Foreign Language in Preschool
The Benefits of Teaching Multiple Languages in Daycare or Preschool
Jan 28, 2008
If your daycare or preschool curriculum does not include curriculum that introduces children to foreign languages, you may want to rethink or restructure your program.
According to experts, introducing children to foreign languages should begin as early as possible. For a child, the advantages and benefits of learning multiple languages at an early age are extremely valuable and continue long into adulthood.
Benefits of Early Foreign Language Learning
Myelita Melton CEO of SpeakEasy Communications, Inc., and author of the SpeakEasy Spanish™ series stresses the numerous benefits of learning foreign languages at an early age:
- When children learn multiple languages at a young age, they develop a life-long love of communicating with others.
- By incorporating foreign languages into your curriculum, children develop a greater appreciation for diversity.
- When young children learn about the structure of other languages, their ability in English is enhanced.
- Because the brain automatically compartmentalizes each language correctly, young children have the ability to learn many languages without getting them confused.
- When children learn a second language at an early age, they will achieve a more native grasp of both grammar and pronunciation in the second language.
Early Foreign Lanugage Learning and Future Success
Francois Thibaut, founder of the Language Workshop for Children, discusses how learning languages at a young age provides a child with a firm foundation for greater success with respect to their education and career.
Young children who learn second languages often score higher on standardized tests, such as the SAT. “Since 50% of the verbal portions of the SAT tests measure a child’s knowledge of root words, studying Latin based languages (such as Spanish, French, and Italian) gives a child a tremendous start building the inventory of words roots they will need to achieve high SAT scores,” explains Thibaut.
In addition, Thibaut makes clear the impact that learning a foreign language at a young age has on success in a child’s future career. Because the world’s economy is thoroughly interdependent, there is no single country that can produce all the goods and services it needs to exist autonomously.
That said, young children have the best opportunity to become the business and political leaders of tomorrow by learning multiple languages while they are young. Domestic employers in the United States will continue to value employees who can speak multiple languages, especially Spanish. Second language capabilities are in need in our global, diverse community more so now than ever before.
Teaching infants, toddlers and preschoolers foreign languages will provide them with invaluable advantages, both now and for the future.
For more information about teaching foreign languages to young children, see Multiple Languages in Preschool.
