thibautsblog

Articulate Infants

2009-01-07T10:30:48-05:00

If I had a dollar every time I heard “how can my six month old learn a second language when he isn’t even speaking his first?” I’d be rich. WHY does a child start speaking? Because he has heard a sound and emotionally experienced its meaning enough times to commit it to memory, recall it, and articulate a replica to get what he wants. WHEN does he start speaking a language? Generally between the age of eight months and three years (depending upon the child). By the time a child suddenly articulates something that sounds like “bottle,” it doesn't mean that, in that instant, he suddenly understands that sound-meaning combination. It means that he completed his eight month to three years incubation period and is now showing the world that he's ready to use it. Consider these sound-meaning combinations: “Casa,” “Maison,” and “House.” Most adults easily recognize that these words represent three different sounds associated with three different languages with just one meaning. Was it difficult for you to recognize these words or recall their meanings? Probably not. As a matter of fact it probably took your mind less than a second to instantaneously recall each word's meaning and language group. Our brain has tremendous power and storage capacity, and so has a baby’s. As a matter of fact, many experts are convinced that a baby’s brain is signficantly more powerful than an adult’s. We can see how easy it is for the human mind to process more than one language at a time. So make the most out of a child's golden opportunity years. Start the long process of introducing sound-meaning pairs in more than one language in infancy. It's one of the best ways to bring up a child to be bilingual (or better yet, multi-lingual).

Emily: Four Languages by Age Four

2009-01-07T10:30:14-05:00

About 10 years ago Emily, a bright and well-mannered 3-1/2 year old, was enrolled in the LWFC's 10-week French immersion summer camp to get her ready for New York's Lycee Francais. Emily was a lucky girl. Her grandmother, a retired headmistress, knew something about bringing up a child bilingually. Since infancy Emily’s father and grandmother only spoke Italian to her while her mother and nanny only spoke Mandarin Chinese. So by her third summer, she spoke English and after spending more time with her mother and nanny, Emily’s Chinese was stronger but she was also fluent in Italian. Is it possible for a very young child to nearly master a fourth language in just 10 weeks? I watched Emily do just that. Her first two weeks in camp were happy but quiet as her mind absorbed the thousands of French sounds, meanings, and grammatical patterns she was acquiring through songs, projects, and play. Then week three brought the first break through as we listened to Emily creating her own three word sentences, entirely en Français. As the summer went on her French grew stronger by the day, but she experienced predictable learning curves. For example, although she never mixed English with Chinese, or Italian with English, between week three and seven the teachers and I often had to correct her as she plunked English right into the middle of a French sentence. However, by week nine Emily had stopped mixing the two languages, and it was clear that she had mastered hundreds of French nouns, their correct genders, was adding French pronouns, using tenses, and correctly arranging words into French grammar. So after being immersed in French for eight hours a day, via age-friendly activities, in a setting where she was happy Emily became fluent in French. With the right technique and conditions, a 3-1/2 year old who already speaks three languages, can master a fourth.

Test

2009-01-07T10:24:12-05:00

Test. Test. Test.