时间：2022-06-15 12:50:55
【Abstract】Chinese parents pay a lot of attention to children’s English-learning nowadays. Some parents even believe English is much more important than mother tongue. Is it a rational phenomenon? This argumentation not only aims at analyzing the relationship between English and mother tongue, but also indicating that learning English has both its advantages and disadvantages, especially for small kids. Therefore, parents should adopt a positive attitude towards learning English. They should deal with the relationship between mother tongue and English correctly, which is critical to English-learning of their children in the future. They should not exclude the mother tongue or over-depend on the mother tongue as well. So, this argumentation explains the role of the mother tongue, the external environment and internal elements which have an impact on children, and the advantages and disadvantages of learning English at such an earlier age.
【Key words】relationship; advantages; disadvantages; impact
【中图分类号】G623.31 【文献标识码】B 【文章编号】1001-4128(2010)08-0149-04
0Introduction
China, as one of the world’s largest countries, has become a major industrial and commercial center. With its deepening economic reform and international communication, this country crowned as the financial, economic and trade hub of the world. In the process of integrating world economic and culture gradually, the society has emerged a great upsurge in learning English continuously which forms the trend of learning English at lower age, meanwhile, English graduates have attracted the whole society’s attention and become talents with great potential. So many parents worry that their children are lagging behind other children, even begin to plan how to learn English before formal education.
Then, more and more children begin to learn English at an earlier age, meanwhile, various kinds of English training centers, children’s foreign language schools, bilingual kindergartens have sprung up quickly in recent years, which forms increasingly intensified competition among children. Many Chinese parents believe the earlier their children start to learn English, the more effective result they may achieve. Some parents even neglect the importance of our mother tongue. Whether this phenomenon is right or not? The society argues endlessly. Therefore, this argumentation tries to analyze that are there any advantages or disadvantages for children who begin to learn English at such an earlier age. Besides, it argues that parents should deal with the relationship between Chinese and English correctly. On one hand, parents should not neglect the important influence of the mother tongue; on the other hand, they must adopt a kind of positive and rational attitude towards English learning.
The following paragraphs briefly introduce the main objective of this argumentation and it focuses on three aspects to analyze, prove and make a thorough conclusion.
1 The role of the mother tongue in child second language acquisition
More and more Chinese parents send their kids to various kinds of English training schools, but they still have some questions that “whether it is good for kids to learn English at an earlier age” or “whether it will affect the mother tongue acquisition” etc. In my point of view, parents should not be overhasty for learning English.
Chinese children grow up in the environment which mainly is about Chinese and communicate in Chinese mostly. Parents do not need to over-worry that their kids will forget Chinese when they begin to learn English. But experts suggest that teachers must emphasize the importance of Chinese culture and ancient Chinese while learning the mother tongue because this kind of knowledge includes the essence of Chinese culture. We don’t recommend decreasing the time in learning English, but do emphasize the education of the mother tongue. Generally speaking, the person who has a good knack of the mother tongue will have obvious advantages in learning English. For example, he or she is skilled in the application of metaphor in the respect of writing and the articles he or she writes will be more logical, orderly in structure and deep in thought.
Take me for example. I have learned English for more than 15 years from primary school to postgraduate studies. Looking back to these years, I find Chinese has played an increasingly important role in learning English. Now, translation has become a part of my job and I really feel that having a good knack of Chinese including vocabulary, grammar, writing skills etc. do will be helpful to English learning in the future especially to English-Chinese translation. Sometimes I find it is a little bit difficult for me to do English-Chinese translation because I’m puzzling as to which word is exact in Chinese that express the correct meaning of English. So the experience of translation makes me realize that mastering good Chinese is also very critical and necessary.
