Early childhood is crucial for building structure, sounds, vocabulary, and functions of any language. Hence, the best time for early development of bilingualism. Read on to know why and how to teach your child two languages.
Does your child hesitate in speaking English or Hindi? Does he/she mix up words while speaking or writing? Do they not adjust well with a particular language speaking group? Well, if you grew up speaking multiple languages yourself, you would know that being bilingual is not a walk in the park for children.
However, experts suggest that the best time for kids to learn a new language is early childhood. Bilingualism (Bilingualism meaning: developing fluency in two languages) has a strong correlation with cognitive learning and literacy skills. Research reveals that bilingual children with age-appropriate language proficiency enjoy several academic advantages.
Benefits Of Bilingualism
- Heightened phonics recognition in toddlers (Kids learn to recognise and decode complex patterns in letters, sounds and words.)
- Better observation skills, including enhanced visual-to-language processing. When bilingual children talk in different languages, they start observing changes in basic sentence pattern and speech, with practice. It improves their comprehension and literacy skills.
- Bilingual education improves the working memory in children by enhancing the language processing ability with exposure to different ideas, concepts, stimuli & experiences.
- Speaking two languages requires deep concentration and involves multiple centres of the human brain. Therefore, bilingual children have better cognitive learning ability and are less vulnerable to cognitive decline due to aging.
- Bilingual children have better career prospects due to exposure to multiple cultures & heightened self confidence.
Early Development: Why & How To Teach Your Child Two Languages?
Toddlers may not be able to understand the meanings of certain words, but they do remember the pronunciations. Teaching toddlers two languages ensures that they pick up all the sounds to reproduce them later.
Let your child hear and practise common words in different languages, but follow the ‘one language, one person at a time’ rule. For e.g., The mom can start with saying ‘water’ and then point at it. Once the child recognises the word and starts relating it to the water sources around, the daddy can teach him/her ‘Pāni’ (in Hindi). This step-by-step approach prevents the child from mixing up word-meanings in different languages.
When children learn a new language, it causes their brain to absorb & overcome the differences in language structure. As they develop language proficiency (in terms of reading, writing, communication, and comprehension, they’re able to develop critical learning skills (e.g., problem-solving, cognitive thinking & reasoning).
In the beginning, children may confuse rules and grammar of different languages, which is normal. Introduce simpler words first to avoid confusion. Parents can play the rhymes/songs or read a short story to the child and have him repeat the words. We can show them age-appropriate movies and picture books. Thus, they pick up common words, relate it to the books and learn to use them in sentences. It makes the meaning and usage clear to the child.
Moving from one language system to another requires a lot of brainwork which plays a pivotal role in child development and learning. (Source: Pennsylvania State University) Learning two languages makes children better at listening, observing and interpreting- all at the same time. Grammar, meanings, accent, semantics, etc. become clear and are absorbed intuitively.
Learning becomes more interesting and fun when kids get the opportunity to share their knowledge with people. Allowing children to connect with people who speak their mother tongue and exposing them to different activities and learning materials (movies, songs, picture books, picture composition, trivia, quizzes, playgroups, etc.) are good ways to exercise what they’ve learned. With practice, kids get proficient at speaking different languages.
Introducing bilingualism in early childhood isn’t easy, but an important decision that our kids will later thank us for. When children develop a deeper understanding of languages, it helps them overcome cultural barriers, adjustment challenges & builds self confidence for communication. By working together, we can easily develop a language-rich environment to develop critical life skills.
THE INFINITY SCHOOL 