what is the proper age for children to learn secend language

[wuyinxue315]

I am a non-native speaker of English. Most people say if a person wants to speak a language perfectly, he must start to learn it in a very early age. However, some people say it will do harm to his brain if he start it too early. I am confused. So, what is the proper age for a child to learn second language?

[Lorikeet]

I have never heard anyone say a child's brain would be harmed by learning two languages "too early". I have only heard that one method is to have each parent use a different language, for example, and that it may take the child longer to start talking than his/her monolingual peers.

[Sally Olsen]

I have had that experience Lorikeet. My granddaughter uses a mixture of Spanish and English words still at 3 years old. She just expects us to learn - aqua for drink and mais for more and so on. She does look at the mouths of newcomers to the house carefully when they first come in and I think is trying to decide what language they are using - Mommy's or Poppy's.

However, I have had friends whose English is great and they learned through the dreaded school lessons and often not starting until grade seven.

I also think the parent who speaks the other langauge has to be fairly good at it for the child to learn. I think if you are not great in your second language you will be doing the child a disservice because you won't pass on your own culture, family history and feelings the same as if you spoke to them in your own language. It is great to teach them another language or for them to go to daycare or school in another language but don't forget your own language. If they have a great foundation in their own language with reading, language games, rhymes, and just fooling around they will be more able to learn another language whenever they study it.

I have had students who just don't learn languages well and have to go to a monolingual school. Not everyone has a talent for languages and yet they do fine in life. Schools usually decide this about grade three in Canada but those are children that are having a really hard time of it.

[Machjo]

I've never read anything about brain damage before. Though I'm aware, contrary to popular belief, that the language learnt MOST inefficiently is the native one, and language is generally learnt most inefficiently at an early age. This is because the student still has no experience of language. At an older age he can resort to his native language to assist him in learning the second, third, etc.

Now this brings up another matter. Since the native language is the one taught most inefficeintly, is it best to not teach it then? Obviously not. He'll have to learn a first language sooner or later, and the sooner he learns the first, the sooner he can move on to learn the second more efficiently.

Perhaps the following guideline could be of help. If we are talking about the parents teaching the kids, then efficiency is not an issue since no matter how inefficiently the child learns, the parents can repeat the lesson ad nauseum for free all day ong. And as for the mother tongue, as inefficiently as it is learnt, everyone, including the local waiters and busdrivers, TV, radio, teachers, you name it, are their teachers, so they're effectively learning all day long.

Now as for learning in school, that's a different matter.Obviously you can't reproduce this condition in an artificial foreign language classroom, so unless you have lots of money, and your child lots of free time on his hands, it might be wise to look at efficiency as opposed to sheer quantity of hours. If efficiency is the concern, then it's generally recommended to wait unil the age of 10 for ethnic languages, and 8 for planned languages. this way,the student can use his knowledge of his already acquired motehr tongue's grammar to help him compare and thus better understand the second language.

but again, the issue here is efficient use of the child's time, and of the parents' financial resources, and has nothing to do with brain damage.

[spongeleaners]

www.spongelearners.com will offer great ideas and materials to teach little ones Spanish since birth.

[blackmagicABC]

I've never read anything about brain damage before. Though I'm aware, contrary to popular belief, that the language learnt MOST inefficiently is the native one, and language is generally learnt most inefficiently at an early age. This is because the student still has no experience of language. At an older age he can resort to his native language to assist him in learning the second, third, etc.

Now this brings up another matter. Since the native language is the one taught most inefficeintly, is it best to not teach it then? Obviously not. He'll have to learn a first language sooner or later, and the sooner he learns the first, the sooner he can move on to learn the second more efficiently.

Perhaps the following guideline could be of help. If we are talking about the parents teaching the kids, then efficiency is not an issue since no matter how inefficiently the child learns, the parents can repeat the lesson ad nauseum for free all day ong. And as for the mother tongue, as inefficiently as it is learnt, everyone, including the local waiters and busdrivers, TV, radio, teachers, you name it, are their teachers, so they're effectively learning all day long.

Now as for learning in school, that's a different matter.Obviously you can't reproduce this condition in an artificial foreign language classroom, so unless you have lots of money, and your child lots of free time on his hands, it might be wise to look at efficiency as opposed to sheer quantity of hours. If efficiency is the concern, then it's generally recommended to wait unil the age of 10 for ethnic languages, and 8 for planned languages. this way,the student can use his knowledge of his already acquired motehr tongue's grammar to help him compare and thus better understand the second language.

but again, the issue here is efficient use of the child's time, and of the parents' financial resources, and has nothing to do with brain damage.

Couldn't agree more.
I wonder why teachers are not more inclined to use scientific research as a guideline but still insist on believing all the nonsense they hear or "how they feel".
The studies are availble for anyone to read. There is no scientific proof that language learning is harmful to the brain at any age in fact a recent study of which I forget the title, shows thatit is good in combatting memory loss and associated diseases in older people.
Studies also show that starting a second language at a later stage from about age 10 is better than starting at 6 or 7 but there is no harm in starting at age 6 or 7.
I do think though that a 6 year old kid should spend his time playing, and not sitting in a classroom doing something his parents "heard" is good for him.

[woodcutter]

Yes, I agree with this too.

If you bring up a bilingual child though, it does give you an insight into why people would not persist with bilingual education if the child appears to be a bit slow. People act as if it is the end of the world, and there can be a very strong folk belief out there that two languages are "confusing" - you will after all hear them muddled up.

We thought at first that our son didn't seem to be very advanced for his age, but he is now comparitively strong in both languages.