A 3-year-old baby has been watching English cartoons for one and a half years, and has gone from zero basics to communicating freely?!

Hello everyone, I am Anna’s dad.

Many friends may be curious about Anna’s rapid achievement of native English. In fact, I just seriously insist on playing my children’s favorite cartoons in English. Some people don’t believe it, so I will share my experience in the past few years in detail, and hope that all my friends will help children learn English. Avoid taking detours.

Some friends must be very familiar with English enlightenment, but there are also a small number of friends who are just out of curiosity and do not fully understand the English enlightenment of children from infancy, so I will give a few examples first. Let me illustrate with an example:

1: About the time of enlightenment:

Most parents now know that English enlightenment should start from childhood, but when does it start? Most people have different understandings, does anyone know?

Let’s look at a few examples first:

The first example:

There is a 6-year-old child in the United States who has been detained by his mentally ill father since he was a child. After living in the same room for 6 years, when the police rescued her, her language was still at the stage of an infant and she could not speak. After being arranged by the orphanage, she entered the first grade of elementary school. After 1 year, Well, I finally caught up with the speaking level of children of the same age.

Another extreme case:

Also in the United States, a little girl was imprisoned for 13 years. After she was rescued, she was sent to a linguist to learn language in the hope of helping her speak. However, after After several years (about 3 years) of hard work, she still couldn't speak like a normal person. All her life, she spoke some confusing and abnormal words. You can also check out this sensational case online.

A mother with three children, aged 3, 6 and 9 years old, also used the method of "watching cartoons to create an English environment for their children". The youngest child can speak some simple daily English very proficiently after watching it for 1 year. The 6-year-old child is just a little behind. The oldest child, 9-year-old, has the weakest ability to use native English in comparison with the two younger ones.

Other studies have shown that those who immigrate to English-speaking countries before the age of 12 are almost the same as local English-speaking people in terms of language thinking and accent. The language development levels of people after that are uneven, and most of them are relatively lagging behind.

The above examples illustrate that 0-12 years old is a relatively broad critical period for language learning. Any language can be learned as a mother tongue during the critical language period of 0-12 years old. For example, some people like to watch Japanese anime. After watching it for a long time, they will naturally speak Japanese.

There is another example that some of you may have heard of. After her parents discovered that the child had an unusual interest in languages ??when she was 2 years old, she became a 4-year-old girl in Russia within 2 years. Six teachers of different languages ??were hired to "teach" her. By the time she was 4 years old, she had mastered 7 languages ??including Russian and Chinese.

Therefore, we can draw a conclusion from the above examples. The enlightenment of children's native English should be "the younger the better, the more beneficial it is, and it is also the most worry-free for parents." ".

2: About the method of enlightenment:

When it comes to learning English by watching cartoons, I accidentally discovered that there is such a method. How did you discover it? Looking back now, I almost fell into the first trap: first learn English myself, and then teach my children English. Do you have the same idea?

Many parents relearn English on their own with the goal of teaching their children in authentic English after they have learned it.

However, ideals are beautiful, but reality is cruel. As an ordinary person, you may only have 3 minutes of enthusiasm. It is very likely that after studying for about a month, you will not have the energy to continue. Once you come to work, it will be very difficult. I was busy, and secondly, I had to take care of the baby after getting home from get off work. I was very tired, and gradually I became unwilling to continue. Let’s not talk about whether your Chinglish will mislead your children. After you have fumbled for a few years, your children’s language sensitive period will have passed.

The first time I thought of letting my children watch cartoons to learn English, I, like most of you, was skeptical and even a little repelled by this method. However, I started reading English picture books to my daughter when she was one and a half years old. In addition, starting from March 2016 (Anna was 3 years old at that time), I showed her 2 episodes of Pink Pig in English every night before going to bed. Many parents think that cartoons are available everywhere and are free, so why should they pay for guidance?

