We’ve had such a lot of fun learning Spanish in JK this half term. I am lucky enough to spend two mornings a week with the wonderful children of JK and their fabulous teacher Ms Myrna, speaking and playing in Spanish. We use Spanish for lots of our everyday routines including circle time, playtime and craft activities. We count how many children are in the class in Spanish (as you can see from the video when you click on ‘read more’ below), we talk about colours and shapes when we’re playing our games and getting into our groups. We even know how to tidy up, have a water break and put on our shoes in Spanish!
During Halloween week we learned all about how pumpkins grow, what they look like inside, and how to make a Jack O’Lantern. To complement all this learning we sang a song in Spanish all about Cinco Calabazas (five pumpkins) to practise our numbers, shapes and colours. Here is a link to the song so you can sing it at home! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maAbEpomWz8
I have been amazed at how naturally and easily the children have been able to understand and use everyday Spanish words. They have fun practising and using the different sounding words. Our learning of colours, numbers and shapes helps to reinforce the children’s familiarity and recognition of the things they use in their learning every day.
In their book “Welcome to Your Child’s Brain”, Sandra Aamodt and Sam Wang, both experts in Neuroscience, say that children are “born linguists”. From their research into young language learners, these scientists have proved that the younger you are, the easier it is to learn a language, because young children are experts in acquiring language. Once you are familiar with a language, the parts of your brain that you need to learn a language become much less “plastic”. Their research also reveals that the challenges involved in learning languages “improve cognitive control…[and] flexibility” as it helps children cope with the task of learning and using language, as well as communicating in general, and can even help them with nonverbal tasks. So learning a second language can actually improve a child’s general cognitive development. And these are not the only benefits. Learning a second language “increases empathy” in children because they develop a greater “ability to understand what others are thinking [and to] take the perspective of other people”.
And we thought we were just having fun!