Benefits of Learning Foreign Language for Children - Case Study Example

Second language learning Name Tutor Date Abstract The article describes vividly the difficulties, steps and obstacles that relate to children when learning the second language. Some of the teaching methods used to overcome these problems are discussed above. Second language brings a positive effect to the children in that; their future career and confidence are developed, literacy skills are improved, native like accents are obtained, increased performance both in school and socially is embraced, improved IQ performance and mental flexibility are some of the advantages gained from second language. Introduction When growing up, children get to learn first language from their guardians. This depends with the language the guardian will communicate as they grow up. When they get to school, teachers and tutors begin teaching them second language. It is a great challenge to the children since this is something new that has been introduced. Having skills from their college training, teachers and tutors apply various teaching methodologies to train the children the second language. Majority of populations in different nations have English as their second language. This populace statistically has been known to increase faster than that of the students who speak native English (Shore, 2001). The population that does not speak English is minority whereby, its rate decreases by day. Faced with a wide range of challenges, these students perform poorly in academics and general expectations (Thompson, 2000). Teachers and tutors reflect continually on their teaching methodologies and also update on their practice to fill up the needs of this populace. Educators have to focus continually on these students and research other effective ways to enable them achieve their goals. By doing this, teachers and tutors need to understand the need of a social climate by use of social interactionism theory such as that of vygotsky where she identifies four causes of barriers to important instruction: culture load, cognitive load, learning load and language load. Educators must be well skilled to minimize these and create interest, curiosity and passion in these children. Naoshi, Japanese four year old was playing with Byong- Sun, a four year old Korean. The two were building a structure using plastic bottles with tubes between them. The tube flicked out one of the bottles at one point and Naoshi helped Byong- Sun put it back but Byong Sun shouted at Naoishi to stop but he did not stop. Byong Sun told him later that it is ok and Naoshi replied that it was ok too. These shows how the two children have developed their second language, English, and can now comfortably communicate during their play. Clearly, this was not attained in one day. They must have participated in the learning of the second language for some months. The practice must have been a complicated process. Early childhood educators need to help learners to understand the second language better (Tobors, 1997). Definition There are vocabularies associated with the children second language learning as follows: cognitive-this is the act of knowing and remembering; first language- this is the primary language; second language; this is the foreign language acquired through training and practice; lexicon- vocabulary of a branch of knowledge; phonology- branch that deals with sounds; interlocutor- a person who participates in a discussion; bilingual-act of speaking two languages fluently. Bilingual language differentiation There have been ideas that older children learn faster than younger ones but scholers have it that the idea of a child mastering a second language is brought by some stages of development. The first and the second language are different in that, second language development is brought by transfer from first language and therefore can tell us nothing more that is general about learning of the language (Bever & Weksel, 1965). Language learning has been found to be easy for children because the human being is often biologically prepared to learn new languages according to Chomsky (1965), Lenneberg (1967) and McNeill (1971). There is no reason to suppose the ability of a human brain to competently deal with language learning, as this will confine itself to the first language. Several studies have it that most children, who acquire bilingualism as their first language, eventually have an effect of mixing languages (Swain, 1972). Forming an initial lexicon, the child begins to form strings from combined words drawing from both languages. Not being able to distinguish between interlocutors nor being consistent in the language of choice when speaking. Given a suitable condition, where the child is exposed to both languages, eventually, the child will begin to rectify lexicon, phonology and grammar. This will surprise people. The child will have good spoken language to the right interlocutor (Rontat, 1913 & Fantini, 1978). In this article, we wish to achieve the understanding of the process of differentiation of language through detailed examination of lexical and syntactic improvement of a child who is bilingual. To help us in the process, understanding of some cognitive development will be considered. There is a three- stage linguistic model for the infants to become bilingual. First stage involves acquiring a lexicon that is unified without cross- language substitutes with combination of mixed language words, a concomitant that is necessary. Second stage involves from one language at a time, dissimilar lexicons and combination of words, albeit with some syntactic guidelines to utterances in either language. The last stage involves differentiation that is full, whereby, we conclude that the development of self-awareness and understanding of goals intended