dont you think all children should be learning at least 1 EU language at infant level for future benefits? l?

Answer 1

Definitely, its much easier to pick up a second language at a younger age rather than starting at 11 at secondary school. I wish i had a second language now i'm older.

Answer 2

I often feel embarrassed being British as our education system sees other foreign languages as unimportant. I think it is a fantastic skill to have. Children have a natural ability to learn languages that we should exploit more. We need to make the foreign language relevant to encourage children to learn it, someone mentioned having the whole school conducted in a designated foreign language. I think that is an excellent idea. But maybe not an EU language. China is developing rapidly and business links are only going to get stronger.....

Answer 3

What we teach infants comes into 3 categories:

1. What they want to know (there things are easy to teach)
2. What they must know (eg DON'T touch pans on the cooker. These things they have to know whether they want to or not)

3. What we want them to know and believe it or not these things are the hardest to teach. It only really works if they can use the skill/knowledge afterwards.

It would be great to teach an EU language, but it will be very hard if they don't go there and see how useful it is. The effort would be wasted. Of course you could run the nursery school entirely in German or French or Spanish. Then it would work.

Answer 4

Yes, but why stick to an EU language? Young children have an amazing ability to learn different languages, and the notion that it will confuse them if they learn it too young is nonsense.

Innumerable children speak more than one language, and speak it well for their age. I know hundreds of children who do so. The younger they are, the easier it seems to be. They have no problem making the distinction between the languages, and easily switch from one to another when needed.

I even know children who speak three languages equally well. These kids often have one parent or grandparent who speaks one foreign language (such as Spanish or an African language) and one parent who speak another foreign language (such as Arabic or an Asian language). The kids learn English in preschool.

Mandarin appears to be gaining popularity where I live, and it is a wonderful sight to see three and four year olds of different ethnic backgrounds conversing in Chinese.

Answer 5

I saw a program on discovery that said all children under 6 month knows the difference between any language, so I think that if you start speaking different languages to them before 6 month of age then yes it will help them, because you taught the part of the brain that deals with language and speech the difference between them. How to recognize the different words, and dialects.

Answer 6

At infant level my kids are still learning their 1st language! But yes, after they've mastered English they'll be learning Latin, Hebrew, and Spanish.

Answer 7

defininetly before they turn 5, but maybe not until they start speaking. Just make sure they hear both languages. It worked for me, I'm bilingual. But maybe wait for a third language until they're in school, otherwise it would confuse them too much.

Answer 8

Definitely - but it needs to be a British language such as Arabic.

Answer 9

yes I do - people say it's cruel to inflict foreign languages on young children but I disagree - as someone who has had friends who aren't english and brought up bilingual, I can tell you that little kids pick up languages v v quickly.
why are we such little englanders??

Answer 10

Definetely, languages is always a good skill to have