Insight into teaching preschool-aged children a second language

Extending on my previous post about teaching preschool-aged children a second language, I wanted to share some insight into my personal experiences of teaching a second language.

At the preschool I work at, we run two language programs, Spanish and Japanese. The later is more effective than the Spanish program, which I will shed some light on. The Spanish program is run by someone that comes into the centre once a week and teaches the pre-schoolers Spanish through a play-based program that utilises dance, movement, song and games. The pre-schoolers love this program, yet because it is only once a week and not integrated into the program on a daily basis, they do not get as much out of it. On the other hand, the Japanese program is run by one of the staff members. He follows a similar play-based approach in his focussed lessons, utilising dance, song, movement and games. Although, he has the knowledge and ability to provide an interest-based program and integrate it into the program on a daily basis. We integrate it into our art program by painting Japanese symbols and things from Japanese culture, we often count in Japanese rather than English and play a range of games throughout the day in Japanese (for example, listening games). We have found that the pre-schoolers often integrate their Japanese knowledge into their spontaneous play experiences. They often request to be taught how to write things in Japanese and love teaching the other educators how to say things in Japanese! It has been a fabulous vechile and given them the power to be the teachers, which has been very empowering, building their confidence, capability, self-belief and self-efficacy. Another feature of the Japanese program is the ELLA program and app.

ELLA is a series of interactive applications (apps) aimed at making language learning engaging and interesting to children in preschool.The ELLA program includes a suite of materials, including apps for educators and families, resource material and educator support networks, developed through the ELLA trial to support the effective delivery of early language learning in preschool services. The apps have been custom developed for language learning on mobile tablet devices and provide children the opportunity to develop recognition of the different sounds and concepts of another language through play-based learning. Children are introduced to words, sentences and songs in the language and through age appropriate experiences and practices in the language. ELLA has been designed to consider the needs, interests and capabilities of children in preschool. The program provides opportunities for children to learn through interaction with a rich variety of experiences and encourages collaboration between peers and with educators as co-learners.

Extending beyond what I stated in my previous post, research shows that learning languages develops children's overall literacy, strengthening literacy-related capabilities that are transferable across learning areas. It also provides children with a head start towards language study at school.

Adapted from:

Australian Government, Department of Education and Training. (2017). Early Learning Languages Australia. Retrieved from https://www.education.gov.au/early-learning-languages-australia

#preschool #education #secondlanguage