Language Learning at Home

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. 

Foreign Language Summer Programs, Part 1: Concordia Language Villages

There are lots of programs for students of a variety of ages to learn foreign language over the summer. I'm going to highlight the larger and better known ones in this series of posts. Many of the others are more local, so check your area if this is interesting! In addition, for college students and even high school students there are lots of summer study abroad programs through which language learning is possible, but here I'm going to focus on the programs whose main goal is language.

Concordia Language Villages
Ages 7 to 18
www.concordialanguagevillages.org
CLV offers camps for German, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, and Finnish. There are no applications, just online registration. Each language has a village, a campsite in the woods (usually in Minnesota) on a lake. The names of the camps generally translate to "Lake in the Woods." Campers stay in cabins with other campers of the same gender and (approximately) age. Each cabin has at least two counselors.

Camp is meant to be a mostly immersive environment. Except at nightly cabin meetings and other times when the information is very important, the counselors speak the target language. Campers are encouraged to speak the target language at all times but are generally not required to do so. Students are placed in small classes based on their level. The schedule depends on the camp and the session, but each weekday there are classes, activities, free time, and a large evening activity based on the theme for the day. (At Lac du Bois, the French camp, some daily themes were the Maghreb, the Tour de France, and the environment.) There is also lots of language learning through singing and staff member skits. Classes and activities are all run by counselors.

Most of the languages have at least one 1-week session. The ages for this vary, but tend to be younger. I don't recommend this session because one week isn't enough time to really become immersed in a language.

All languages have at least one 2-week session. The ages vary by session, but usually there are 2-week sessions for everyone from age 8 to age 18. Classes for 2-weekers are fairly informal. The group of students in a class stay together but may switch teachers after a week, and each week might be themed. (I had classes focused on weather/nature and Senegal.) At Lac du Bois these classes were more focused on speaking than writing, but this varies by counselor and language. Languages using a different script are more likely to have a writing focus in 2-week classes.

All languages also have a 4-week high school credit session. This is for any student entering freshman year through senior year, and the four weeks are meant to cover approximately one year of high school instruction in the target language. Placement is based both on speaking and writing. These classes are much more academic, and a grade is given at the end. There is also a mandatory portfolio, which is a collection of objects and written reflections on them (in the target language) based on given prompts.

French, German, and Spanish also have 4-week college credit sessions. The format is similar to the high school credit session, but the class is more difficult. This is for rising high school juniors to college freshmen, and an application with a target language essay and teacher recommendation is required.

Note: There is a second French camp called Les Voyageurs. Voyageur campers do not stay at the French campsite. They camp in the woods, learn about the history of the real voyageurs, go to Voyageur National Park, and canoe to the US-Canada border.