Ever wondered how you can effectively teach your bilingual-aspiring child a second language without earning a degree in education or linguistics? Well, you might want to start by turning on the television.
Studies show that young children have brains that are especially suited to distinguishing between sounds—especially the auditory nuances involved in human speech—making childhood the optimal time for language learning. And with the ubiquity of technology, many children are becoming exposed to their first bits of spoken-word-stimuli through digital media. Though an excess of screen time is not recommended for children under the age of 6, a healthy dose of entertainment in another language may allow some to acquire foreign vocabulary faster.
Television and film, in particular, pose dynamic opportunities for second-language development. For one thing, both mediums are designed to hold the attention of their viewers, making them more engaging and fun to watch. Characters and storylines turn learning into less of a tedious task, and more of a recreational respite that your children will learn to love. Plus, they naturally trigger multiple senses—both seeing and hearing—which makes for an overall easier and thorough learning experience. The visual aspects of entertainment media could help your child associate specific words with certain images, which is a classic technique that results in greater comprehension of the desired material. Even placing subtitles in another language over English speech can “increase reading speed and listening comprehension”.
After realizing that bilingual entertainment can be an effective learning tool, you might ask—what shows in particular can I play for my child? Many of us may remember the educational bilingual programming that we consumed as children: memorable titles such as Dora The Explorer, Go Diego Go, and Ni Hao Kai-Lan are quick to come to mind. These alternate between English and the target language—Spanish and Chinese—attempting to interact with children by providing pauses for them to answer second-language speech prompts. But while shows like these certainly offer valuable education-and-entertainment hybrids, it may seem like there are a limited number of programs that are specifically tailored for bilingual children’s education today. As a solution, you might just play your child’s favorite English programs in other languages, or introduce them to ones in different mother-tongues all together.
Personally, I owe a lot of my Tagalog proficiency to the Filipino teleseryes my family would watch in the background while I was a child. Many bilinguals have similar experiences; the Israeli Nistel sisters learned Spanish by watching an Argentine telenovela, and some Latin American baseball players learned English by binging Friends with Spanish subtitles. As you can see, bilingual programs are no longer limited to those specifically made for educational purposes: the second-language entertainment possibilities have become endless.
So, try putting on Moana in Spanish, Frozen in French, Toy Story in Russian, or any combination of the two. Look for popular and appropriate American shows dubbed or subtitled in your child’s target language. Allow these programs to add to the ambiance of your home, and your child might just pick up a couple foreign words and phrases in the process. By deliberately selecting what you play for your bilingual-aspiring children to watch, technology and digital media can easily be wielded to their educational advantage.
It is important to remember, however, that while this effortless entertainment method may enhance your child’s linguistic education, it should not function as their sole source of exposure to the target language. The Linguistic Society of America phrases it best: “a child who regularly hears language on the TV or radio but nowhere else will not learn to talk. Children acquire language through interaction—not only with their parents and other adults, but also with other children.” It’s advantageous to play some multilingual movies in the background, but be sure to try and converse with your child in a second language, and allow them to interact with other children and adults who speak it, too.
Nothing beats interpersonal interaction, and if you don’t speak the target language yourself, or can’t think of anyone else who does, well—we have classes for that.
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