Studies show that children who are bilingual or multilingual perform better in other academic areas and adjust to new situations more easily later in life. These children statistically earn higher scores in SATs (both math and verbal), show significant gains in IQ performance, and exhibit advanced mental flexibility and superiority in concept formation compared to their monolingual counterparts. Children experience enhanced cognitive development as well as sociocultural benefits.
Research proves that children have a greater advantage over others if they learn a foreign language at the same time they are learning their primary language – the second language will be simultaneously stored neatly and subconsciously in the same area of the brain. Children are not confused by learning additional languages, despite the propensity for this in adults – their brains create separate and unique neural pathways for each language. With frequent, repetitive exposure any child will be able to speak with familiarity and no accent.
Why no accent with Discovery Foreign Language Instructions? A learning window begins to close at 6 years of age, and by the time a child reaches his twelfth year he may no longer be able to speak without an accent. A famous example of this phenomenon is the case of Henry Kissinger. When he arrived in the United States as a boy, Henry was 12 years old and his younger brother was 10. Henry has retained a strong accent whereas his brother has none at all. Starting a linguistic program early is the key – Discovery Foreign Language Instructions !
October 21, 2011
