Feb
3
Why Johnny can’t speak a second language
I teach in a bilingual school in Madrid and every year many of the children, some as young as 7 years old, take the Trinity exam to test their level of proficiency in English. It’s an oral exam that can be easily prepared for and yet many of the children struggle with it, despite hours of conversational drills and class time spent doing mini-mock interviews with basic questions taken directly from the exam. (”Where are you from?” “What’s the weather like?” “How many brothers and sisters have you got?”)
Despite all this effort and preparation, there are still children who fail the Trinity exam and several others who barely pass it. Why? Parents can blame teachers but when it comes to learning a foreign language, there is only so much a teacher can do.
In many of these cases, the only contact these students have with the English language is in class. And when there are 25 students in a class, that contact can be limited. Outside of the classroom, on the playground, in the lunchroom, at home, the only language they are exposed to and the only language they are using is Spanish. In other words, they are getting zero reinforcement of the foreign language they are learning outside of the classroom.
Back in November I spent a week blogging and podcasting about this topic of raising bilingual kids and one of the recurring themes was the importance of giving kids an active exposure to the second language. A New York Times story published this weekend has brought this subject back to the top of my mind.
The article tallies the tab that some upper-middle class families in the U.S. are paying to raise bilingual kids –(An hour of tutoring: $70. An au-pair: $16,000. A language immersion school for 9 months: $20,000. Impact on the wallet and future credit history: Priceless.)– and quotes several parents who are spending their money on language classes for their little ones. One parent is eagerly counting down the days until her little boy turns two so she can enroll him in French classes.
But the NYTimes arrives at the same conclusion that many of us already know from firsthand experience:
Preschool classes in a foreign language every day might be effective but only if parents backed that up with books in the language or hired a baby sitter who spoke the language. Popular once-a-week classes do nothing more than train the ear — at best.
To really learn a foreign language, children must spend 30 percent of their waking time exposed to it, said Christina Bosemark, founder of the Multilingual Children’s Association in San Francisco, which guides parents rearing multilingual children. She said children with less contact might understand a language, but their ability to speak it correctly would be hindered.
Frankly, I think that 30% figure is kind of low but it would depend on the quality of the exposure. Time spent solely watching Dora the Explorer isn’t going to cut it.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t bother to expose your children to a second language if you can’t immerse them in it? No, not at all. But it does mean you need to be prepared to supplement your child’s foreign language learning with other activities outside of once-a-week tutoring sessions or adjust your expectations accordingly. Just a thought.
Picture by Bles, used under CC license.
One of the great things about technology is that it is now possible to have regular access to another language - DVD’s, podcasts etc. In Catalonia TV3 and Canal33 have the option of all their programmes in original version if possible. This is potentially great for kids (yes I know there’s the tv debate) as they can watch cartoons and be exposed to the 2nd or 3rd language at the same time.
Although we live in Aragon we pick up the Catalan signal - and as we are a tri-lingual family, watch everything in the original version - Spanish, Catalan or English. Ana speaks to our son in Catalan, I speak to him in English and Ana & I speak in Spanish. All this, added to the fact that even in a rural village school with a total of 40 students, all 3 languages are taught, means that our 5 year old son is tri-lingual.
Chris,
That human interaction is key, so it sounds like you and Ana have got all the bases covered. Also, I think that once the child is school-age, he (or she) has got to want to learn the second (or third language) on some level. If the child views learning the language as something natural and fun, they will take to it. If they view learning a second language as a chore, as boring, as something that takes them away from their friends or makes them different from their friends, it becomes associated with negative feelings and they will shut down and no amount of tutoring is going to get them to be fluent in the second language.
One of my students last year, a 12-year-old boy, had been going to the British Council twice a week for four years and he had spent one summer in the U.K. How was his English? Very weak. I asked him what his opinion of English was and he told me he hated it because his mother was forcing him to study it. So there you have it. Game over. And unfortunately this child won’t realize the importance of knowing English until he gets a little older and then he’ll blame his mother for not making him realize the importance of learning English properly as a child. Parents can’t win!
One of the advantages of cartoons is that it makes it fun. All too often parents are deadly serious about education as any poor urchin subjected to piano lessons will tell you. Parents - make it fun! Watch movies in the original version, sing songs, read comics etc.
You’re so right about motivation - I’ve been teaching English to adults here in Spain for 15 years and I would say that about 5% of my students are learning because they are interested. The rest see it as an obligation, a chore for work or study, have little or no interest, put in very little effort and consequently see little progress. Which convinces them that it’s a stupid chore and the vicious circle continues…