For years it has been thought that teaching a foreign language to preschool-age children would be useless. However, teacher training institute indicates that the best time for a child to learn another language is in the first three to four years of life.
When Children Are Young, Language Learning Is Natural Process kids growing up in a well-rounded environment learns to speak at least 2,000 basic words by the time they are three to four years old. Simply watching how babies learn to talk proves that they are natural learners. During the first six months of life, babies jabber using 70 sounds that make up all the languages in the world. They will then learn to talk using only the sounds and words they pick up from their surroundings, most significantly from their parents and caregivers. A baby's brain will then remove the ability to speak in languages he or she does not hear.
Preschool Years Are Vital Years"During this period and particularly the first three years of life, the basics for thinking, language, vision, attitudes, aptitudes, and other characteristics are laid down," says early childhood care and education. As a result, it would be a waste not to use a child's natural skill to learn during his or her most vital years, when learning a second language is as easy as learning the first. Since 50 percent of the capability to learn is developed in the first years of life and another 30 percent by age eight, early childhood care development programs have the opportunity to support early learning and development. This does not mean, however, that 50 to 80 percent of one's intellect, wisdom, or knowledge is formed during early childhood.
It simply means that during the first few years of life, children form their main learning pathways in the brain. There are six main pathways to the brain. They consist of learning by sight, sound, taste, tou ch, smell, and doing. Later in life, everything a person learns will grow from the information gained during these early years.
Young Migrant Children Are the Modelsunfortunately, most American schools teach foreign languages when students are in high school. According to nursery teacher training foreign language teaching should begin when kids are in preschool--when teachers can make the most of a child's willingness and ability to learn. By the time a student reaches high school, the best possible learning period is lost.
The success of foreign language training during the preschool years can be found by visiting emigrant nursery schools in Sweden. In these schools you will find three-year-olds speaking three different languages smoothly. In fact, Sweden has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Many people speak different languages, particularly at migrant camps where they learn languages rapidly. So how is that possible? They use sensory stimulation and play combined with language learning.
How Can You Teach a Second or Third Language to Young Children?Infants can learn by listening, seeing, imitating, and practicing. So talk to them from the start. Tell them what you are doing. Introduce them to rhymes, songs, games, and counting in a second or third language. If you can't speak another language yourself, get plenty of tapes. Think about boarding a foreign student. Most significantly, make learning fun.
Here are tips for teaching the children in your care a second language.
1. Learn by doing. Play grocery store, make a snack, or take a walk. While you are communicating with the kids during these activities, speak a second or third language.
2. Emphasize with pictures and sounds. Say the sounds of the language that go with a picture in a playful way. For example, "A is for apple".
3. Learning should be fun. The more fun it is to learn a language, the more an infant will want to stay with it. Learning while playing is the best way to learn because it creates emotional attachments, and emotion is the door to learning.
4. Learn with music and rhythm. Music is one way to use the whole brain. Do you still memorize the songs you learned in early childhood? Most people do because lyrics combined with music are easier to learn.
5. Learn by talking to each other. Having students practice a language by talking to each other over a meal.
6. Link numbers and words in a playful way. Th e more you link, the more you learn. Anything can be associated when learning a second language, including numbers and new words.
7. Learn by touching. Do little finger rhymes in a second language. While you sing or say "Itsy, bitsy spider" have the fingers of each hand touch another finger, as if the spider is climbing.
8. Learn by tasting (Dryden & Rose, 1995).Have youngsters celebrate language learning by eating foods and saying the food name in the new language.
9. Learn by smelling. Play smelling games. Hide objects in a sack, and have the children guess what is inside. Persuade them to say the new word in the language they are learning.
10. Use the whole world as your classroom. Turn every outing into a learning experience. You can learn new words while counting oranges; comparing leaves; classifying different birds, food, or anything that interests the children.
ConclusionTo learn anything fast and effectively, you have to see it, hear it, and feel it .Children can learn almost anything if they are dancing, tasting, touching, seeing, and feeling information.
Sabtu, 10 Maret 2012
Jumat, 09 Maret 2012
Developing the Whole Child: Celebrating the Spirit of Each Child - Education - Online Education
Spirituality DefinedThe meaning of spirit or spiritual development, as advocated in this article, differs from the religious definitions. It also differs from principles and ethical development. It does, however, relate to philosophical thinking, particularly as such thinking focuses on eventual questions about life.
Spirituality in EducationSpirituality, when used in the perspective of education, is sometimes presented in two mutually compatible ways: 1) as a worldview that includes a belief in the reality of the holy or transcendent and 2) as a part of human development that endeavor for self-realization, including "the realization of the sacred as our essential nature".
Spiritual Development SuppressedUnluckily, our society, including the culture of our schools, does little to promote the spiritual dimension of our humanness. Some, in fact, have concluded, "Our culture is systematically depriving the human soul". The result is that many children remain constantly undernourished in their spiritual development.
