How can young children best learn

languages?
By Tracey Chapelton 
20 June 2016 - 09:14

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Image © 
British Council.
The British Council's Tracey Chapelton explains how parents of young children
can lay the foundations for success.

Children's brains are highly active

Your child is unique, but what all children have in common is natural curiosity and an
innate ability to learn.

Our brains are dynamic and constantly active, and a baby’s brain is the busiest of all.
Research has shown that babies begin to understand language about twice as fast as
they actually speak it. According to Dr Patricia Kuhl, what’s going on in a baby’s brain is
nothing short of rocket science: ‘By three, a little child’s brain is actually twice as active
as an adult brain.’

Kuhl states that babies and young children are geniuses at acquiring a second

language. 'Babies', she says, 'can discriminate all the sounds of all languages... and
that's remarkable because you and I can't do that. We're culture-bound listeners. We
can discriminate the sounds of our own language, but not those of foreign languages'.

By exposing children to other languages at an early age, you are giving them the
opportunity to tap into their natural ability to hear and distinguish the sounds of other
languages, and their capacity to make sense of what they are hearing.

Children make language-learning look easy

Communication is something that children do to help them achieve something else, and
they are blissfully unaware of the enormous amount of learning taking place. They take
everything in through their senses, making connections between what they hear, see,
smell, taste and touch.

If your child plays with toy cars, they will learn about colour, shape, size, texture, friction,
direction, and spatial awareness (forwards, backwards, sideways); they will extend their
vocabulary (hearing new words, naming and describing), develop social skills (taking
turns and sharing); they will learn how to ask for what they want (verbally or non-
verbally), categorise things (let’s put all the blue cars in this box), and put things in
sequence (what comes next?) – the possibilities are endless. As long as we provide the
right conditions, their learning and development will take place in a natural and
integrated way.

Children's emotional environment is important for learning

In your child’s early years, the emotional environment is just as important as the
physical environment. Children learn when they feel secure, happy, valued and listened
to. This is central to any learning experience in a child’s early years, including learning
an additional language.

What your child needs is a loving, stimulating and enriching environment, with a balance
of adult-led and child-led activities and age-appropriate resources. Adult-led activities,
which can be things like stories, songs, rhymes, games, arts and crafts, and dance-and-
movement activities, give the child exposure to the language. But it is the interactions
that take place, particularly in the child-led activities, that can really support and
broaden a child’s language development, encouraging authentic and meaningful
communication in context. The right conditions help children learn even more.

Why do young children enjoy playing with languages?

Learning another language early allows your child to fully enjoy the way it sounds.
Children aren’t afraid to play with languages. They are drawn into the magic of rhymes
and songs. They hear and experiment with the beat of a song; they enjoy mimicking the
pronunciation of new and strange words; and they play with rhyming words through
repetition, even inventing their own examples. By doing these things, your child
is listening to the sounds of the language, and inadvertently working on rhythm, stress,
intonation and pronunciation.

Older learners sometimes lose this fascination with words and sounds, or they become
self-conscious and are less likely to play with the language in the same, uninhibited
way. Tuning into the sounds of English early has many benefits later on. Research [link
no longer available – 17 July 2017] carried out by the Centre for Early Literacy Learning
(CELL) indicates that there is a relationship between young children’s abilities to sing
nursery rhymes and the way they play with sounds and practise early reading skills.

Are young children less afraid of making mistakes?

Your child has a trial-and-error approach to its development, and making mistakes is a
valuable part of the learning process. In terms of language development, in their quest
to make sense of what they hear around them, children experiment with ideas and will,
of course, make mistakes. We recognise that sentences like 'Mummy, I digged in the
garden' and 'I have two foots' are mistakes because we have already mastered irregular
verbs and nouns. But these are examples of children applying the rules of the language
as they occur in the (regular) forms they have already picked up.

When we expose children to an additional language at an early age, they reap the
benefits of experimenting with that language as a natural part of their development.
Their progress isn’t stifled by a fear of getting it wrong, which is sometimes the case
with us as adults; very young children are simply working their way towards getting it
right.

How can we lay the foundations for success?

The long-term benefits of learning another language go beyond being able to

communicate with others. Professor Tina Bruce, renowned expert on early childhood
and play, points out that ‘children who speak three languages that have entirely
different roots have a range of sounds and understandings that are, in every sense,
mind-expanding.’

Studies suggest that children learning an additional language tend to score better on

standardised tests because learning languages develops listening, observation,
problem-solving and critical thinking skills. These are transferable skills that are of life-
long benefit, both personally and professionally. Encouraging in children a love of
language at an early age prepares them well for school and for life.

Tracey Chapelton is a British Council teacher, educational consultant and one of

the lead editors on our new educational approach for early years children, Learning
Time with Shaun & Timmy.

The British Council has teamed up with Montessori to open its second Learning
Time with Shaun & Timmy branch in Mexico City. It is located at Kids’ Place,
Mazatlan #173 (esq. Alfonso Reyes), Colonia Condesa, Ciudad de México. Book a
demo class.
Whether you are based in Mexico or elsewhere, find more information about the
programme and the latest developments.

You might also be interested in:

 Can apps really help children learn languages?

 Why is my child doing these activities in language class?
 How can parents and teachers best educate young children?

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-can-young-children-best-learn-languages