Therefore, cognitive and academic development in the first language has an extremely important and positive effect on second language. Generally speaking, all normal children, regardless of spoken language, develop their first oral language as a complex system from birth to the age of 5 (Collier, 1992). So when children grow up gradually, they will expand their vocabulary and their oral and written communication skills in the second language. They can increasingly demonstrate their knowledge base developed in the first language (Bialystok, 1991). In my point of view, parents should adopt a kind of rational attitude towards the relationship between the mother tongue and English. Don’t overemphasize the importance of English and neglect the positive role of Chinese in helping children’s future English learning.
2 Advantage and disadvantage for children’s learning English at lower age
“Do learners who begin learning as children in general reach higher levels of English ability than those who start as adolescents or adults” is questionable among parents and researchers. According to Professor Liu Jun, the formal chairman of the Association of TESOL, parents don’t need to haste because children who come from non-English Speaking countries learn English before 12 have the possibility to attain the level of children who come from English speaking countries in flexibility. Then, when is the best time for children to learn English? Professor Liu believes that every age has its own learning advantages and features, for instance, a two-year old kid has strong ability of imitation, but his intelligence is still in the process of growing. So we can’t use traditional standard such as vocabulary, sentence application to measure the learning result. Children in this period mainly focus on feeling the language environment which lay a solid foundation for future learning. He also suggests what parents should do is to provide a relax environment for 2~3-year-old children, choose attractive learning materials; for 4~6-year-old children, parents may focus on the cultivation of listening and speaking; for over 7-year-old children, parents tend to emphasize the whole language competence of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
Though research, Rod Ellis finds that learners who start as children achieve a more native-like accent than those who start as adolescents or adults (Ellis: 489). Children acquire the first language naturally at the age of 5. After 5 years, they will lose the opportunity to acquire L1 gradually. The most important factor of learning the second language is a real and effective language environment and the language must be the part of learner’s life.
J.S. Johnson and E. Newport indicated in a survey that if learners of non-English speaking countries begin learning English from 3~7 years old continuously, their English competency are expected to attain the level of learners of English-speaking countries; If learners begin learning English from 8~10 years old, it will cause certain difference; if learners begin learning English after 11 years old, it will cause obvious difference. That is to say, if a child lacks the most basic language training or certain exposure to the language environment before 8 years old, the child will have some difficulty in first and second language acquisition. On the contrary, if a child is given more opportunity to accept language training timely and correctly, it is possible for him or her to attain remarkable language achievements.
Besides, in the respect of affective motivational factors, child learners are more strongly motivated to communicate with native speakers and to integrate culturally. Also, child learners are less conscious and therefore suffer less from anxiety about communicating in a new language.
All these facts indicate children have the natural ability to acquire language. When children begin learning English, they can be input a large number of learning materials. If parents and teachers can create a good foreign language environment and give them more exposure to it, children will have the capability to acquire English easily, invisibly, and formatively.
Although children have obvious advantages of learning English at lower age, the impact of disadvantages haven’t been taken seriously by parents and teachers.
In my opinion, not all the children are appropriate for learning English at lower age relatively because different children have different characters, motivation, attitude, and ability. If a child is introvert and shows no interest in learning English, parents should not force him or her to learn it and give them a lot of stress, contrarily, What parents should do is to encourage them patiently according to their interests, characters, and ability and create a light learning environment for them. For example, children’s memorial ability is different in each growing period, especially reflecting second language acquisition. Compared with the elder children, the children who are at earlier age are much weaker. Therefore, their ability of memory and cognition is much lower than the children who are at elder age. On the other hand, if compared with the children who are at the same age, it is related to their learning ability and method. If the children master the good learning method, they could memory much information.
Second, the qualities of teachers need a lot of improvements, especially reflecting their teaching capacity. It has three aspects: first it reflects teachers’ English lever; second, each teacher has his or her own teaching methodology. To those good teachers, they have authentic pronunciation, meanwhile having vividly gestures to attract children’s attention. Thus, they can stimulate children’s interests so that children can learn English much better. Third, their patience with children who are learning English because they should adopt different method to different children. Some teachers of bilingual kindergartens can’t speak authentic English. As we all know, the development of children’s intelligence needs a long process and their organs of speech are immature. If teachers are not proficient in both Chinese and English, especially in the respect of pronunciation, it will be harmful to children’s future English learning though they have strong ability to imitate and accept new knowledge quickly. Therefore, teachers should attach great importance to the method-teaching children how to apply English into daily life naturally.
