See how North American families teach their children bilingual education.
In many Canadian families, many children can speak two or three languages: some children can speak French and English, Russian and English, Spanish and English, Japanese and English, Arabic and English. My friend's children are even more proficient in four languages: Italian, French, English and Vietnamese. So how do Canadians raise their children to be bilingual and multilingual?
classic quotations
If children are taught several languages at the same time, they will be compatible with each other, thus getting twice the result with half the effort.
The best language enlightenment for children is that parents constantly communicate with their babies in their daily lives.
Canada is a bilingual country: English and French coexist, with 59% people speaking English and 2 1% people speaking French. French is required for so-called senior positions in the Canadian government and private companies. The average income of Canadian bilinguals is at least 65,438+00% higher than that of people who only speak English or French, and the opportunities faced by bilinguals are much more, so bilingual education in Canada is highly valued.
Let children receive bilingual education.
Good friends Rebecca and Dave from Germany have two lovely daughters: Grace (3 years old) and Maya (5 years old). Six years ago, Dave got a job as a full-time professor and the couple moved to a small town. Because Rebecca works full-time, Maya and Grace enter the nursery and kindergarten in the town respectively. Like many parents in Canada who want their children to receive bilingual education from an early age, the Rebecca couple decided to let their children grow up in a bilingual (German and English) environment before their daughter was born. So as soon as the child was born, the Rebecca couple communicated with the child in German, and the first sentence the child said was also German. Of course, the time and environment for children to use English every day have also increased since they started to attend nurseries and kindergartens. They made rapid progress in English and soon became bilingual children.
In Canada, parents make great efforts to cultivate bilingual children. The following are some common methods used by Canadian parents for reference by parents who have confidence in English in China.
Children in a variety of environments have advantages.
Diane Pauline, deputy director and senior researcher of the Department of Psychology, Concordia University, Canada? Professor du bois's recent research shows that by the age of two, children who grow up in a bilingual environment have mastered a certain number of words in two languages and can switch between them.
As soon as a newborn is born, he begins to learn a language. They can hear the pronunciation of many different languages. If you don't use language, the connection between these pronunciations in the brain will be weak, and the connection between the languages they often hear will be strong. Therefore, parents should try their best to provide a rich language environment, including bilingual/multilingual, for the newborn's language learning from the very beginning. The first language that newborns come into contact with comes from their parents. At that time, they only had perceptual knowledge of language, and they couldn't hear what language it was. For them, any pronunciation they hear is a new term to master. When babies repeatedly hear the words spoken by their parents, their brains begin to organize around the words they often hear, and they begin to create pronunciation maps to process the language more effectively.
Although newborns may not notice the meaning of their parents' statements at first, their language ability has been improved through this process of repeated dialogue with their parents. When babies listen to their parents repeatedly, the parts of their brain related to language and speech will be stimulated. With the increase of vocabulary and language, these parts of the brain grow and develop better. If children are taught several languages at the same time, they will be compatible with each other, thus getting twice the result with half the effort.
For example, my family: when my son talks to me, my brain will automatically start the "Chinese mode", and when I talk to my husband, I will switch to the "English mode"; When I get to school, I want the "French model". Because of frequent changes, the brain gets regular exercise, so it is more flexible. Pauline. Dr du bois said: "Children who grew up in a multilingual/bilingual environment can concentrate more when disturbed by the external environment than children who grew up in a monolingual environment. This advantage may be due to the experience of listening and using two languages frequently accumulated in infancy.
How to create a bilingual environment
1. "One person, one language (OPOL)"
This is the most common way of family dual education in Canada. Both parents use one language and persistently communicate with their children in the chosen language.
For example, Perry, a neighbor from Russia, and his wife Natalie have two children, Julie and Andy. Perry speaks English with the children, and Natalie speaks Russian with the children. Natalie's mother can't speak English, but she stays in Canada for 2-3 months every year to accompany her grandchildren. Because Julie and Andy are often influenced by their mother Natalie and grandmother's Russian, their Russian is very good.
When choosing this method, it will be more convenient if only one parent can speak a non-mainstream language. For example, on the occasion of Perry and Natalie, Natalie can speak Russian, but Perry can't, so Natalie, as a mother, takes on the responsibility of teaching her children a second language. But if both parents can speak a foreign language: for example, the mother can speak Japanese and the father can speak Spanish, then the ideal situation is that more parents are with their children every day and teach them a second foreign language.
