Are you considering a language immersion school for your child?

If so, it’s helpful to go in knowing a few things.

I created a video that you can watch here…. or you can read the super speed cliff notes below.

1. There are two ways to pick up a new language – language learning or language acquisition.

Your child will be learning through language acquisition. This is a natural process by which children gain understanding of a language by which they are surrounded.

Language learning happens when you learn a language in a structured environment – usually in middle or high school.

Although fluency can be gained in each, the pathway to get there looks different.

2. Language acquisition has a silent period

Language acquisition is how your toddler acquired their first language. There will be a lot of similarities between your toddler learning their first language and your child acquiring their second language in the immersion school environment. Perhaps the most noticeable of these is the “silent period.” This is a period of 1-2 years (can be less in the school environment) where children don’t speak the language well, even though they have an understanding of what is being said. This silent period can give a lot of immersion school parents anxiety as they think their child isn’t understanding what’s happening in the classroom. Rest assured, your child likely DOES understand the language, even though they can’t speak just yet.

3. Teachers will allow grammatical errors

When you child DOES begin to speak, they will likely make many grammatical errors. Teachers in Kindergarten-2nd grade will likely allow these grammatical errors. At most, they may repeat the correct phrase and ask the child to repeat the phrase again correctly. But they WON’T educate them as to WHY the grammar is wrong. The thinking behind this is that they don’t want children to feel anxious about speaking. As long as the child can get their point across, it’s a win! This lowers their “affective filter” so that they are more comfortable to try speaking in target language.

Again, this is similar to how we might allow our 2year old to make grammar mistakes when they are speaking to us. We might correct them, but we would never tell them the grammar rules! We would just repeat the phrase correctly, and maybe ask the child to repeat after us. Over time, and exposure to the language, certain phrasing will just FEEL right to your child, but they might not know why. That’s OK! They will learn the why in 3rd-5th grade when they start to learn specific grammar rules.

The take away here… don’t judge your child’s language acquisition through the lens of your own experience with language learning.

I did, and it caused a lot of unnecessary anxiety!

You’ve got this!