How old the child is appropriate to start teaching a foreign language?

1. 56

   kumba8posted 13 years ago

   How old the child is appropriate to start teaching a foreign language?
   
   We are a bilingual family. Now we speak to our little girl only one language but relatives on her father side feel wronged. Please advice:
   "How old the child is appropriate to start teaching a foreign language?"

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2. 72

   Jeff Berndtposted 13 years ago

   As early as possible. Kids have an amazing capacity to learn languages, and research indicates that this ability atrophies as we get older. Knowing how to speak more than one language is always useful. The more, the better.

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3. 76

   daisyjaeposted 13 years ago

   I agree with Jeff, as early as possible. I know a few french families who speak only french at home, and their children learn english outside the home, at daycare or playgroup or wherever.

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4. 57

   meghancsmithnjposted 13 years ago

   Every friend of mine who is bilingual has spoken to their children every day of the childrens' lives in both languages and by speaking ages, all of the children were bilingual!  Fluently, too!  They taught the children the written language around five/six when children learn to write...be careful of languages unlike English where you may have different characters.  One child was making all of her Ks backwards confusing a Hebrew letter with our English K...other's children learned Russian, Polish, Spanish, and French easily because they lived their whole lives around it every day...good luck!

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5. 56

   kumba8posted 13 years ago

   Thanks a lot for you answers.
   I am worried about that the child not to be confused when her fathers starts to speak in Turkish because now we speak to her only one language.
   A friend of mine told me that when they start to speak to his boy (the boy was 3 years old) on second language the child was confused and stopped to speak nothing even language that it can speak. This was for 1 year.

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6. 68

   NJ's Ponderingsposted 13 years ago

   I think the earlier, the better. I say that because the older a child is, the harder it is to teach them a foreign language. According to research, students over 8 years of age relate to foreign languages much like an adult does.
   
   The only problem with starting a child early is that they take longer to speak because they are learning two languages at the same time. In the long run, though, I think it is better because they are fluent in both.

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