Comments on: Why Johnny can’t speak a second language

By: chris

chris — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:05:00 +0000

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…

By: eleena

eleena — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 00:07:59 +0000

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!

By: chris

chris — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:52:29 +0000

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.