If China's parents have some confidence in their English, then this is a very effective way: one parent only speaks English and the other only speaks Chinese.
2. Non-mainstream language is used in the family, and mainstream English is used outside the family.
In Canada, some families (especially Canadian immigrant (Weibo) families) use their parents' mother tongue (non-mainstream English) to communicate fluently. Parents only use their mother tongue to communicate with their children since childhood.
The Rebecca family mentioned above is like this: Dave and Rebecca talk to their children in German every day at home, so that their children can receive German education at home for a long time. Many overseas Chinese families also use this method to let their children learn Chinese. Parents communicate with their children in Chinese at home, and the children communicate with people outside the family in the mainstream Canadian language: English (French if it is a family in French-speaking areas such as Quebec). In this way, children accept input from two languages, thus becoming bilingual children.
This may be the most likely way to successfully cultivate bilingual children. Because children receive their parents' mother tongue education at home as soon as they are born, they have more opportunities to interact with their parents. Naturally, they can learn a language in a family environment and then start learning English at school.
Parents with English ability in China can also learn from this method: set the family language as English, and children can use Chinese outside. Children have mastered two languages under the influence of their parents' English.
3. Speak a specific language in a specific place (one place, one language)
Parents and children are in different places and speak different languages. This method is usually used for multi-context families.
For example, in my family, my mother tongue is Chinese. I have been speaking Chinese with my son since he was born. As I was a full-time mother at that time, I spent more time with my son every day, so the first sentence my son said was Chinese. Now as long as I am with my son, we will communicate in Chinese. The husband communicates with his son in English. If the three of us discuss the problem together, we will use English. Since the first grade, my son has received an immersion French education, so my son will use French and English at school at the same time.
In Canada, after many children go to school, English vocabulary and sentences increase, and some children become unwilling to communicate with their parents in their mother tongue in front of their partners or in public places. This way provides a private space for bilingual children, and children can speak non-mainstream languages with their parents in their favorite places without any worries.
4. Speak different languages regularly (language-time).
In bilingual families in Canada, another way is to speak different languages regularly.
For example, parents and children agree that after getting up every morning and before going to bed, parents and children communicate in French. It can also be that parents speak one language when playing games with their children and use another language when doing manual work.
5. Mix (mix)
In Canada, there are also many bilingual families without a specific model. Every member of the family communicates anytime and anywhere in his favorite language.
Canada adopts immersion language teaching.
French immersion originated from the Canadian bilingual education experiment, and also translated as "immersion French education", "immersion French education, immersion French education" and so on.
Immersive French teaching method refers to letting students "immerse" in the French environment. Teachers not only teach French itself, but also teach subject courses in French, so French is not only a learning tool, but also a learning content. Every province in Canada has a different education system, so immersion French education also varies according to different provinces.
Immersive French education can be divided into early French immersion and late French immersion. The prophase means 1 or the third grade of primary school, and the anaphase means the third or fifth grade of primary school. .
Research shows that, generally speaking, most students who choose early immersion French education come from families that attach importance to education, and their grades are better than those of students in ordinary English classes. Most students in the early immersion French class have at least one parent who knows French.
At first, my husband and I were a little worried, because my son had never heard of French, and neither my husband nor I knew French. If our son has problems with his studies, we can't help him at all, fearing that he can't keep up with his studies. But all my son's friends chose the early immersion French class, so we also chose the early immersion French class for our son. There were three classes in Grade One, one of which was an immersion French class with 28 students, which was a class with a large number of students in Canada. All courses are taught in French, except for PE and music teachers, who have full-time teachers and teach in English.
The main courses in the first semester are French, letters, numbers and so on. There is basically no homework. In the second semester, I began to learn simple mathematics, art, science and so on. Every day, I go home and read a children's book These books are divided into A-M grades, and each grade has 50 books, from simple to complex. I didn't read it all until the second grade. With daily French reading, my son's French vocabulary has increased rapidly. When he entered the third grade, he could read 40-50 pages of simple French books independently every day. My son also said that he can fully understand French cartoons. Since the second grade, English students have been added to the 30-minute course every day, but the rest of the courses are entirely French. Judging from my son's five-year experience in learning French, the early immersion French education in Canada was very effective.