Teaching English to Babies

[wherespeterpan]

I've been teaching 2 to 5 year old children for 2 years and you should try Oxford's Cookie and friends play pack.The teacher's guide is fantastic but don't use the pupil's book.At his age its easy for them to learn the colours, the numbers, some family words, jungle animals, body parts and toys. I think that these are enough for just one year.

[samflutch]

It is never too early to introduce English to your baby. Babies love sounds, rhymes, and stories. Learning a language comes naturally to them. Most experts agree that babyhood is the best time to learn a second language. From birth to about age two or three, your baby's brain acts like a sponge. This is also the best time for a parent to teach a language. Parents and other adults naturally speak more slowly and clearly to babies than older children. They also tend to repeat words and phrases often. Repetition is very important for language learning.
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Samflutch

SuperBabyGuide

[BobK]

Originally Posted by samflutch

It is never too early to introduce English to your baby. Babies love sounds, rhymes, and stories. Learning a language comes naturally to them. Most experts agree that babyhood is the best time to learn a second language. From birth to about age two or three, your baby's brain acts like a sponge. This is also the best time for a parent to teach a language. Parents and other adults naturally speak more slowly and clearly to babies than older children. They also tend to repeat words and phrases often. Repetition is very important for language learning.
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Samflutch

...

I absolutely agree. The problem is with the word 'teach'; it's a big mistake to aim for anything like instruction. And schools that force this on unwilling and unprepared teachers are sorely misguided.

b

[BobK]

Afterthought: I've just read in Guy Deutscher's The Unfolding of Language the story of Kanzi (the pygmy chimp who was taught a very limited way of communicating in a symbolic language). I knew the story from a long way back, but I didn't know this bit:

...Kanzi... used to play by her mother's side during training sessions, when researchers tried (rather unsuccessfully) to teach her to communicate by pointing at picture-symbols. The trainers ignored the baby because they thought he was still too young to learn, but... Kanzi went on to develop cognitive and communicative skills far surpassing [those of (ed. - excuse the language, he's only a linguist )] any other ape before.

Amazon.co.uk: The Unfolding of Language: Guy Deutscher: Books p. 17

Of course there's no comparison in many respects, but this suggests that Tdol was right about concentrating on the mothers.

b