English from scratch: When to start?
All modern parents understand the need to learn a foreign language, and they choose English most often. But the main question is: "When should children start learning English?”
TRY FOR FREEAll modern parents understand the need to learn a foreign language, and they choose English most often. But the main question is: "When should children start learning English?”
TRY FOR FREESome believe that it is better to start at school age, but others are ready to start learning English almost immediately after birth. Let us look at the pros and cons of these approaches.
An early passion for English will not always have a positive effect and long-lasting results.
When one of the parents speaks only English or when a child lives both in their native country and, for example, in America. Bilingual children mix both languages for a long time and have some speaking difficulties if they go to their native-speaking kindergarten. This issue is because the brain learns two language systems simultaneously and very quickly, but the passive vocabulary cannot turn into an active one so fast, so a child will use a word of the language that they can remember faster.
The "pros" of early learning is that children immediately demonstrate their skills. Children who learn English from scratch at a very early age speak it as a mix of English and their native language’s words. They automatically use the first word that comes to their mind in the conversation. They count, name colours, command, play, sing songs, quote characters of animated films in English. But note that the leading language for a child will be the language which they speak most often. If the second language is not constantly used, the child will quickly forget it.
The best age to learn English from scratch is 4-5 years old. Children already speak their native language fluently, and their memory still remembers how they mastered that language. The new language will be easy to learn, and a child will not experience any trouble.
Learning English "for general development" will develop memory, attention, imagination and abstract thinking. It will also form the second language system, which, provided the involvement of conscious mechanisms for learning and memorising, the language will not be perceived as strange and foreign.
And the teachers of Novakid Online English School will take care of making exciting and helpful lessons for your child, who is just starting to learn English from scratch. Our video lessons will not leave your child indifferent, and learning English through complete immersion in the language environment will become an exciting process!
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