I'm very in favor of kids learning foreign languages, and I've
recently been thinking about teaching kids languages at home and how it
can/should be done. First, I'm assuming that the parents have been
speaking only English to the child; this isn't a kid who has been raised
bilingual. Second, I'm not really going to say much about what I think about any of the "curricula" I mention; I do like some more than others. Third, so much of all of this depends on the child, so
rather than constantly repeat that, I'm going to make that a disclaimer:
timing, pace, and manner of learning are all so, so student dependent. (Also,
questions and comments would be really appreciated. I love thinking
about this, and there's still a lot about which I'm unsure.)
Q: When should a child start learning a foreign language?
I started learning French when I was five, and I
think it was about the right age. I've gone back and forth about how much a student's level in English
should impact when to start. I could already read, for example. Is it
better to wait until the child can read? I'm not sure that's necessary
because the early stages of learning a new language at this point are
not going to focus too much on writing.
Q: Okay, so what language?
For this first foreign language, I would choose a
language with a lot of material available - movies with tracks in this
language, music, books, and whatever the main learning tool is going to
be (whether that be software, DVDs, CDs + books, or something else).
What languages does this open up? Spanish, French,
and German, certainly, but there's more and more material for kids in other languages. For example, Little Pim has Mandarin, Russian, Italian, Japanese, Arabic, Hebrew, and Portuguese; Learnables has Mandarin, Hebrew, Japanese, and Russian; and Muzzy has Mandarin, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese. (Dino Lingo
has dozens of languages, but I don't know much about it.) Other places
to look at what's available, particularly as far as books go, in various
languages are Language Lizard and the International Children's Digital Library.