Later, I showed my children the original English version of Super Wings and Paw Patrol on Tencent Video, iQiyi and Mango TV, but my children always gave priority to Chinese cartoons. What to do? Finally, I made a decision to disconnect the TV from the Internet, and then plugged the hard drive into the TV to play all English programs. The children could no longer watch Chinese cartoons. This action produced a miraculous effect. Because I realized that the biggest enemy of English cartoons is Chinese cartoons. You have killed the biggest enemy of children learning English. Do you think this action is important or not?

The initial purpose of cutting off the Internet was actually just to replace cartoons with some violent scenes on TV, such as Bears, Pleasant Goat, etc.

After I prepared these all-English cartoons for my children to watch, I discovered that it turns out that children’s English enlightenment, no, what we are doing now is not simple enlightenment, but native English , in fact, it is not just about replacing childish domestic cartoons for children. From a professional perspective, watching cartoons in English for children is actually providing "comprehensible scene input."

What is "comprehensible input"? It is an English scene, with language and pictures. After watching it, you can understand the meaning of the language in this scene.

Generally, in the film and television programs that we adults watch, the pictures and language sometimes have time differences. For example, the lines spoken actually refer to pictures from other times or scenes. In this case, for young children For example, they cannot understand the language spoken on TV because it is incomprehensible input.

So some of the Disney-published cartoons played in cinemas are incomprehensible to young children. To put it another way: Suppose we take our 2-year-old baby to the cinema to watch a cartoon with a deeper meaning. Even if it is said in Chinese, the child's understanding is not enough to understand the meaning of the lines.

Therefore, it is very particular about which original programs are chosen for infants and young children to watch. Not just any program can be watched. If they choose incorrectly, they are wasting their critical language period.

The original videos I showed Anna included original programs such as Bubble Guppies, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Undersea Column, and Peppa Pig. These are all scenes from Here and Now, which in Chinese means " "This moment, this scene" means that the things happening in the picture and the lines are all synchronized, which is different from the TV series that adults watch or the cartoons that teenagers watch.

Comprehensibility input, in addition to the original English program, there are also some family inputs, such as:

The founder of Weber Dictionary, since childhood, each member of the family has said something different to Weber language, and can speak 4 different languages ??by the age of 5-6.

Liu Ye’s child Noi can speak French because his mother is French, and he takes some time every year to live in France and immerse himself in the French environment.

Li Xiaopeng’s child Ollie can speak English because his mother is Chinese-American and she often speaks English to him.

To give another example, there is a little boy who likes to play with Anna. Their family has spoken Japanese to him since he was a child, so this child’s Japanese is also very good.

The above is the language input formed through dialogue and communication between family members and children, creating bilinguals or even multilinguals. The so-called bilinguals are people who can directly speak two languages ??without the need for translation. .

Digression: In fact, many people are bilingual. For example, they can speak Mandarin and another dialect. We do not need to translate between Mandarin and dialect. In this case, we are bilingual.

Another type of bilingual people puts their children in a bilingual environment from an early age, such as going to international schools, bilingual schools, etc. This can also develop a bilingual brain.

However, there are hundreds of thousands a year, and some people even start attending bilingual schools in kindergarten. After 3 years of kindergarten and 5-6 years of primary school, millions have been spent on children to develop their bilingual brain. For us ordinary people, there is nothing wrong with millions of people, right?

Someone else said that I can’t afford to go to an international school, but I can send my children to an English training institution. There are foreign teachers there, and what they teach will definitely be pure English.

Then this leads to the second misunderstanding: pinning your hopes on foreign teaching institutions.

Has Anna attended an English institution? The answer is that I just tried it out, and the reason for going to the training institution to take classes is very, very simple. I hope to communicate with foreigners to verify the superiority of my method.

After on-the-spot inspections and auditions at more than a dozen institutions, we concluded that more than 90% of the institutions have similar forms, and 10% have relatively new forms.

