Thread: Learning a second language

Absolutely!! Children are so much more capable of learning languages that seems to disappear with age. My spanish teacher in school married a man from Lebanon and one parent spoke only Arabic while the other parent spoke mainly spanish and english and now both of their children speak all three languages. I think that it is a wonderful capability and I am completely envious of people who can speak different languages. I wish I had been taught as a child. Although, I cannot comment on their english abilities in school and how it is effected....

My parents both speak Russian fluently, however they decided to speak only English when I was a child. Therefore I didn't learn Russian as a child and I always wish that I had! It is a great advantage knowing more than one language (especially to teaching!)

Should students be taught a second or foreign language at the same time they are learning their native language?

Of course ! Everything points to this -.
There are some evidence of this : you learn to speak some months later than if you only should learn one language - but all research shows that a bilingual child has a higher score on most tests later on. Socially - they adapt faster -
Check out any university you want - and you'll find lots of facts here.

personally - being born in Italy ,(I still speak some Italian) and later on moving to Norway - and teaching English ,Latin and German - - of the four languages - English is what I master the best - Latin- can not be spoken at all- since its a "dead" languague
My son who is 12 - and a pretty average kid - speaks English and Norwegian - and can communicate on Swahili . (They've got a boy from Niger in their class.)
France and Germany are the loosers in this race. Their protectionism makes sure that their children at the age of 18 - knows about as much as a Swede or a Norwegian at 10 .
Imagine that.