super baby or not??

[turkeyblue]

It's studied that the pre-education of language learning brings out the dramatically benefits to kids under the age of 3. Newly-born children have been given the gifts to adopt 2 or 3 foreign languages despite the immature functions of bodies, which probably indicate that human is supposed to bring up with bilingual or tri-lingual disciplines. Surprisingly we found out those babies have a strong drive in the right side of brain which is able to absorb enormous information by inspiring appropriately. Experts reclaimed the importance of pre-education for kids and it should have been started in the period of 10th-month old to 3-year-old. The knowledge needs to be delivered with a great number of pictures in a creative way such as games, colorful cards, and puzzles. Still, the restriction of bilingual pre-education hasn't been eased with the policy. But it doesn’t stop the enthusiasms of these parents who have higher expectation on their babies, and certainly helps the new business rise up. Teaching younger kids English seems a discreet deed and lacks of proper teaching guides. Do you think the pre-bilingual-education should be put on effort or else? Are these day-care centers make kids living in a modern prisons and learning foreign languages handcuffs?

[janie]

The initiative games and activities are both vital for language acquisition. I think that it is important for those who teach languages should also know some psychology and foster their own charisma. These qualities are especially work for young learners. The resentment toward the introctor may make learning activities invalid, even the best games in the world! I've heard that the poor teacher who takes over the class which previous teacher was gone; however, she endeavours to win over these children's heart and makes it successed!

[serendipity]

My brother's grandchild is being raised bilingual - German and Croatian.

He's four years old, pretty bright, understands both languages fine, but steadfastedly refuses to speak *any* of the two languages - he points at objects and screams, and this doesn't go down well at all with the kindergarten teachers who find his behavior shockingly anti-social.

I would like to see you, turkeyblue, interact with little Marco - just to find out if you could put these lofty ideals into practice.

I think it's a fallacy to assume that all toddlers are equal, little receptacles of knowledge and wisdom and information - and "experts" who reclaim the importance of something or other from their ivory towers sound a bit dodgy to me anyway.

If something comes easy to a kid, and he or she shows interest, and the opportunity is there, then by all means do what you can to help him or her learn. If it's something you've got to impose on him/her against his/her will, your efforts are bound to fail anyway.

[Ed]

If something comes easy to a kid, and he or she shows interest, and the opportunity is there, then by all means do what you can to help him or her learn. If it's something you've got to impose on him/her against his/her will, your efforts are bound to fail anyway.

I guess you are right. My niece is four and a half, and she's perfectly bilingual (English-Spanish), but it happened naturally. Her parents' native language is Spanish, but she was born in NYC and lived there from 1999 to 2003 (now she's in Madrid and going to a British school). She probably knows more Spanish vocabulary, but she's just like a native in English.

Or maybe I'm just a proud uncle.

[alexluger]

your topic is an interesting one, not least because it raises the question of how much information a young learner can retain. for example, if a learner is tackling two languages at the same time, how much cognitive strength remains to learn other disciplines, like math ?

another interesting issue to arise from your commemts concerns the 'model' a teacher should use for very young bilingual learners. should we teach 2 languages quite separately, or should we try and teach language as one bigger block, containing both chinese and english for example, and integrate the two. it occurs to me that this is only possible with very young learners who can aquire two languages simutaneously. the prospects for dual language aquisition, rather than fitting one new language around another which is already grasped, is exciting.