This year, every time I went for a trial in the summer of 2017, the conclusion given by the institution was that you can skip a level and take more difficult classes without starting from the basic courses. There are evaluations from foreign teachers of the trial classes, Anna is She has the best English skills they have ever seen, and some teachers commented that Anna is Chinese American, and she mistakenly thought that she had spent some time in the United States, and other relatively unexpected comments.

Among the surprised feedback from others, we actually know where Anna’s English foundation comes from. I saw it all from TV shows. I started watching English programs in February 2016. By the end of August 2017, I was typing 2-4 hours a day. If I averaged 3 hours a day, that would be more than 1,000 hours in one year. Therefore, it is not surprising that the foreign teacher performed better than other children in the trial class.

Fortunately, Anna is more cooperative. Mainly, she likes these cartoons very much and has to force me to show them cartoons to her every day. I sincerely feel that such persistence is too easy.

Just a simple action every day, turn on the TV and play the original English program that the child likes. This makes it easy for parents, and I don’t need to talk to her in English. After watching it, it’s over. It’s like a daily entertainment program for the child.

After constantly inputting "English scenes" every day, after accumulating for a certain period of time, I will start to output content. Therefore, when communicating with foreign teachers, these English scenes can be constantly stimulated, and all the English scenes planted in the mind can be applied.

Is it ok for children who don’t have any basic knowledge of English to go to an all-foreign-taught English institution?

Of course the answer is yes, but the effect is average. There are too many examples around me, so I won’t give any examples. What is the reason for the mediocre effect? Let’s take a look:

General foreign teaching institutions have 1 to 2 classes per week, averaging 45 to 90 minutes. This amount of weekly input is not enough. It takes about 800 hours of input for a child to gradually produce output. Before that, there is a period of language silence. Assuming that the institution holds classes for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours per week, it would take 666 weeks, or 12 to 24 years, to achieve 1,000 hours of comprehensible scene input. Well, isn’t this number particularly scary?

Also, if you send your baby to an English-speaking institution with all foreign teachers, at what age is it better to send your baby?

Anyway, I sent Anna for a trial when she was 3 years old, and the effect was extremely poor. The children who come to the institution are usually at least 3 years old or above. We sent them to the trial when they were too young. , I can’t concentrate at all! Moreover, children of different ages also have different interests. Older children will not want to interact and play with such young children. In short, the effect is not very good.

When Anna took the trial class, I met many children who took the trial class together. They were all about 4 to 5 years old. By this time, the children’s Chinese was already very solid. Some of the children in the class had even Rejecting English, they miss the golden period (0 to 4 years old) when the English language environment is the best for shaping. In this case, it is a little more difficult for children to easily become native English.

If an English foreign teaching institution only provides classes 1 to 2 times a week, you can imagine the situation of English mastery.

To summarize: You can take classes with foreign teachers, but it should not be based on strong input of English scenes. Only in this way can you take classes with foreign teachers to maximize the role of foreign teachers without wasting money. Otherwise, you will spend 10 times the money and get 1/10 of the effect.

You may say that because he is an English teacher, the child’s English must be good, that’s why the child’s English is so good. If you think so, then you will enter into the third misunderstanding: Children of English teachers must have good English.

According to a teacher at an English institution, her children’s English is average or even poor. Although she has been teaching English to children since they were young, she uses the same methods as teaching adults.

How do English teachers teach English? What we all experienced when we were students was basically explaining vocabulary and grammar. And are these useful for little children to remember? It’s useless, even if they remember it, they can’t directly apply it to various scenarios.

How is children’s language memory formed? Language acquisition uses procedural memory in children's minds, also known as skill memory. Procedural memory is knowledge about how to do something or about the connection between stimulus and response.

For example: Being able to swim is a procedural memory, a skill that can only be learned by going into the water yourself. The same goes for children learning English. Only when they learn it and apply it in practice can they remember it. What's the use of just memorizing the words? If you can't use them, the child won't be able to speak them at all.

