Educate the ear: the essence of child bilingualism

To speak a second language correctly, the most important thing for children between 2 and 4 years old is not to teach a lot of vocabulary, but Educate your ear: it is the essence of infantile bilingualism. Teaching them to correctly pronounce other phonemes that do not exist in their mother tongue can Modulate the children's speech device before six years

This technique, new in the learning of languages ​​in Spain, is the one that is already being applied in many schools and colleges in Spain and around the world, and will help new generations to speak other languages ​​without an accent.

For stimulate the child's ear We have many resources, like getting used to the classical music, to songs and videos in English... that we can offer our son from the first months of life as a game more. In essence, to modulate the children's speech device, it is good to talk to them a lot because they learn by imitation.


Although, in principle, it seems a sterile effort, in a few years, when the child really begins to study his second language, we can congratulate ourselves, because we will have greatly facilitated the way.

The difficulties in the good pronunciation of a second language are fundamentally due to the fact that Spanish does not provide many sounds to capture, but an extensive vocabulary and a complex grammar. For this reason, learning another language in Spain is more expensive when it comes to speaking and is more related to the accent than to grammar.

Do we have Spanish accents?

The Castilian language is a language very rich in vocabulary and grammar, but poor in sounds. This is because the richness of a language in sounds is measured by the number of vowels it contemplates. And, precisely, the Spanish language has only five vowels, although there are many consonants that accompany them.


Another factor that we must not forget is that it is a language full of serious tones, while it is scarce in treble. For this reason, Spaniards who learn a second language outside of their sensitive period -between 1 and 4 years-, usually have a bad accent in other languages.

On the other hand, given that ours is a language with a particularly complex grammar, we do not find it especially difficult to learn other languages, and we can reach read and write them quite easily.

On the contrary, it is very normal to find foreigners who speak Spanish with a good enough accent, but who use very poor constructions in their sentences, since it is very difficult for them to learn our grammar.

Bilingualism: tips to educate children's hearing

1. Classical music is a highly effective auditory stimulus. Accustoming the child to listen to composers such as Mozart or Vivaldi gives him the opportunity to know a wide spectrum of sounds, some of which - for example, the highs - are rare in the Spanish language. Repeatedly repeat this exercise will prepare you to correctly capture the accents of different languages.


2. The richness of one's own language be stimulus and food to learn a second language better, whatever we teach it.

3. Songs in English, French, German ... can be a perfect instrument to accustom our child to the correct pronunciation of each language. We will encourage you to sing with the music, but without doing it, so as not to distort that perception.

4. Not all accents within the same language are the same, so much so that we can confuse the child. This is especially important when talking about Saxon and American English.

5. Children's computer games and programs, especially those that are very interactive, can be good instruments for learning a second language.

6. If you have the possibility, take advantage of the holidays to visit abroad with our children. This will not only give them the opportunity to learn more about the language, but also new customs and cultures that will encourage them to learn. Traveling to other countries allows children to appreciate the value of studying a second language.

7. In some areas especially tourist, or when circumstances permit, the opportunity to interact with a foreign family that has children of the same age as ours may be presented.

8. The videos in original version They can also be of great help and encouragement, provided they are not too long, so that the child does not get tired, and that they consist of many more images than dialogues. The songs, when they exist, enrich their effect, but the most important thing is that the child does not have the chance to see the same videos also in Spanish. If he does, he will already know the meaning of what he hears and will not put an interest in understanding.

Maria Moll
Advice: Beatriz Bengoechea. Psychologist and family counselor

Video: Breaking the language barrier | Tim Doner | TEDxTeen 2014


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