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pol⋅y⋅glot
–adjective
able to speak or write several languages; multilingual.
–noun
a person who speaks, writes, or reads a number of languages.

(Courtesy of www.dictionary.com)

How to raise a polyglot?  Just like an adult learner, every child, every family is different.  Does the child want to learn a language?  How old is the child (earlier is easier)?  Does anyone in the home speak another language (at any level)?  Do you have community resources?  Financial resources?   Time?

Some things are true no matter what the circumstances.  Instruction needs to be regular.  It doesn’t have to be long, but it does have to be steady – say, 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.  Of course, the more the better, but if it’s more then it needs to be FUN.  There are all sorts of games and books available (as I said, earlier is easier), and there are things you can do, like renting foreign movies, going into ethnic stores, taking trips and so forth that help keep the fun level up.

For those lucky enough to have at least one parent who speaks a foreign language, here’s an interesting strategy.  One parent speaks to the child only in the native language and the other speaks to the child only  in the chosen language.  American mommy speaks English, French daddy speaks French.  I’ve never actually seen this put into use, but it sounds like a good theory.  I guess it would work better for infants and toddlers than for teenagers.  And how much of the time is spent in the “new” language might be debatable (only in French?).  But still, an interesting theory.

If your child is older and you’re already struggling with him/her to lower the amount of time he/she spends watching television or playing computer games, how about making this trade? “For every half hour you spend watching a movie, program or computer program in a foreign language, you can watch that much regular tv, computer, whatever (up to a certain amount).”  Sound fair?  It does to me.

There are several thought provoking articles and websites on the subject of teaching a child a foreign language.  If you’ll click on “Learn Spanish” in the navigation bar above, you’ll find yourself on this websites’ learning page.  Scroll down until you find “Kid’s Spanish” in the center left column.  The links from “Teach Your Child a Foreign Language” and below are all about this very subject.  Good reading.

Tags:   immersion · Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · Polyglot · speak Spanish · teaching a child a languageNo Comments