GCSEs dropped from 80 percent to 51 percent, according to the Daily Mail. Ministers have attempted to reverse this decline by introducing compulsory language classes at primary schools, beginning at age 7. Many believe that making instruction in foreign languages, including French, available for children may be the best way to assist Brits in gaining newfound fluency – and linguistic freedom – in a globalised world.

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