Some friends said that children do not understand Chinese, so it is too early to learn English at such an early age. They can start at the age of 3. The implication is that they must first learn Chinese and then learn English.

In fact, this leads to the fourth misunderstanding: learn Chinese first and then learn English. The Chinese system in the brain is too powerful, and it is relatively difficult to implant the English system.

As I mentioned earlier, when I took Anna to trial classes at various English institutions, I found that many older children had the impression that they were repelled by English. In fact, it was the children’s Chinese mastery. It is too strong, and it will be quite difficult when another unfamiliar language needs to be implanted in their brains.

This is somewhat similar to a computer that already has an operating system. When installing another operating system, it will be more difficult and take a longer time.

Therefore, don’t think that to learn a foreign language, you must first learn Chinese and then learn English through Chinese. This idea is wrong. We must believe in children's ability to decode language. They are much better than I thought.

The fifth misunderstanding: The English environment at home requires parents to communicate with their children in English to create it.

Having said that, some people may think that bilinguals only need English input for a long time, so we parents only need to have English conversations at home every day.

It sounds very reasonable. For example: Liu Ye’s child Noi and Li Xiaopeng’s child Ollie are parents who speak foreign languages ??to their children at home. But don’t forget, they speak foreign languages ??because That in itself is their native language, which is much better than non-native English speaking parents like us.

Creating a language environment by speaking English to children is not only laborious but also ineffective.

So the shaping of the English environment we are talking about here mostly refers to providing children with comprehensible input in English in the form of original English audio and video programs.

The sixth misunderstanding: Watching TV all the time is not good for the eyes. Watching TV will restrict children’s imagination.

You have to understand that TVs used to be made of picture tubes, which were extremely thick and were indeed bad for the eyes. But today’s TVs generally have LCD screens.

And I want to emphasize here that the length of time children watch TV is restricted by parents. It is not just about letting children watch TV as long as they like. This habit is developed. It depends on the parents' self-discipline, which is particularly important.

In addition, watching TV will not constrain children's imagination. Because imagination is an ability that depends on the continuous input of high-quality content and is processed by the child's brain. Where can good imagination come from without good input?

The seventh misunderstanding: watching English cartoons and translating at the same time.

A friend asked about this situation. My answer at the time was that it was best not to translate. Because they are English cartoons for children, these programs themselves are "comprehensibility" input.

Giving children a normal translation while watching original English cartoons is very fatal. It is equivalent to giving them a crutch. Once they have this crutch, they will never be able to live without it. This is a cane. Trust your baby’s innate ability to decode their native language. What we parents have to do is to choose appropriate programs for him to watch.

In addition, at one stage, children will particularly like repetitive things and watch programs whose content they already know. When this happens, be sure not to change the program they want to watch. At this time, they are re-decoding and deeply understanding the best time to implant English into their brains.

On the contrary, if a child doesn't like watching cartoons, the parent will have to prepare dozens of programs and try them one by one to finally find out what the child likes best at the moment.

The eighth misunderstanding: Enlightenment does not require watching TV, just sharpen your ears and read picture books.

When Anna was one and a half years old, I started listening to her English songs to sharpen her ears, but after listening to her for 2 years, I didn’t see her learn any songs. He can't even skip words, let alone speak sentences. Later I learned that listening to English children's songs has limited effect. At most, it can only make children less repellent to English.

In the beginning, when I read picture books, I read one sentence in English and translated it in Chinese. However, the static pictures and voices in picture books are far from having the sense of plot like cartoons, and children's interest has always been Not big.

Therefore, the input-output ratio of reading picture books is very small compared to watching cartoons.

In short, it is difficult to become native English by reading English picture books as a form of enlightenment, and this is not recommended.

Well, the above points are my experiences in the past few years. Hope it helps everyone.