Methods of teaching a foreign language at pre-school and primary school
FLT in Pre-school education
Language Learning Is a Natural Process When Children Are Young
Preschool Years Are Vital Years
The Brain's Developmental Stages (Dryden & Voss, 1997)
The First Month - As a baby's senses react to his or her environment, he or she develops new synaptic connections at the phenomenal rate of up to three billion a second (Kotulak, 1996). Everything that a baby experiences is absorbed by the brain and stored in its memory cells.
The First Six Months - Babies will babble using the sounds in all of the languages in the world. A child, however, will learn to talk using only the sounds and words he or she picks up from his or her environment. A child will discard the ability to speak in languages he or she does not hear.
Eight Months - A baby's brain has about 1,000 trillion connections. After that, the number of connections begins to decline-unless the child is exposed to stimulation through all his or her senses.
Around Age 10 - About half the connections have died off in the average child. Five hundred trillion will last throughout an individual's lifetime.
Up to Age 12 - The brain is now a super-sponge. It is during this period that the foundations for thinking, language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid down. After this stage of development, the windows close; the fundamental architecture of the brain is complete (Kotulak, 1996). Therefore, it is easier to learn a foreign language in these vital years.
Ways of reception and assimilation of information from children
visual
auditory
kinesthetic
The benefits of learning a foreign language at an early age
Everyone knows that the establishment of the personality of student
the identification and development of his abilities
the formation of learning skills and mastery of the elements of culture and behavior
The language in this case is seen as a means of education and the development of student's personality, his initiation to the European and their own culture, national etiquette.
The success of mastering a foreign language
directly related to the child's development in Russian, from the sound of its culture