Third, children can’t control themselves very well. It is easier for them to show interests in one thing, but it is also easier for them to lose interests quickly. If they meet frustrations or difficulties, they are likely to give up. Besides, although children can immerse themselves into learning English actively, they tend to be influenced by the external environment and divert their attention easily. Moreover, because the development of a child’s thinking hasn’t become mature yet, child learners may not be good at mastering the pattern of language, may lack the awareness of independent learning, and over-depend on teachers.
3 Suggestions for child learners
Take all these advantages and disadvantages into consideration, this argumentation propose several useful suggestions for parents and teachers.
First, parents should create a flexible and pleasant environment for child learners. Remember, don’t force them to learn a new language, otherwise, it will cause harmful effect on children’s psychology. They will feel frustrated, stressful and lose interests quickly. Therefore, parents need to try their best to create a relax language environment, which make children have the initiative in learning new knowledge. Moreover, Parents must have highly responsibility. We often say that parents are the best language teacher for their children. So parents need enough patience and determination to encourage and praise children appropriately when they make mistakes.
As for teachers, teachers should create a scientific teaching method which mainly centers on various kinds of games and activities according to the features of child learners. For example, the most popular teaching methods such as The Audio-Lingual Method, The Situational Approach, The Communicative Approach, and The Whole Language Approach etc. Teachers can choose some of them in relations with the actual situation. Furthermore, teachers should teach children how to apply English into their daily life. Don’t force them to memorize a large number of words and sentences every day, which is useless for their future learning. This is also why so many graduates today can’t speak fluently English, which is called “dumb English” by people. In other words, teachers should pay attention to put the theory into practice. The objective of English teaching is to let children learn to communicate in English. To achieve this purpose, teachers should try their best to create opportunities for children to take part in social activities that is related to English learning.
In brief, parents and teachers should create a language environment which children can adapt to it. It mainly includes (1)kindergarten should have qualified foreign teachers and a better bilingual context; encourage children to have more communication with foreign teachers. (2)Parents may have some basic knowledge of English which is helpful to guide their children and communicate with them by using English. Both of teachers and parents not only should have solid knowledge of English, the ability of speaking standard and fluently English, but also can help children to practice and create a diversity language environment which can be accepted by children. Besides, teachers and parents should encourage children to participate in various English Summer Camp and English Corner. Let them communicate with other children who are learning English and have much more opportunities to expose to the environment of second language learning, thus increasing their English-speaking frequency and enhancing their language ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Remember, practicing English everyday is very essential. Therefore, teachers and parents should guide their kids to speaking English in daily life and if the children have the perseverance in their everyday learning, I believe it will help them to enhance their ability to second language acquisition.
4 Conclusion
All in all, children begin learning English at lower age has its advantages and disadvantages. Researchers and teachers conduct a series of experiments and researches which are around the age difference of child learners. These researches adopt different methods in different conditions that form different conclusions. However, people’s attention has shifted from “whether it is good for child learners to learn English at lower age” to “how to teach or learn English well”. The majority of researchers believe that the younger the learner begins learning English, the higher level the child learner maybe attain, which attribute to children’s natural “language learning mechanism”.
In my point of view, the principle of learning English for children should be practical and realistic. Hence, parents and teachers should adopt a positive attitude towards English learning in line with actual conditions of children. Be careful to avoid being too subjective and hasty. Learning a language is a long process of gradual improvement. Only parents and teachers have perseverance and use proper teaching method can child learners obtain great learning achievements.
5 Reference
[1] Ellis, Rod. 1985. Understanding Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.
[2] Ellis, Rod. 1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.
[3] 张志远,高云智.《儿童英语教学法》,2002,外语教学与研究出版社