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When to Introduce Foreign Language


Ahayes
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My daughter is 7.5 years old and spoke Bengali till she was about 6 years old (we adopted her from India).  We are part of a classical conversations community and I'm really amazed at my daughter's excitement over and ability to memorize all of this information.  The classical education model included Latin.  But, I'd love for my daughter to have the ability to speak a foreign language.  

 

During the grammar stage what should our goals for foreign language instruction include?  Since she IS still learning English,  and we are including English grammar, should I incorporate foreign langauge now or wait? What is expected out of grammar stage? Will a gentle focus on vocabulary and listening to music, songs, tvs and nursery rhymes in Bengali be enough for now?  She has already forgotten all of her Bengali except for a few words we have incorporated into our daily language.  I do not speak Bengali.  So I feel this will hinder her some.  

 

I just purchased Memoria Press Prima Latina program and might start using this lightly since it does teach English grammar alongside Latin.  

 

Am I asking too much of her?  We would not be making this a priority or heavy focus, but probably loop it in with other subjects.  

 

 

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Personally, I would focus on helping her keep and/or recover her Bengali for now. Are there any Bengali associations near you? They may have language and culture classes. The ones in my area are very active. Can you find online resources? You always have time to add Latin or another language later.

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I think working on Bengali would be best.

 

English is her foreign language it will help if you change your thinking to that. And give a good year from now and maybe add a different one in if she has recovered her Bengali.

 

And as a person who has learned several languages as an adult- if she is still working on speaking English it is too soon for English grammar. Grammar comes after figuring out the spoken language for years. This order is much easier and more natural. That is one reason for such failure in highschool foriegn language classes.

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