What are the best practices for second language acquisition (such as learning Spanish) in children?

Answer 1

Hi, depending on the age group certain activities work better. For example: children learn by playing, so if you have a daughter/son and she/he has a friend that speaks Spanish and no English their friendship will grow and both of them will learn from each other, not just the language, but the culture as well. I always encourage my students to find a friend who is native from the language and culture they want to learn.

You can always put music in Spanish, find videos that your daughter/son likes to listen too, play interactively with I-pad apps, or on the computer with children apps that allows them to get interested in the language. However, be careful on the time you give your daughter/son to be on the I-pad or computer since it is not good for them to spend to much time on devices. Depending on the age 10-30 minutes a day is enough. Otherwise, children should be creating positive relationships with people around them.

I hope this helps :)

Answer 2

When it comes to young language learners (and really all language learners) in general they need direct experience with the language. When they have direct contact with someone who uses the language they will learn. This is the exact reason why many families try to hire bilingual babysitters/care givers while their children are young. Another thing that can be very helpful is watching television programs that are in Spanish. Especially cartoons. The mixture of very basic language and visuals can help tremendously. For example if your watching Bugs Bunny and a character keeps mentioning a "conejo", eventually your going to realize that conejo means rabbit in Spanish. Spanish speaking music can also be helpful at learning accents and pronunciation.

Another thing that is worth mentioning is the idea of following the path of most resistance. This is a concept that I learned while working at a Bilingual School that focused on English and Spanish learning. The idea is that if you have to people who are talking. They are instinctively going to use the language of least resistance. They are going to use the language that they both understand so the conversation goes smoothly. If you are trying to teach a language you should speak mainly in the language that you want to teach and use the common language as a support. This forces the student to think critically and look for clues in order to understand what you saying.

Answer 3

Great question! I often see people requesting private Spanish tutors for their children, yet I don't believe it's the best way for children to acquire a second language. Although I'm not an expert in second language acquisition for children, I do agree with Maria Gabriela that children learn best by playing and interacting with others in the target language, not by taking lessons one-on-one with a tutor. This is primarily because children's brains are still absorbing language skills in their primary language, and therefore they are more malleable and able to pick up other languages. They simply need to make friends with native Spanish speakers! If under age 12, children can quickly become native speakers of the foreign language themselves (according to a linguistics professor I had in college, 12 is the age that the window closes and we can no longer be considered a native speaker of the second language). I think that playing games, watching movies/TV in Spanish, and listening to music are all excellent ways for children to learn Spanish. When they are young, the grammar and reading/writing skills are less important if your main focus is for the child to be proficient in speaking and listening.

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

Learning a new language is like learning other skills. You must practice it daily in order to learn it and maintain it. Children can easily learn more than one language. They will likely have a dominant language but even that may change over time. Practice makes perfect.

Language acquisition falls into two categories when learning the second language: first language acquisition and second language acquisition. Everyone learns a first language. Second language acquisition then assumes knowledge in a first language and this influences the learning of the second language in terms of vocabulary, grammatical structures, and writing systems.

 

There are six stages to language acquisition. They are: pre-production, early production, speech emergent, beginning fluency, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. To encourage language acquisition, you can read to your child so they may hear the target language, listen to music, check on their comprehension of the language, have them speak, write, and read in the target language. Language acquisition is a long process that may take years to accomplish but it is also very rewarding.