More to Know: Linguistic Geniuses Young children are very good at learning more than one language—and not only can they learn multiple languages, they can learn when to speak and write each language and to whom. The earlier they learn the second or third or fourth language, the more likely they are to achieve native-like proficiency. Still, the National Association for the Education of Young Children suggests that reading and writing instruction is best implemented, whenever possible, in a student’s home language: For children whose primary language is other than English, studies have shown that a strong basis in a first language promotes school achievement in a second language (Cummins, 1979). Children who are learning English as a second language are more likely to become readers and writers of English when they are already familiar with the vocabulary and concepts in their primary language. In this respect, oral and written language experiences should be regarded as an additive process, ensuring that children are able to maintain their home language while also learning to speak and read English (Wong Fillmore, 1991). Including non-English materials and resources to the extent possible can help to support children’s first language while children acquire oral proficiency in English. Spend time with a child who is learning to speak and in no time you’ll hear language that surprises and delights with its unique inventiveness, as children invent their way into conventional language. Children do, indeed, say the darnedest things, but what they say is always systematic and rule-governed, and it reflects their brilliant hypotheses about “how language works”—and how they can use it to accomplish what they’re trying to do, whether they are learning one language or several. A sound foundation in the first language—spoken and written—creates the best conditions for the acquisition of a second language. Research demonstrates the importance of literacy in the first language for students’ full development of proficiency in the language of instruction, subsequent academic success, and high levels of self-confidence. What’s more, academic and linguistic skills transfer to the second language, even when the target language has a dissimilar writing system from the first language (Cummins, 1991; Goldenberg, 2011). For example, children who learned to read and write in Spanish in their Honduran home and school do not have to start from scratch to learn to read in English in their new American school.
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CHAPTER 5: TEACH 6 FAMILY LITERACY
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