The LINGUIST List is dedicated to providing information on language and language analysis, and to providing the discipline of linguistics with the infrastructure necessary to function in the digital world. LINGUIST is a free resource, run by linguistics students and faculty, and supported primarily by your donations. Please support LINGUIST List during the 2016 Fund Drive.
Ask-A-Linguist Message Details
|Subject:||linguistics in a multinational school|
|Question:||I'm concerned with language acquisition for grades k-1. Is it better for the students to learn English in small groups or one on one. The research says either, but there are some who have no English and they speak their mother tongue at home. I guess I'm questioning the development phase - when CAN they learn to distinguish the words in contextual context? Please advise.|
|Reply:||I don't think the research suggests that children of this age should learn one on one. As others have said, children under the age of about 10 years learn best if they are in a social setting where they use English to interact with other children. They can also be supported (if possible) by bilingual teachers in the classroom. As long as there are enough speakers of English around, and the children are happy at school, children aged below 7 years should learn with little or no direct teaching. Anthea|
|Reply From:||Anthea Fraser Gupta click here to access email|