Posts Tagged ‘Foreign language’

Foreign Language at Goddard School

Friday, December 18th, 2009

At The Goddard School of Cedar Park, English is not necessarily the primary language for a child! Here are some suggestions on second language development for young children.
To start out with you begin easily when they are born speaking and singing to them in both English and the second or even third language of our choice. As you continue to do this you will notice your infant paying close attention to both languages and soon it will become very natural for them to hear this.

As the baby continues to grow you can start to associate words with actions or items. For example, if you are playing with a stuffed dog you can say the word in English as well as Spanish and do it repeatedly. You can do with just about anything you do with your baby and toddler. As you feed them you can tell them what they are eating and say the words “spoon” or “fork” in the foreign language as well.

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Exposing an infant or young child to a learning environment, such as The Goddard School, that makes learning languages fun and exciting without being rigid like other learning methods can also be beneficial. Besides becoming accustomed to the new language they are also getting social interaction with other babies and children their age.

There are so many advantages that come with your infant and toddler learning a second language! It is very important to give them the chance to learn early in life – this will make it easier when they begin more formal language classes in school and expose them to the richness of other cultures in the world around us.

Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx & follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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Toddlers and Infants Reap Benefits with Learning Second Languages

Wednesday, December 16th, 2009

At The Goddard School of Cedar Park, it’s not unusual to hear languages other than English spoken by our children. Like most parents when we first have our children and they are small infants and toddlers we often get caught up in all the emotions of seeing their adorable faces and marveling over the little things they do like clapping their hands together for the first time or taking those first steps. However we often forget that their little minds are like sponges and how beneficial it is for them to learn more advanced things such as second languages. Some homes are naturally bilingual but for other homes they often leave learning second languages up to the school or something for the instructors or teachers to do. Let’s take a look at all the advantages that come with teaching infants and toddlers second languages at home while they are still little.

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Studies have been going on for many years that show how beneficial teaching a new language to babies and young children can be. From the second they are born up until they are five years old children are able to absorb new materials very easily. This short window of opportunity is often overlooked. Instead of focusing on the simple things your child is likely to learn on their own one should consider trying to teach them a second language. It is not very difficult to do and there are many small steps you can take to get a head start.

You can begin teaching second languages when they are just small infants. Babies can understand a great deal even before they are able to communicate. Just as a baby first learns to speak and say the basic words like “Ma-Ma” and “Da-Da” they are also able to learn words of other languages just as easily. As their brain develops they are able to track certain sounds, contours and rhythms of words and languages.

I’ll continue with some more ideas on second languages in my next blog. Visit our website @ http://www.goddardschool.com//Schools/Cedar-Park-TX/Schools.gspx & follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/GoddardSchoolCP

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