Teaching children a foreign language

[Josh]

One of my driving forces for learning Spanish is because I have a 3-year-old and I would like to get him started on learning Spanish. I've heard that children may have an easier time learning foreign languages. That being said a buddy of mine who is a speech pathologist told me that teaching a child a foreign language after age 2 can lead to confusion for the child and make it difficult to separate the two languages as they continue to learn both languages.

I'm interested to know what others think about trying to teach a toddler a foreign language. Is it a good idea? Does anyone on this forum have experience with it?

[Rusty]

I don't have any personal experience with teaching a toddler to be bilingual, but I believe there are a few members of the forums who do.

What I've heard works best is that both parents must speak to the toddler in Spanish and allow everyone else to use English. Another take on this is that one of the parents will use only Spanish and the other only English. Either way, the child will learn each language equally well and will be able to respond in the correct language when spoken to. Proper accents will be learned in each language, as well.
The amount of time it takes for the child to learn both languages is about the same as the time it takes to learn only one.
I've also heard that this training needs to start as soon as possible. Language learning never ends, but the brain connections made in infancy are, according to some folks, not made after the age of 4.

I'm eager to hear what others who have brought up their children to be bilingual have to say.

[Perikles]

Young children seem to find language learning totally effortless. I have a grandson aged 5, his father speaks German and English to him, his mother speaks only French, and they live in Germany, so he goes to a German Kindergarten. He seems to speak French automatically (understandably) but when he lacks a French word, he uses the equivalent English or German one without difficulty, and sometimes constructs sentences using all three languages, always using each word without an accent. He also recognises that strangers often only understand one language, so he waits to hear them say something, then always replies in the same language. The wonderful thing about this is that he finds it totally natural, and doesn't seem remotely bothered.

I tried him with Spanish once, but my accent must be terrible because he replied in English.

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Josh

One of my driving forces for learning Spanish is because I have a 3-year-old and I would like to get him started on learning Spanish. I've heard that children may have an easier time learning foreign languages. That being said a buddy of mine who is a speech pathologist told me that teaching a child a foreign language after age 2 can lead to confusion for the child and make it difficult to separate the two languages as they continue to learn both languages.

I'm interested to know what others think about trying to teach a toddler a foreign language. Is it a good idea? Does anyone on this forum have experience with it?

I have experience with my younger son, just he's only 3 age and well just sometimes when I have time, because my work doesn't let me to do it more followed, I take sit together with him and I teach him some words in English, and he understand me very well the language and he learn faster the language than me inclusive, normally the children are more smarts in the learning of any language, because they've the clean mind and we as adult people don't.
Then I can telling you that if you have some kind in your home or that is your career teach to children, I can be at most 90 per cent sure that the learning them to will be easier than us in some occasions.

I hope you have good luck with the learning or teaching foreign language and your new pupils.

[Jessica]

my little brother is 9 and my older brother wants to teach him Latin early

I'm not sure if it's a great idea because my little brother needs to focus on other things, math, reading, English, etc

he is learning Chinese and going to a Chinese school (he knows Chinese already but the school is improving it). That's easier for him because we are all Chinese

[chileno]

If you want your child to be bilungual, you need people to speak flawlessly that language to your child. So, if you or your wife don't speak Spanish, find a Spanish nanny that can talk exclusively Spanish to your child. That's the only way I can think of achieving your goal.

[Josh]

Hmm... given that my wife and I are not already fluent it sounds like I'm going to be fighting a very steep up hill battle. Thanks for the insight.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by Josh

Hmm... given that my wife and I are not already fluent it sounds like I'm going to be fighting a very steep up hill battle. Thanks for the insight.

I told you that from my experience. I came to this country and my daughter were born here. So what we did was to speak to them only Spanish at home until they went into Kindergarten, meantime they would watch tv in English.

So we can say that even though our daughters were born in the US, their first language was Spanish, and the rest of the environment outside home was English.

You task in not uphill, just that you have to create certain environment for your child, that's all. Like I said, if you don't speak Spanish well, better get a native nanny, not one who is descendant of Hispanics, but one who you can even detect an accent in English.

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by chileno

If you want your child to be bilungual, you need people to speak flawlessly that language to your child. So, if you or your wife don't speak Spanish, find a Spanish nanny that can talk exclusively Spanish to your child. That's the only way I can think of achieving your goal.

Exactly.

As regards Rusty's comments on what works best, I've read a book* on this and it suggested that the important thing is consistency. It doesn't really matter what the rule is, so long as it's simple. So it could be that one parent always speaks to the child in Spanish and the other in English; or that both use Spanish in the house and English outside.

* "The Bilingual Family: A Handbook for Parents", Edith Harding-Esch and Philip Riley.

[irmamar]

Let me tell you that first surely he will mix both languages (that was what my little brother did), but soon he will distinguish perfectly between them. Don't worry, that's just a learning stage.