1. Adults tend to think about human development in terms of phases or stages. This view suggests that developmental growth involves the movement "up from" earlier stages of childhood and babyhood. With this model, children are not viewed as having strength or capability on their own, other than as precursor to more mature forms. Their capability to experience the spiritual dimensions of the world and themselves is considered to be something that they will possibly grow into versus already having in place. This view of progress is deeply well-established, and has nearly conquered modern educational and psychological research
2. Spirituality is often equated with the "higher" mental functions such as language and abstract thought. Because young children tend to have poorly developed higher-order linguistic and cognitive skills, it is understood that they cannot experience a spiritual life until these higher functions develop, generally in later childhood and adolescence. This view strongly suggests that spirituality is primarily about thinking - a suggestion that teacher training Mumbai finds of special concern.
3. Spirituality is often equated with religion. The individual may take days, months, years, even an entire lifetime to develop appropriate language and concepts that will enable him to begin to move toward and understand the experience". The pairing of spirituality with the skill to talk about religious concepts, then, fails to identify the true nature of spirituality. This is true whether we're talking about children or adults.
4. Many adults have repressed their own childhood spirituality, and thus find it difficult to recognize it in young children. If we agree that there is a spiritual dimension to our humanness, then educational programs which fail to address this aspect of human development cannot serve the holistic needs of the young child. The idea of bringing a spiritual dimension to early childhood education, however, can be intimidating. We find that, even as adults, we are on a continuous search for the meaning of spirituality in our own lives and are afraid that we will be inadequate in nurturing such development in children. Bringing a spiritual dimension to the classroom, however, doesn't require an "absolute truth" in hand.
Fostering Spiritual Development in the ClassroomCreating beauty in the classroom also promotes spiritual development. While children's artwork is one of the most beautiful ways to improve the aesthetic environment of the classroom, other sources of beauty should be considered as well. These might comprise fresh flower arrangements and carefully chosen artwork. Beauty can also be introduced through music, sunlight, potted plants, and creatively crafted banners.
ConclusionWhile spirituality and education are hardly ever linked in discussions about the role of schools in our society, the failure to include the spiritual development of children as an educational goal does a great disservice to our children.
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Spirituality in EducationSpirituality, when used in the perspective of education, is sometimes presented in two mutually compatible ways: 1) as a worldview that includes a belief in the reality of the holy or transcendent and 2) as a part of human development that endeavor for self-realization, including "the realization of the sacred as our essential nature".
Spiritual Development SuppressedUnluckily, our society, including the culture of our schools, does little to promote the spiritual dimension of our humanness. Some, in fact, have concluded, "Our culture is systematically depriving the human soul". The result is that many children remain constantly undernourished in their spiritual development.
1. Adults tend to think about human development in terms of phases or stages. This view suggests that developmental growth involves the movement "up from" earlier stages of childhood and babyhood. With this model, children are not viewed as having strength or capability on their own, other than as precursor to more mature forms. Their capability to experience the spiritual dimensions of the world and themselves is considered to be something that they will possibly grow into versus already having in place. This view of progress is deeply well-established, and has nearly conquered modern educational and psychological research
2. Spirituality is often equated with the "higher" mental functions such as language and abstract thought. Because young children tend to have poorly developed higher-order linguistic and cognitive skills, it is understood that they cannot experience a spiritual life until these higher functions develop, generally in later childhood and adolescence. This view strongly suggests that spirituality is primarily about thinking - a suggestion that teacher training Mumbai finds of special concern.
3. Spirituality is often equated with religion. The individual may take days, months, years, even an entire lifetime to develop appropriate language and concepts that will enable him to begin to move toward and understand the experience". The pairing of spirituality with the skill to talk about religious concepts, then, fails to identify the true nature of spirituality. This is true whether we're talking about children or adults.
4. Many adults have repressed their own childhood spirituality, and thus find it difficult to recognize it in young children. If we agree that there is a spiritual dimension to our humanness, then educational programs which fail to address this aspect of human development cannot serve the holistic needs of the young child. The idea of bringing a spiritual dimension to early childhood education, however, can be intimidating. We find that, even as adults, we are on a continuous search for the meaning of spirituality in our own lives and are afraid that we will be inadequate in nurturing such development in children. Bringing a spiritual dimension to the classroom, however, doesn't require an "absolute truth" in hand.
Fostering Spiritual Development in the ClassroomCreating beauty in the classroom also promotes spiritual development. While children's artwork is one of the most beautiful ways to improve the aesthetic environment of the classroom, other sources of beauty should be considered as well. These might comprise fresh flower arrangements and carefully chosen artwork. Beauty can also be introduced through music, sunlight, potted plants, and creatively crafted banners.
ConclusionWhile spirituality and education are hardly ever linked in discussions about the role of schools in our society, the failure to include the spiritual development of children as an educational goal does a great disservice to our children.
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