Clases Particulares: Bilingual Education for Young Children

I am a University of Texas 2010 graduate with a degree in Advertising and a Business Certificate. My immediate career goals are to learn Spanish, learn about different cultures and countries in the world, and do some networking internationally. My ultimate goal would be to use my Spanish and English working in Marketing or Advertising on the global spectrum.

I have spent the last 9 months in Spain teaching English with the Cultural Ambassadors program. I spent 12 hours a week in the classrooms of Spanish children ages 4-12, teaching English and assisting the Bilingual and English teachers. I supplemented this job with private English lessons after school to children ages 2-5. I faced many challenges with this age group, as they are very young and very easily distracted.

Challenges I faced included coming up with ideas for lessons, having alternative ideas if they weren't interested in the first, having a strategy for learning, and setting goals for the children. I am back in the States this summer to renew my Spanish Visa, but upon my return to Spain, I will be teaching these same children their private lessons after school. I decided this summer would be a great time to do some research and develop a program for teaching these children a new language at such a young age.

Research shows that about 75% of Spanish people do not know English, and the 25% that do know English are not close to being bilingual. The Spanish government is highly aware of the economic and global importance of speaking English, and has implemented a bilingual program in many of its public schools. As a Language Assistant and private lesson teacher to young students, I want to make sure that I establish a good basis of the basics of the English language to get them started. My goal is to help them improve vocabulary and pronunciation and see that learning a new language can be a fun and rewarding experience.

In this hub, I will post research and ideas that I've discovered about bilingual education and teaching young children a foreign language. I want to focus on children ages 2-6 and the process in which to introduce to them a new language. I will research the steps, the ideas, the challenges and the rewards. How do you go from teaching numbers, colors, vocabulary and the alphabet, to actually learning how to read and put sentences together? I will cover and research my own questions, as well as any questions readers may have.

I look forward to this summer endeavor and am open to any questions and suggestions you may have about my research.

Thanks-- Darci

With a developing brain, the task of acquiring a second language comes naturally at a young age. As naturally as learning a mother tongue. Young children are learning natural instincts, walking, eating, etc. It is said that learning a second language at a young age is as cognitively easy as learning a first language. Children are not faced with difficulty in reasoning between the two languages. They think about it, understand it, learn it, and most importantly remember it, much much quicker and easier than an adult. In fact, the two languages are learned together, rather than having one language be the “first” and another be the “second.” The brain is flexible, and the ear and speech muscles are prepared for absorbing language. This brain flexibility allows for children to hear sounds and absorb them, mimicking a native-like accent. And grammar, patterns, and rules are learned intuitively.

Adults, however, have to work through an already strongly established language system, making it more difficult to study another language’s completely different grammar and specifics. Once a child passes 5 years, it becomes increasingly harder to pick up on a second language. The window of opportunity for learning a second language exponentially decreases even more from ages 6-12. At puberty, the brain becomes less flexible, therefore making it much more difficult to acquire language. From 8-12, children lose the ability to perceive and remake sounds, giving them a default foreign accent in any second language.

There are many benefits to learning a second language as a child. It is said that those children show advanced spatial relations and problem solving, stronger communication and higher scores. Children can in fact differentiate between two different languages within the first weeks that they are born. Research shows that children learning a second language also enhance in overall basic skills in elementary school, score higher on SATs, and have heightened creativity. Learning two languages alongside each other encourages flexible thinking and perceptions.

Research also shows that those who speak two or more languages have heightened memory, planning and multi-tasking skills. If you think about it, your brain is on automatic when it comes to switching between two languages. It is programmed to be able to hop from language to language, from task to task, from memory to memory. The brain is trained from the beginning to only focus on information that is pertinent. By default, the brain knows when to rest if what is it hearing or doing is not useful. Knowing two languages, and being programmed accordingly, the brain learns to only focus on useful information to avoid overload. Multilinguals have also been found to use more of their brains than monolinguals. Makes sense right?

I wonder if anyone argues that learning two languages as once could actually be a bad thing for children. I will have to delve in and see if there is anyone out there with that opinion.

Source: www.languagestars.com

Primary Education establishes the basis of future education. It establishes the basic subjects necessary to succeed in Secondary and High School and develops habits and techniques that students use to break through in their next steps of education. English as a second language is increasingly important in Spain and Latin countries. Just as it is important to establish an understanding of the basic subjects, it is equally important in my opinion to establish English at an early age for these Spanish speakers.

The idea of a private tutor for ages so young is someone who will provide an environment that is stable, customized and motivating. Establish stability with a routine. Customize the lessons by concentrating on the personalities of the students and organizing a class style. Motivate them by creating a desire to learn and giving them rewards.

I want to focus on the motivation side of private lessons. During my work in the public school I worked in, I was continually told that whatever lesson taught or project given had to be fun. The bilingual professor was young and always had ideas for getting students involved and interested. It had to be intriguing. It had to be inviting. Colorful. With images.

I took this advice to my private lessons, and often, my private lessons were more like play sessions than English lessons. I have to keep in mind that my students are in school all day, and the last thing they want to do is sit down and have “school” again once they’re home. I did often feel like I was playing and babysitting more so than teaching them a class, but in the end of the day they were actually learning and surprising me.

My classes usually consisted of an intro/review of past materials-- colors, numbers, basic vocabulary like body parts and foods, and the alphabet. All lessons were usually basic fun and games, including coloring and music, contests and games.

One thing that I didn’t establish to foster motivation in my students was a goal and rewards. Stamps, stickers, “Great Job” written on projects, etc. All of this provides them motivation. From ages 0-5, children's brains are at high speed development. This is the time to reel them in. We as humans are always more interested when we have something to work towards, right? A reward at the end of the hard work. Children thrive on this, and as educators, we must feed this fire with constant goals and rewards.