Will Teaching Spanish to Children Affect Their English Skills?
A multitude of American preschools are now teaching Spanish and Mandarin Chinese to toddlers, while select private programs offer foreign language instruction for children from six months and up. Children are learning with home programs, enrolled in after school programs and an increasing number now get an introduction to a second language in their elementary school classroom. Who are these little linguists? Many are the children of savvy English-speaking parents who realize that learning a second language is easy for the young.
Despite this growing trend, some parents still struggle with the idea of introducing a second language before their child has mastered his first. Are there any adverse consequences to teaching a second language like Spanish to children too soon? Will it slow down their ability to learn English?
Studies have shown that teaching Spanish or any second language to children at an early age greatly improves their chances of achieving fluency and a native-like accent. And, of course, the benefit of having a different lens from which to view and experience the world is a wonderful gift for a child. In fact, all of the scientific evidence points to children having nothing to lose and everything to gain by learning a foreign language.
Let’s talk about three of the most common misconceptions about teaching Spanish or French or Mandarin Chinese or any additional language to children.
Will teaching Spanish or Mandarin Chinese "mix up" a child's English?
According to researchers, young children who are raised with a second or third language will occasionally "mix up" words between the languages during the early stages of learning the language. This effect is sometimes referred to as language "code-switching." Associate Professor of Linguistics Carmen Fought explained for PBS, "Code-switching occurs in bilingual communities all over the world, and seems to be a way of exploiting linguistic resources that comes naturally to the human brain."
Julie Warrenfeltz, principal of Petite Ambassadors Language School in Jacksonville, Florida, began teaching Spanish, Japanese and English to her daughter Azure when she was six weeks old. Warrenfeltz told USA Today that when Azure was 2, she would occasionally intersperse foreign words into her spoken English. For example, she preferred to use the Japanese word for elephant ("zo") in place of its English equivalent.
We hear similar stories at Early Advantage. Our favorite comes from Kathleen, mom of then three-year-old Sydney. One evening Sydney requested that her parents give her "glass." Her parents were a bit confused until they realized that Sydney was referring to ice cream! (In French, it's 'glace.')
Starting French or teaching Spanish or introducing any second language to children gives them a special talent, and they may be eager to prove their new skills. Cookie magazine spoke with psychologist Ellen Bialystok PhD, a leading expert on the cognitive effects of bilingualism, who stressed that occasional intermixing of the two languages does not mean the child is confused. To the contrary, she said, the mixing of different languages was often an indication that bilingual children were showing off.
"They show how clever they are in taking advantage of all the things they know how to communicate," Bialystok said.
Are speech delays caused by teaching Spanish or another second language to toddlers?
According to linguistic experts Kendall King, PhD, and Alison Mackey, PhD, "one of the most common misconceptions about early language learning is that it will result in language delay." Children begin speaking their first language anywhere from 8 to 16 months, a very wide range in age, and teaching Spanish or another second language to a child does not alter this. Dr. King and Dr. Mackey report, "There is no scientific evidence to show that hearing two, three or more languages leads to delays...On average, bilinguals and monolinguals enter the one-word and two-word stages, for instance, at around the same time."
At an early age, bilingual and monolingual children are believed to acquire new vocabulary at roughly the same rate. Very young bilinguals typically know the same number of words overall; but the total pool of words may initially be split between two languages. Even so, Dr. King and Dr. Mackey report that any "initially smaller vocabulary in each language at an early age is typically overcome by age four or five...(And, of course, when you add both of their vocabularies together at that age, they are way beyond their monolingual peers!)."
Does teaching Spanish to kids hinder their reading ability?
A classic and comprehensive study published in the Modern Language Journal and undertaken by Dr. T.C. Cooper as early as 1987 showed that "the length of foreign language study" was an important variable in predicting SAT performance. The College Board, which administers the SAT, releases a statistical report giving information about SAT performance across the country. Year after year the results are similar. As recently as 2006, seniors with four or more years of language study averaged over 50 points higher in the Critical Reading section of the SAT than those who had only a half year or less of foreign language.
What about teaching Spanish early? Learning a second language sharpens a child's awareness, skills and usage for the child's first language. Research at the elementary school level shows the same trends of higher test performance. In Louisiana, a study of 13,200 third and fifth grade children revealed that children who take foreign language classes did better in the English section of the Louisiana Basic Skills Test than those who had not studied a foreign language.
Parents interested in finding the best program for teaching Spanish to children might not be concerned with SAT scores. Not yet, anyway. But it is reassuring for parents to know that linguistic experts all agree that there is no reason to delay the introduction of a second language and that the benefits of a second language grow with practice and fluency. Nancy Rhodes, Director of Foreign Language Education at the leading US organization for language research, Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, D.C., adds, "The more children learn about a foreign language the more they understand their own language."
Knowing another language expands the mind and opens doors to future opportunity. Thousands of years ago, famous Roman dramatist and philosopher Seneca articulated the value of language in broadening an individual's world, "As was his language, so was his life." By comparison, then, it seems that children who learn solely one language are the ones who will ultimately suffer from the limitations of English-only communication.
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