We have been talking about kindergarten schooling options for bilingual children, and we’ll soon talk about primary schools too, however let’s spend few word also on language classes.

For parents that would like their children to grow bilingual, language classes are often considered an alternative to international/bilingual schooling, a less intense but a far less expensive alternative. As a result all over the place new language classes for children are being created, starting from 3 year old. Mostly these courses offer English as a foreign language, but in English speaking countries alternatives like French, Spanish and (yes!) Italian are also on offer.

The reason is simple, young kids’ minds are very flexible and learn languages easily. What is not clear is how the courses intend to exploit children’s gift for languages, nor which objectives and targets do they set with regards to language acquisition.

This is a very important point, and if you are considering enrolling your child on a language course I encourage you to ask this specific question: What are the objectives of this course?

As far as I know research says that yes children learn languages easily, but they need consistent exposure to it, they cannot learn a language with one or two hours of classes per week. However I might be wrong, may be they do learn few words, like Hello, Bye Bye, Dog e Red. May be they’ll just learn that there are other languages in the world and grow curious about them. Whatever it is, it is essential that objectives are made clear to parents, so that they can decide whether they are worth the effort (money and time wise).

In a couple of occasions I have had a chance to ask this question to schools offering language classes for children, and I must say I received honest answers. They didn’t promise that after a year of classes a 3 year old child would speak sentences in English, not even that he would have used words actively. They said he would have familiarised with the language. Which is still an important thing, but is it worth the cost and effort? And I’m not talking only of the cost in terms of money, or in terms of the time the parents have to put in it. Is it really worth sending a 3 year old to language classes? Shouldn’t his/her life be only about playing, discovering the world, loving and being loved? Are we asking too much from our children? (this is a subject I’ll come back to, a very very important one, I think)

The morale of the story is not that language classes are bad, not at all. The point is that parents should think about it, ask questions, reflect on the pro and contra before enrolling their children on their courses. And may be also start from the assumption that such classes are meaningful only if they are supported by activities at home, between parents and children.

If you did send your child to language classes please share your experience.

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Related posts:

1. Bilingual Preschoolers: Day Nursery and Kindergarten for Bilingual Children in Italy
2. Schooling options for Bilingual Children