to achieve in the next period, provide the aim of avoiding mixed- language utterances but chose his language in accordance to his interlocutor (Saunders, 1980). In the United States, there is a populace growing that does not have English as its primary language. Even though statistics are difficult to obtain, most early childhood educators are aware of this. Funded by the Administration for children, youth and families in the year 1994, is the bilingual or multicultural survey of Head Start Programs is one of the sources of information. From this survey, 91% of the programs reported to be responding, marked an increase in not less than one cultural or linguistic group in almost five years back. 74% of Head Start children would speak English at home, according to the survey whereas 22% of the children would speak Spanish. From the families who spoke any other language from 139 was 4% (Socio Technical Research Applications, 1996). A fraction of the preschool- program children in the United States is the Head Start population. One underestimation of another estimate is the 5.2 million dwellers in the United States other than English- dominant preschoolers by the year 2000. There are three core forms of programs for children for whom English is a second language. The first being the First Language classroom whereby the language used in the home is the only language that is for the most part employed in learning to develop the child’s First Language without English exposure in classroom. The First Language Program helps children maintain their first language at a tender age where it can easily be lost (Wong, 1991). The second type of program is the bilingual classrooms where it involves a diversity of configurations but there is a link between the language used in the home and the spoken language of the adult in the classroom. This type of programs occurs where children and educators come from similar first language background. When the children fail to communicate in English, difficulties may arise in communication with fellow students and tutors due to absence of mutual language. Therefore, they choose to communicate non-verbally. Natural progression in the child’s acquisition of second language Another difficulty in a child’s fluency in the second language is the natural progression in the acquisition of second language. According to Dulay and Burt (1972), English composition is reconstructed in similar formats, regardless of first language background. Children from Spain, China, Japan and Norway have similar errors when learning English. Creative construction is the process through which these children gradually form rules for speech that they hear and guidance through other mechanisms that enable them formulate some forms of assumption with regard to the system of language being learned until the disconnect resolution of information that they are exposed to and what they provide is done. Children are categorized into three groups; Puerto Rican children in New York, Mexican children from Tijuana that schooled in San Ysidro in California and Chicano children who came from Sacramento California have same acquisition sequence of these structures: plural (-s), possessive (nouns), copula(is), third person singular(-es), article(a, the), irregular past(ate, took), auxiliary(is) and progressive(-ing).(Dulay& Burt, 1973). If universal cognitive mechanisms are foundation of how a child’s target language is organized and that second language system guides the acquisition process rather than first language, then the acquisition of particular English syntax rules will follow a general progression process even as there are lesser variations as a result of the different background languages spoken by the learner. Benefits gained from learning second language Children gain several benefits when learning a second language. Studies show that there is increased performance for children who are bilingual or multilingual. They show improved IQ performance and exhibit mental elasticity than the monolingual counterpart. These children experience improved sociocultural benefits. Research proves that children store neatly and subconsciously second language learnt simultaneously with primary language. Learning of the second language offers children greater flexibility in creative thinking skills and cognition which can enhance the exploitation of talents according to the intellectual and developmental goals they set by the teacher or by themselves. There are also improved literacy skills where the children who are bilingual learn to read. These children often have increased confidence, enthusiasm, curiosity and openness for languages. They also get the advantage of native like accent and pronunciation where they are attuned to picking up, mimicking and duplicating sounds that the adults find tough to capture. Learning a second language increases opportunities for university and careers. Summary Teaching methodologies can actually overcome difficulties and obstacles related to children second language learning in different ways. These include understanding the children and using up to date skills to enable them progress in their learning of the second language. It is always a tiring exercise but children eventually learn. Reference Asher, J. and Garcia, R. (1969).The optimal age to learn a foreign language.Modernlanguage journal, (issue number 8), page 334-341. Bever, T. (1970).Cognition and the development of language. New York: john Wiley and sons Chonsk, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory syntax. Cambridge, Massuchettes: MIT press Lenneberg, E. (1967). The biological foundations of language. New York: john Wiley and sons Beve, T. G., Fordo, J. A. and Weksel, W. (1965). Psychological Review Ervin, (1971).The ontogetherness of grammar. New York: Academic press. Read More