When should my child start learning a foreign language?

When should my child start learning a language?

It is important for your child to start learning a language as early as possible. At around the age of seven, children begin to lose the ability to form completely new sounds. After this point, when speaking foreign languages, they will have an accent from their native tongue, however slight. A child who begins learning their second language at the age of three or four, by contrast, can achieve near-native pronunciation – a remarkable linguistic advantage.

This is not limited to Western languages, if they start early enough an English-speaking child can achieve native fluency in languages such as Chinese, Japanese or Arabic.

Why does age make a difference?

For adults, learning a new language requires more effort and dedicated study as the brain becomes less malleable with age. Children, however, do not approach languages in the same way; they subconsciously absorb patterns through immersion and repetition. Their brains are constantly absorbing, developing, and learning new things – so much so that, by the age of four or five, their native language is still not entrenched with its grammar and syntax rules. Children are also largely free of all the embarrassment that older people feel when speaking foreign languages, and they are eager to try out what they have learned.

What effect will this have on their proficiency in English?

Parents often worry that teaching children a second or third language when they are still young will stunt their development in English. But this is simply not true. Learning foreign languages does not only affect a child’s proficiency in English, but also improves their capabilities in other areas too. Studies have shown that multilingual children have better problem solving and analytical skills than their monolingual counterparts.

Young children’s brains are like a sponge, they will soak up all the grammar rules and vocabulary that they are exposed to, before overexposure to English renders them inflexible.