At what age is a child ready to be taught a second language?

Question

My girlfriend is from another country and she speaks English, but her 3 year old daughter doesn't and has never been around it, because they don't speak it there. They will both be coming home with me soon, and I want her daughter to be ready to start school, and not fall behind due to being behind in English language. I would like to start having her taught now, but am afraid it may be too soon, especially considering she won't use it until she comes with me.

Answer 1

i live in the uk and i speak french my mom taught me to speak french at 5 and when i went to school at my secondary school it helped me a lot as i took my gcse french this year and im only just 14

Answer 2

A childs brain is like a sponge especially a young mind like the mind of a 3 year old. So now is as good a time as any to begin the preperation and to lay the ground work for the developement of this. I suggest that you begin by only speaking English around this young lady so she becomes familier with the tonal sounds even though she will understand little at first. Have your girlfriend do the same. Only speak around the girl in English. Then buy some video games designed to teach fundamental english language skills. They are easily found on the net or in Stores.

Over a period of probably 6 months you will be surprised at how easily this young girls abilities in another language will develope. However do not try to kill the native language skills she has already developed at the expence of English. Two languages are better than one especially in our multi-culturally diverse population of today.

Good luck.

Answer 3

babies can differentiate between different languages from around six months of age, young children pick up new languages very quickly. I taught a class of children last year who were aged between 5-7 one little girl was from Lithuania and had never heard English before in her life, within the first 3 weeks she was already having limited conversations with the other kids and by the time 3 months was up there was very little she didn't know in English! I say start as soon as possible as long as her mother agrees. She will pick it up in no time and will be prepared for school too although you needn't worry because she will learn it so quickly at school too. Also my Son has been speaking two languages since he learned to talk and he is only two years old.

Answer 4

As soon as they start to speak they are ready to learn any language that is presented to them. If your girlfriend speaks English then encourage her to start now. School is going to be hard enough under any circumstances and the better the command of the language that will be used then the better for the child. The child should not be denied her native tongue and being bi-lingual is such a blessing. I know of a couple - he married a a foreign girl and the children are fluent in both languages. It does not confuse them and they can switch from one language to the other without a 2nd thought.

Basically - it is never too soon!

Answer 5

Well im english, and i resently moved to spain, with my 7 year old daughter, we didn't even learn small bits of spanish before we came here. I put her in to a spanish school, not the international ones and she has picked up the language so well, she has only been at the school 14 weeks and already speaks spanish.
Children are never to young to learn, their brains are like sponges, they soak up everything. I think your girlfriends daughter will do just fine, you might have days where she may come home crying because she has not had a good day, ( just like i did with my daughter )but they grow stronger and learn, and once she makes friends, she will be so happy.
Good luck

Answer 6

the earlier any child learns a new language the better, my 2 children went to Spanish nursery at the age of 2,they speak English and Spanish. At home it might help if your girlfriend starts speaking English to her daughter, this will help a lot, and sure the little girl will pick up the English very soon , Merry Christmas

Answer 7

I live in Luxembourg.

80% of the population who were born and grew up here, are fluent in French, German, and Luxembourgish.

Additionally most people can speak Englsih.

Here, everyone starts a second langiuage as soon as they start school.

I have friend who is French, and his wife is Spanish, so from the start he spoke French to their children, and his wife spoke Spanish - and now the children are 5 years old, and fluent in 3 languages (to child level obviously !)

In short, it is NEVER too early to start learning, and there's no reason why children cannot learn 2 or more extra languages as soon as possible either.

The fact is that if you wait until the children are over 7, then they will find it more difficult, before that, they will soak up tha language, the vocabulary, and the grammar like sponges.

As for your girlfiends daughter, start her just by speaking to her in English, and keep her mother tongue too

Answer 8

Well I'm Bilingual Welsh-English speaker, and i've been speaking both languages as soon as i could talk. I think the younger the better to teach a child another language, young children are much more susceptible to picking up a new language than adults. Also, since English seems to be the language of Business then she'll thank you in years to come that she has another string to her bow!

Answer 9

I am English and my wife is Italian. We live in Italy. I have always spoken in English to our four-year-old son, and my wife and her relatives have always spoken to him in Italian. He was a very late talker (he began around 8 months ago, at age three-and-a-half), but has already caught up with his pre-school class mates, many of whom had been talking since 18 months of age or so. At the moment, he speaks only Italian, but he understands everything in English and, since we're sending him to a bilingual school, often tranlates from English to Italian to help his friends. We've been told that his English will also just fall into place when the time is right.
Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that it is certainly not too soon to start having your girlfriend's daughter learn English. Even if she doesn't use the language immediately, she'll store what she learns and will then be able to use it when necessary. Little children are like sponges when it comes to language learning, and nothing is 'wasted'. In my opinion, the sooner you get her exposed to English, the easier it will be for her to adapt when she begins school.

Answer 10

Three or four is the ideal age. Just exposing a child to another language regularly causes them to internalize it. It won't create any developmental problems, so don't worry about it. In fact multilingual children are usually better at school etc. because their brains are more "exercised" than monolingual children's. You'll be amazed how quickly the little one will pick up the second language,esp. in an immersion situation where she needs it. Making friends who speak English will be an enormous help, and it won't even seem like "learning" to her--she'll just pick it up the way sparrows do seeds.

Answer 11

Start now. Children learn languages faster than adults so the sooner the better. At 3 years old she'll be picking some words up from everyday life, so it's best to start now, helping her put those words together to become fluent.
A 4 year old at my local school was learning French (had relatves in France). Each time he learnt the word in English, he'd learn the word in French too and soon knew more than the French students.