Which motivation lets parents confront their children with a new language?
So children learn a other language.
Under which conditions do children acquire new languages?
When they move to other country.
Can you see similarities between the different situations described?
They were not aware that they were learning a FL at the begging. They learnt in a total immersion situation at school or with their parents.
All of these people were either in multi-lingual families or countries. I really admire the Canadian idea of bringing ‘the other’ language to your child, having French immersion as an option from kindergarden is enviable. So for these families, their main motivation seems environmental: promoting the child’s ability to communicate with more people around them. Children acquire new languages as they are exposed to them, quite naturally.
These people were living in multilingual families or environments. The learning happened at an early age and was quite natural and did not come strongly to consciousness or cause any discomfort. The third example was interesting in that she dropped her first language when she picked up the second, switching from mother tongue to father tongue in fact.
Someone in the family speaks the language.
They acquire it when they need to use it in daily life.
People don’t remember how they acquired a language before 7 or 8 years old.
… and that the “immersion strategy” works best- totaly agree. In my country, Poland, which is mostly monolingual, parents try to exploit the fact, that the small children learn languages very fast and send already the three years old to some English classes in which – I was such parent myself 🙂 – the school creates an immersion situation by using English only – total body response, songs, short poems etc.
Although we don’t live in a bilingual city, I speak English with my daughter since she was born, so she can speak two languages. I see the difference between who we are i different languages – our emotions and behaviour are likely to become different. I believe it’s a great opportunity to open your personality from different angles. And it develops a person a lot!
As to the motivation, I take knowledge of the second language as a door to another culture and opportunities.
I come from Slovakia and not many people speak Slovak, so this is a very good motivation for learning another language.
Children acquire their mother subconsciously and their environment form not only their language but also their speech organs adapt to the language which they learn.
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8 Comments
Which motivation lets parents confront their children with a new language?
So children learn a other language.
Under which conditions do children acquire new languages?
When they move to other country.
Can you see similarities between the different situations described?
They were not aware that they were learning a FL at the begging. They learnt in a total immersion situation at school or with their parents.
All of these people were either in multi-lingual families or countries. I really admire the Canadian idea of bringing ‘the other’ language to your child, having French immersion as an option from kindergarden is enviable. So for these families, their main motivation seems environmental: promoting the child’s ability to communicate with more people around them. Children acquire new languages as they are exposed to them, quite naturally.
These people were living in multilingual families or environments. The learning happened at an early age and was quite natural and did not come strongly to consciousness or cause any discomfort. The third example was interesting in that she dropped her first language when she picked up the second, switching from mother tongue to father tongue in fact.
Someone in the family speaks the language.
They acquire it when they need to use it in daily life.
People don’t remember how they acquired a language before 7 or 8 years old.
Which motivation lets parents confront their children with a new language?
Mostly education
Under which conditions do children acquire new languages?
Going to schools where they speak new languages or moving to other countries
Can you see similarities between the different situations described?
Yes most children below 7 years learn languages subconsciously
… and that the “immersion strategy” works best- totaly agree. In my country, Poland, which is mostly monolingual, parents try to exploit the fact, that the small children learn languages very fast and send already the three years old to some English classes in which – I was such parent myself 🙂 – the school creates an immersion situation by using English only – total body response, songs, short poems etc.
Although we don’t live in a bilingual city, I speak English with my daughter since she was born, so she can speak two languages. I see the difference between who we are i different languages – our emotions and behaviour are likely to become different. I believe it’s a great opportunity to open your personality from different angles. And it develops a person a lot!
As to the motivation, I take knowledge of the second language as a door to another culture and opportunities.
I come from Slovakia and not many people speak Slovak, so this is a very good motivation for learning another language.
Children acquire their mother subconsciously and their environment form not only their language but also their speech organs adapt to the language which they learn.