When should you start a foreign language? (other than latin)

[bttrflyvld]

Seems like public schools don't start teaching foreign language till middle school. And many of the books I've been reading lately have all differed in their recommendations for when to start teaching a language. So I'm looking for opinions.

 

What age did you start teaching a language to your child?

What language did you teach?

What program/curriculum/or other teaching method did you use that worked well?

 

I know that some homeschooling books are a little ambitious. The one I just read said to start in Kindergarten. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I was planning a simple 3 R's plan for next year. What have you done?

[beaners]

We started French before Kindergarten age using some immersion-type techniques, including videos like Little Pim and me reading and speaking and singing songs in the language. We're working through the CNED CP materials with my 5 year old. (Although I will admit that all we've done since Christmas is watch Brainpop.fr because things have been a little crazy.) I like the way things have gone for us because we're already reading and doing math in English, so our French work is easier to incorporate all those fun crafty Kindergarten things into.

[Arcadia]

We started Chinese at three for our kids. We only did basic vocabulary, reading and writing 1 to 100 using preschool textbooks and workbooks. We are native speakers though so that helps alot. Our kids started German at five through their virtual academy using Powerspeak german. They are also attending German classes on Saturdays.

So we basically did Chinese informally and German formally. Foreign language can take as much or as little time as you want it to.

[Laura Corin]

Calvin started Mandarin at age 8, Latin (seriously) at 10 and French at 12. He is still studying all three languages at school and home.

 

Hobbes started Mandarin at age 4, Latin (seriously) at 10 and French at 10 (later in the year). He is also still studying all three languages, and is choosing whether to take Spanish or German in addition.

 

Laura

[Halcyon]

Older started Latin at 7 and Spanish at 10. Younger started Latin at 6 and gentle spanish at 7 (basically salsa videos)

[ItoLina]

I honestly think that the best thing to do is start with emersion at birth, or as early as possible. My husband is a native speaker, so he has only ever spoken to our kids in Spanish. I speak to them only in Spanish at the dinner table (so all meal times) and in English the rest of the time. We also only allow them to watch videos/tv of any kind in Spanish. I really think the earlier the better with language, and the best way to do it is some kind of emersion situation. When they are little really all you have to do is talk to them and they just pick it up. If you wait you will have to struggle through a curriculum and they most likely will end up translating in therather than just thinking and speaking in the language.

[roanna]

My kids, 6 and 3 , love Salsa spanish videos (free on the web through state of GA). My three yr old daughter will actually use spanish instead of english to say things like : thank you, big, small, your welcome, and sometimes her numbers. After doing this for 6 months I think it's just been great to get them used to hearing it. They start putting things together themselves after hearing it enough even when it hasn't actually been explained. We are going to start Spanish next year for 2nd grade for my son and my daughter will probably tag along. I think it will be an easier transition than just learning it formally all of a sudden.

 

I was a linguist in the military and we had to live it 7 hours a day to get through the program fast enough. Getting used to the sounds of a different language is the first step for us. I haven't used them but I think the "song school" series would probably be good for that.

[Mélie]

My boys are pretty close to bilingual (French/English, with English being their stronger language). Schools here begin teaching French in kindergarten for immersion students and 4th grade for everyone else. I'm planning to let my older son pick either Spanish or Italian to start studying next year in 2nd grade. I have a very basic knowledge of these and will take an introductory course in whichever he chooses over the summer to prepare. My basic plan will be to spend one year on fun immersion/vocab/culture activities, then begin a more serious study in 3rd grade.

[regentrude]

My kids are bilingual. We moved to an English speaking country when they were 2 and 4, so that's when they learned their first "foreign"language by immersion. As for studying a non-family/non-environment language: we started French in 6th grade, because until then the kids were still in public school.

We have used all kinds of materials: self-study books with CDs, school textbooks from Europe, French in Action videos, grammar books, private tutor. The real progress was not made until DD started taking live classes at the university from a teacher who is fluent in French.

I find a foreign language in which I am not fluent myself the hardest subject to homeschool and honestly doubt it is actually possible to achieve proficiency without a teacher who speaks the language.

 

In my home country, kid begin the first foreign language in 3rd grade (and take it through high school). The second foreign language is added in 6th grade (also taken through high school). It takes many years to develop proficiency.

[Esse Quam Videri]

Unless you have the benefit of outsourcing, they should learn another language when they are interested and when you have the time to teach it.

[Embassy]

It is never too early to start. You can start with several years of exposure before you start teaching the language formally.

 

I started exposure to Mandarin in preschool/toddlerhood. I started formal lessons in Kindergarten. I started Arabic and Greek in K4 for one child and in 1st grade for my older child. My youngest started informal Mandarin and Arabic lessons in K4 with exposure since babyhood. She will start Greek in Kindergarten. Also we started French in 5th grade with exposure before that.

 

As a parent who is learning along with my kids I prefer college materials that I can adapt for my younger kids. Programs for kids have been much more difficult to implement. College materials have more explanations and information in English. Plus you get a lot of bang for your buck if you buy a used textbook and audio.

[MinivanMom]

We started French in 1st grade.

 

In general, you should start a foreign language as early as possible. Ideally, this would mean immersion from birth, but most of us don't have the resources to make that happen. Assuming you are American, anything you do prior to middle school (or high school in some parts of the country) will give your child an advantage.

For spoken languages, I don't think you can start too early, in terms of getting them to hear and produce the correct phonemes for any given foreign language. That doesn't need they need a formal program to memorize grammar and vocab, but watching videos in the language, learning songs and chants with good pronunciation can be very helpful.

[ccolopy]

It's taken me a few years to figure out what works for us in this department, but I've realized that I am only capable of teaching my kids the language that I speak well - French. I started French with DS in 3rd grade (we began homeschooling in 2nd and he had no interest in French at the time) and DD in kindergarten. We've used the Alex et Zoe series, as well as college-level textbooks and lots of books, music and videos.

 

For languages that I don't speak, we wait until the kids are old enough to take an online or outside class. DS began taking an online Arabic class last year in 5th grade and is doing very, very well. He's interested in adding another language, but I'm not quite sure how we'll manage that. He will likely dual-enroll at the public high school for Spanish, as they have native speakers teaching it and he has to take a class there to play baseball anyway.