Early Exposure to a Second Language - Article Example

? How Early Exposure to a Second Language Affects Children and How Parents Should Support Introduction Language development is the key endeavor of a child in his / her initial years of life. A child’s language is observed to be constantly developing and changing at his / her early life owing to the growing influences from social surroundings. In this paper, emphasis is given to the effects that children might face in learning a second language in their early age. Conceptually children develop their intellect in the initial stage of life, when they are focussing on learning a language. They try hard to listen to words, comprehend them and then transform them into speech. Experts have often debated that at this stage of life, children desplay the ability to learn more than one language, which can be used to teach them a second language more efficiently. However, this kind of learning ability may vary from child to child, depending on their grasping power and many other externalities. On the contrary, the development of two languages side by side should be of limited importance if not formulated properly in the early learning stage of the child (Dopke, 1996). In order to examine the above noted concern, this paper deals with the effects of languages on child psychology, emphasizing both the positives and negatives of teaching them a second language at their early life. Discussion Biological & Physical Everything that the infants hear forms a part of their brain development. Certainly, it is the parents whom the infant listens to and, hence, develops his / her primitive base for learning the mother tongue (i.e., the language used by his / her mother, father or family members usually). In this way, the parents help in building the early base of language within their children. Although young children are not formally taught dialects, procurement of language is part of the overall growth of children’s physical, social, and cognitive development (NEA Research, 2007). At the early age, the child develops his / her understanding of language very rapidly. By the time they are 6 years, they become a competent language user. During this age, the child shows massive neural development. It is worth mentioning in this context that owing to their simple nervous construction, at the initial age, the child tends to learn the mother tongue, which helps them to form their speech and understand linguistic signs. Whereas the child might get confused about the different languages used in the family initially, with regular listening of the same, they gain an understanding of both the first and the second languages in a distinguishable manner (Clarke, n.d.). Learning of second language as a child helps the recipients or learners to gain knowledge of the language faster than adults (Dopke, 1996). In addition, early learning of second language helps them in getting a clear syntax and proficiency in the language. Early learning of languages also helps the child to form better sentences with less grammatical mistakes, making their base knowledge stronger regarding linguistic skills (NEA Research, 2007). Cognitive Development Linguistic skills developed within a child are also strongly influenced by the cognitive and social activities performed by the child. It is worth mentioning in this context that the child who is developing skills and knowledge regarding two languages at the same time should be provided with a good learning environment by their parents so that they do not end up developing a slow and weak learning of the language (Yang & Lust, 2009). In addition, learning of two languages simultaneously, when the cognitive behavior of the child has just started taking shape, will help the child to develop his / her interactive skills at the early age with proper grammar and pronunciation. Hence, it can be affirmed that social and academic factors and personal differences in behavior, character, age and other inspirational factors tend to impose an accumulative effect on the child’s skills to learn a second language in their very early years of development (Dopke, 1996). Encouraging kids to express their feelings and perceptions, when building their knowledge in the initial life, is subjected to the guidance of parents and other environmental factors that tend to have considerable impacts on the child’s character development. It is seen that when in a family two languages are used by the parents, the child tends to use both languages when interacting with others. In this process, they sometimes tend to mix the words with the same meaning in different languages, which is a natural phenomenon as they are in their developing stage of life. It is in this context that parents must also be able to speak both languages equally so that the child can obtain a clear understanding of the language. This awareness and understanding of languages can further assist the child while entering school or interacting with other people. For example, getting lessons in a different language, i.e., any other language apart from their mother tongue, might raise difficulties for children (Genesee, 2007). When concentrating on their learning of a second language, it is observed that learning tasks for bilinguals is complex and this sometimes may result in short delays or small differences in their development. However, this short delay in the long run has minimal or negligible effects on the overall learning of the child. The syntax used by the bilingual children is also observed to be better in comparison to other children accustomed with only one language throughout the course of their left brain hemisphere development (Yang & Lust, 2009). In this relation, when these children enter pre-school, they have the tendency to learn new languages they listen to more rapidly than other kids. Apart from the above