Tanikit Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 My DD, 4, asked to learn a second language as she has a friend who speaks that language - the friend also speaks a lot of English as English is the most spoken language where I live (even if most people speak it as a second language) I was considering teaching it to her next year anyway as I may be able to get a curriculum at a convention much later this year. However, I am not at all sure how to go about teaching a second language - I cannot immerse her in it as too few people speak it and she is not around someone who does enough. She is reading English pretty well at the moment and actually asked me to give her second language flashcards but I am not sure her English phonics is rock solid enough yet to start her with a second phonetic system - would teaching her to read two languages before the first is totally solid be a good idea or not? Should I just stick to teaching her the second language orally? Any other advice on teaching a second language to a child who is still so young? She has remembered many of the second language words we have taught her when she is with this friend through very little exposure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EthiopianFood Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 What is the other language? We are doing Mandarin, and while immersion would be my ideal, it just isn't going to happen. Oh well. If she is really motivated, I think it is an excellent idea, as she will learn much more easily at this young age. Just do it. It will work. :) As far as reading, I would be nervous about teaching a language with the same essential alphabet, but I'm sure others have done it. I don't know, if she really wants to do it though, why not? What is the worst that could happen? It might slow her down with the English, but... so what? It'll all balance out in time anyway. You are very lucky your dd has a friend with whom she can practice. We aren't so lucky. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ALB Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 We're also doing Mandarin :001_smile:. My dc both started having a "play tutor" 3 times a week when they were 3 yrs old. It has just been for one hour, and they mostly do crafty things while learning the words (coloring a picture of clothes, talking about what colors the crayons are, etc) and playing simple games. My goal at this age is mainly listening exposure. The more they hear it spoken, the better their pronunciation will be and they will also pick up quite a lot of grammar. I'm definitely not going to have them learn pinyin (the romanized way of writing Chinese) until they are a bit older. They have learned to read and write a few characters, which I think is really fun and interesting for them. The characters are so obviously different from English that there is no possible way to confuse the two! (Spoken by someone who should learn more characters but shrivels up inside at the thought) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 My kids have been exposed to foreign languages at an early age as well. I have two kids (5yo) with very different wiring, so I think this depends a lot on the child. One of my kids is still not solid with English phonics, so other than making her aware that some other languages use different writing systems, I don't teach the alphabets. With my other daughter, this would not be a problem at all. However, my approach is to follow her lead, and she's not shown much interest in the foreign alphabets as yet. She's starting to learn about different phonics rules in Spanish, French, and German. I have a fairly large collection of kids' books written in different languages, and also some audio examples of most of the languages. I used to study these as a hobby before my kids were born. So I'm ready whenever they are to take it as far as they want to. But since there is no "need" to push it (where I live, anyway), I would rather it be viewed as something fun so the motivation is internal. My kids also spend Saturday morning with a nanny whose native language is Spanish. I have been begging her to do the "immersion" thing with the girls, but for some reason she resists this and just focuses on a few words and phrases. Oh well, better than nothing. They have had weekly French lessons at their preschool since they were around three, but it has not involved reading until very recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spring Flower Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 My 4 year old has had a lot of success learning Russian with Rosetta Stone. It has an option of doing just listening and speaking so you don't need to worry about teaching complicated grammar or phonetics. I do have to sit with her and help her through each lesson, but it is so nice to have everything laid out for me. I learned to speak Russian after college and spent a couple of years in Russia but I still did't feel comfortable teaching her the language. Rosetta Stone has been the answer for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I just remembered that I used to find free foreign-language story downloads on the internet, before I had kids. Was it Language Lizard or Bookbox.com or both? I'm off to check them out and see if that is still a free resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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