Learning to speak and write form part of the growing up process of a child from birth. The development of language is more intensive up to five years of age, but it continues throughout adolescence and effectively never ends.
In the early years of life, the stimulation of language is very important for brain development and the acquisition of communication and socialisation skills – also achieved through reading or learning different languages.
This period of children going back to school is the perfect time to reflect on the theme of children and language: what is the role of translation in this learning and what is the importance of learning several languages from an early age? More.
See: TraductaNet
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United States
Local time: 00:00
Russian to English
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there are advantages of bilingualism, especially if it is something natural, or something the child shows a deep interest I, in learning another language, but there are also dangers of early childhood bilingualism. it may be recommended to read some studies on bilingualism and child development before trying to teach a two year old three different languages, especially those that no one speaks at home.
[Edited at 2016-11-28 12:03 GMT]
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:00
Member (2008)
Italian to English
there are advantages of bilingualism, especially if it is something natural, or something the child shows a deep interest I, in learning another language, but there are also dangers of early childhood bilingualism. it may be recommended to read some studies on bilingualism and child development before trying to tech a two year old three different languages, especially those that no on speaks at home.
Try to stop them!
Local time: 23:00
German to English
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What role does translation have in children learning a second language. I would wager that by and large it doesn't. ▲ Collapse
Spain
Member (2014)
English to Spanish
+ ...
there are advantages of bilingualism, especially if it is something natural, or something the child shows a deep interest I, in learning another language, but there are also dangers of early childhood bilingualism. it may be recommended to read some studies on bilingualism and child development before trying to tech a two year old three different languages, especially those that no on speaks at home.
My kid goes to a bilingual school (French-English). None of us speak either French or English at home (we speak Spanish). He's perfectly comfortable with all three languages (Spanish, English and French). I am yet to see any danger in this.
Local time: 07:00
Romanian to English
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Try to stop them!
Exactly. How can you stop them from picking up words?
I have yet to see a child damaged by bilingualism in the long term (there are exceptions, of course). Even though initially they confuse the words and even structures, later on, if they continue to hear both languages used correctly, they will speak them correctly.
We live in a bilingual environment and there's no way I can stop my kids from picking up words and trying to express themselves in the secondary language. Interestingly, in some cases my 5yr old daughter uses the structure of an expression in her native language and replaces the words with those she knows in the foreign language. So she really does translate instinctively.
Living in a bilingual town, I can confirm that kids who grow up learning multiple languages simultaneously acquire better writing skills. Every single bilingual person I know here who grew up learning a second language from early childhood - and there are many of them - has better linguistic skills than their peers from the ethnic majority who only learned a foreign language later in school or as adults. I noticed that the latter ones, even though they now speak a foreign language, almost always misspell names and words of foreign origin.
Netherlands
Local time: 06:00
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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The article's title is a little off, though. The purpose of the article is to promote the idea that children's books written in Western languages should be translated, for only then can children who speak other languages truly benefit.
United States
Local time: 00:00
Russian to English
+ ...
I am not sure if multilingual people have better writing skills--some may, others may not. Were all the most p... See more
I am not sure if multilingual people have better writing skills--some may, others may not. Were all the most prolific writers multilingual--I doubt it. As to spelling and bilingualism, well spelling has not that much to do with early childhood language acquisition. These are all myths, basically.
As to translation, meaning that done for yourself--there may be something mysterious about it. The other day I listened to some lecture about American writers conducted in Russian, a very interesting lecture transmitted via TV. Later on, I caught myself thinking about it but I thought exclusively in English, even the quotes quoted in Russian were strangely enough in English, in my thoughts--perhaps the way I remembered them or they got translated somehow, automatically, sort of.
Do all children pick up words from other languages, other then their main languages, or just those with some extra interest in languages, like not all the children would dance whenever they hear music or try singing. Is it the words from any language heard that they try to imitate, or just those they naturally like. Just something to think about.
In the old times, even still like thirty, forty years ago. If you wanted to read a book or books written by a particular author, you learned the language. A wonderful motivation to learn languages. No need to translate everything. Some things may be non-translatable.
[Edited at 2016-11-28 12:39 GMT] ▲ Collapse
United Kingdom
Local time: 05:00
English to German
I do try to read works from German authors to my children, however, a good number of books are translated, so what?
There is no mention of negative effects of bilingualism in the article, and according to what I have read over the years, all recent research rejects any negative effects, of which parents in cultures with a monolingual tradition have been warned of in the past.
I... See more
I do try to read works from German authors to my children, however, a good number of books are translated, so what?
There is no mention of negative effects of bilingualism in the article, and according to what I have read over the years, all recent research rejects any negative effects, of which parents in cultures with a monolingual tradition have been warned of in the past.
I was not aware that children are born monolingual - mine were born without a language, I thought...
United States
Local time: 00:00
Russian to English
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in a particular article does not mean that they cannot be discussed in a forum, or in a thread related to early childhood language acquisition.
Whether children are born without language--well perhaps without a particular language. They are born with language capabilities, or perhaps more.
[Edited at 2016-11-28 12:47 GMT]
Norway
Local time: 06:00
Member (2002)
English to Norwegian
+ ...
but there are also dangers of early childhood bilingualism.
[Edited at 2016-11-28 12:03 GMT]
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