mentioned aspects, it can be stated that cognitive development forms the main part as they develop their capabilities to judge the words and accordingly, understand the meaning of the words they want to use. Studies have also revealed that children using two languages simultaneously can develop better cognitive elasticity, better problem resolving and higher degree of thinking skills (Gavruseva & Haznedar, 2008). Linguistic Development It is observed that children who are bilingual learn lesser words in their early childhood as compared to monolingual children as they listen to only one language from both their parents and so face minimum confusions in understanding the meaning of the words used. Thus, monolingual children tend to learn or utter their first words earlier than the bilingual children. To be specific, children learning two languages at the same time initially face difficulties in forming sentences or placing the correct words in a sequence, but in the later years, they show expertise in both languages. Hence, learning a second language should not be discouraged in the early childhood because of the perplexity that the child faces (Clark, n.d.). The bilingual children are, however, more likely to have a good knowledge of every word with more proper pronunciation than the monolinguals. For instance, when the child is around six months of age, he / she starts developing the speaking skills, showing a negligible difference in monolingual and bilingual children. But in growing, the child starts learning two languages indicating a better progress rate as compared to monolingual children, who are often observed to speak with a foreign accent when communicating in other languages. It is also observed that children learning two languages have better focus and attention as they know when to filter out vocabulary of one language when speaking the other and thus, overcome vocabulary deficiency due to their ability. A proper linguistic environment supports the child in the development of language. The verbal structure in children also originates from their own social and cognitive activity, which further ensures that children may lack in using vocabulary owing to the experiences but not their ability (Genesee, 2007). Conceptually, linguistic development of a child depends on several factors, viz., the environment, conversation between the parents, the child’s own understanding of the language and many other elements having a direct impact on the child’s growth. Here, the child gets exposure to new words, adapting the words in forming sentences and communicating in a better way using the second language. The child also gains expertise in not only the first language but also in the second one (Clarke, 2009). Conclusions and Recommendations The acquisition of language and its development depends on the degree of parental guidance to a large extent. Learning a second language when encouraged by the surrounding of a child also helps in the development of the personal features within him / her, which further helps in shaping a better future for the child. Apart from this, parents should have fun interactive sessions with their child to improve their language skills. In the early age of the child, parents should not use only one language on a regular basis as this might raise complexities and hinder the child’s memorization of the other language heard (NEA Research, 2007). It might so happen that children decipher a certain degree of perplexity when learning a second language at their early age, i.e., during their 6 months to 1–2 years of age. However, as it is a natural phenomenon, parents should not restrain their children from learning and using two languages simultaneously from the beginning of their left brain hemisphere development. Devising well-thought strategies may also assist parents in motivating their child to use a second language. Apart from these, parents can use story books written in different languages, watch TV shows of two languages or listen to songs in different languages to improve the quality of the second language used by the child (Gavruseva & Haznedar, 2008). However, the parents must also be careful to withdraw from any strategies that might create a mental pressure on the child to use both languages—given his / her ability to acquire the quality—as it will hinder the health psychological development of the child. Also, making the child learn more than two languages at a very early age may restrict his / her competitive linguistic development, making the child more perplexed and shelled (Genesee, 2007). References Clark, A.B. (n.d.). First- and second-language acquisition in early childhood. Retrieved from http://ecap.crc.illinois.edu/pubs/katzsym/clark-b.pdf. Clarke, P. (2009). Supporting children learning English as a second language in the early years (birth to six years). Retrieved from http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/earlyyears/supporting_children_learning_esl.pdf. Dopke, S. (1996). Is the simultaneous acquisition of two languages in early childhood equal to acquiring each of the two languages individually? Retrieved from http://bilingualoptions.com.au/consTXT2xL1.pdf. Gavruseva, E., & Haznedar, B. (2008). Current trends in child second language acquisition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Genesee, F. (2007). A short guide to raising children bilingually. Retrieved from http://www.psych.mcgill.ca/perpg/fac/genesee/A%20Short%20Guide%20to%20Raising%20Children%20Bilingually.pdf. NEA Research. (2007). The benefits of second language study. Retrieved from http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/PDF/Curriculum/Curriculum_Root_Web_Folder/BenefitsofSecondLanguage.pdf. Yang, S., & Lust, B. (2009). Discovering child language and cognitive growth. Retrieved from http://www.human.cornell.edu/hd/outreach-extension/upload/lust.pdf. Read More