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Teach kids pronunciation of languages

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
14 messages over 2 pages: 1
embici
Triglot
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CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, French
Studies: Greek

 
 Message 9 of 14
28 August 2012 at 3:38pm | IP Logged 
I think it's a good thing. I was exposed to a bit of Spanish and French as a young child,
not a lot, but I was taught to count to 10 and some basics like that. When I tackled
those two languages in my late teens and early twenties, I was often complemented for my
accent and have been mistaken for a native speaker in both languages (despite my limited
grammar and vocabulary). Is it because I was exposed to the sounds and made to pronounce
them when I was under 5? I can't say for sure, but perhaps.
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atama warui
Triglot
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Japan
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 Message 10 of 14
28 August 2012 at 7:00pm | IP Logged 
Heh. Sounds a bit fishy, Moulder.

I think learning something you don't want/need to learn is not productive. That's an even bigger contributor to the fact that school language education is lacking good results than the fact that schools are doing it wrong.
Since both is true to some degree, well. In the end, it doesn't really matter.

If a kid is interested in a language or one can make it interested, well that's a great thing, and I think Solfrid does it right. It's definitely something the family should do, not schools, teachers. Teachers are enemies (from the POV of most kids).
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Serpent
Octoglot
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Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
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 Message 11 of 14
28 August 2012 at 7:43pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
My children went to a French school in Belgium and learned a good deal of French when they were 2 and 5. They have since forgotten all but a few words, since that is 10 years ago, but their accent is still really good, whenever they say something in French. In fact it is better than the accent of any of their class mates, who have now done French for three years (mine have not). In that 10 year period, their only exposure to French has been me singing for them, and a few spoken words in the morning now and then (they get to sleep for 5 minutes extra if they tell me that they are tired in French).
That last bit is especially lovely <333

As for having a good accent, I'm sure that a huge factor is not having been exposed to bad French.

I don't think anyone minds teaching kids informally, in a fun way and if they're already curious. However doing the same thing at school is far more complicated:/
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Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5012 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 12 of 14
29 August 2012 at 12:57pm | IP Logged 
ZombieKing wrote:
I don't think so either, because unless they are exposed to the
language a lot (or have sharp ears), they will get frustrated before they learn the new
sounds and give up.


Children, unless we speak of stupid children which is just a small % (smaller than the
% of stupid adults in my opinion) are in general less easily frustrated (from this kind
of things), less focused on results and more open to just discovering and trying
something they don't have to. And they learn pronunciation easier. I believe the
pronunciation is actually the only reason why language courses for children/exposure in
tv/teaching a suject in foreign language early/etc is a good thing, the rest of the
content can be easily forgotten, no big harm done.

I was exposed to English for the first time at the age of four, I remember quite
nothing from the courses but I had never had serious trouble with pronunciation, unlike
many Czech people. My first exposure to French came at nine and I learnt quite a lot of
other things as well but the pronunciation as the most important (the rest could have
been acquired later in one third of the time, there wasn't so much of it).

So, if you know your child is one of the easily frustrated and not the one eager to
know how to say hello in Spanish or how to sing the song in French, don't expose them
to unpleasant experience and hope they will learn later (after all they will have to).
But if your child is a usually or above average clever child, don't keep them from the
opportunity intentionally. Even listening to the language (for exemple on a holiday)
can make a difference, I can see it clearly on my small siblings now and on myself as
well as the results are long-term.
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tastyonions
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
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1044 posts - 1823 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 13 of 14
29 August 2012 at 1:54pm | IP Logged 
I took one short (maybe six weeks?) Spanish course when I was six or seven and heard Spanish incidentally pretty often throughout my childhood. As a result the sounds of Spanish have always felt completely natural to me, and most of the differences from their not-quite-the-same English counterparts have seemed obvious to me. Wish I had that experience for some other languages, too!
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petteri
Triglot
Senior Member
Finland
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117 posts - 208 votes 
Speaks: Finnish*, English, Swedish
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 14 of 14
29 August 2012 at 4:50pm | IP Logged 
Make it fun. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbX0JT98ms


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