I strongly recommend a good book on how to let children learn a second language.

Having written about the advantages and disadvantages of overseas children learning Chinese, it seems that an article on how domestic children learn English well should be written, but domestic parents should have read countless such articles and examples. Children in China really put a lot of energy, time and money into English learning. Are parents satisfied with their achievements? Here, I would like to introduce a book that I think is comprehensive and objective in the same kind of books I have read, based on a large number of research examples and combined with the latest research theory of language learning, and written to guide parents on how to cultivate bilingual children. I came across this book in the local library. This book is called Bilingual Advantage-Why, When and How to Teach Your Children a Second Language. The authors are Kim and McKee, two linguistics professors at Georgetown University. They have written hundreds of articles and books about bilingual and language teaching. They have been colleagues for more than ten years, and in the same year they became the mothers of a boy and a girl respectively. When they set out from the mother's new perspective, they found that many parents are eager to teach their children a second language as soon as possible, but there are widespread misunderstandings on how to teach, and there is a lack of an objective, scientific and easy-to-understand book to guide parents. So this book came into being and was published by Harper Collins Press in new york in 2007. Because this is a book of nearly 300 pages, it is difficult for me to introduce it to you comprehensively, and I can only outline and grasp some key points. I hope everyone has a chance to read this book in person. The book is divided into four parts: first, why is bilingualism better than a language? What language do you choose and when do you start? How to learn? What if ... I think everyone has understood the first part. It is mentioned in the book that bilingual children have some brain advantages, such as creativity, flexibility, reading and writing ability, and some social advantages, such as multicultural understanding, adaptability and workplace competitiveness. This part also wrote 10 myths about learning a second language. ) including only parents who are bilingual can cultivate bilingual children; Don't miss opportunities when you are young; Only native speakers and teachers can teach children foreign languages; Correct grammar and vocabulary mistakes immediately; Children who learn two languages at the same time will start talking later. The corresponding correct view is that any parent can raise a child who does not speak only one language; It is never too late to learn a foreign language; Rich, active and meaningful interaction is the key, which is more important than having a mother tongue teacher. ); Constantly correcting mistakes does more harm than good, and mistakes in language learning are natural and inevitable. When children learn their mother tongue, will you constantly correct all kinds of mistakes? Correcting every mistake will hurt their self-confidence and enthusiasm, especially for younger children; Learning two languages is not the reason for language delay. The second part, which language to choose and when to start? It is not difficult for us to decide which second language to learn, so I won't go into details. As for when to start, the author's point of view is that it is neither too late nor too early, and now is the best time to start, no matter how old the child is. The key is that parents should provide suitable learning environment and methods according to their children's age characteristics. Vivid, interesting and continuous language input and meaningful interaction are very important for people of any age, while younger children should be entertaining and don't have to worry about grammar rules. Older children can strengthen their abstract analytical thinking ability, which can be supplemented by clear explanations. Of course, when it comes to accents, younger children can detect and distinguish many new sounds in foreign languages, while older learners can easily turn new sounds in foreign languages into familiar sounds in their mother tongue. There are also individual differences of children themselves, such as gender, personality, talent, and which intelligence is stronger in eight intelligent, which all make the difference in foreign language learning. The third part is how to learn. (I'll try to introduce this part in detail. Language learning, like all learning, works best when everyone is involved, integrated into daily life, interacted with real life and meaningfully linked together. Just as children naturally learn a first language in their daily lives, so does the best way to learn a second language. The best effect is to make learning lively, interesting, interactive and linked with daily life. This sounds beautiful, but how to implement it in real life? The book introduces different strategies according to whether the family uses the main language, mixed language or minority language. The first type-the main language family, that is, both parents are monolingual users of the main language of society. For example, English-speaking families in the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, and most families in China. Such families usually don't worry about their children's mother tongue, but pay more attention to their foreign language learning. Such a family can (preferably) start using a second language as soon as the child is born. Parents should try their best to integrate the use of a second language into all aspects of life. Even if parents only know a little foreign language, they can use it with their children. Parents can sing the same children's song in a foreign language over and over again, play simple games, count and so on. Simple as it is, they really use a foreign language every day. Parents should not worry too much about their poor pronunciation. It is more important to let children get in touch with meaningful foreign languages earlier than to let them hear standard foreign languages. A lot of evidence shows that interaction is very helpful to foreign language learning, even if it is not from the mouth of native speakers. When the children are older, even parents who are not good at foreign languages can read simple foreign language books to their children and read them repeatedly, so that they can learn simple vocabulary, be more familiar with different forms of languages (such as written and spoken languages), and of course, let their children love reading. Studies show that reading to children can greatly increase their vocabulary, whether it is learning their mother tongue or a foreign language. Reading to children can increase their vocabulary even more than dialogue. Second mixed language family, that is, at least one parent can skillfully use a second language other than the main language. In such a family, parents usually pay attention to promoting the development of two languages, and often worry that their children's second language is weaker than the main language. The most important thing for such a family is to use two languages in all aspects of daily life and find a proper balance between the two languages. Parents should consider the quantity and quality of input and interaction between two languages (how many languages children hear every day) and (various interaction methods, such as singing, games, reading, etc. ). Parents are advised to make a checklist of family language use and calculate the quantity and quality to balance the use of two languages. Theoretically, 50% to 50% is ideal, so many mixed-race families adopt the way that parents speak one language (usually their mother tongue), but we should pay attention to whether parents bear roughly the same responsibility for childcare. Even in this mode, there will be many children who listen to both languages well, but only want to speak one main language, especially after school. This is of course influenced by the external environment, and parents need to give more support to the non-main languages used at home. This is the so-called "hot house method", that is, when children are young, they speak more non-main languages at home (80%), making this language strong enough to resist the extensive and powerful external mainstream language use environment (after school). Another study on 25 Spanish-English bilingual children shows that the proportion of children who are exposed to a language reaches 20%, and they can still speak it on their own initiative. If the exposure is less than 1/5, children are very reluctant to speak this language. For example, a two-year-old child's waking time is about 12 hours a day, so at least two and a half hours of contact with a second language can ensure that the child actively uses two languages. The third minority language is used by families, that is, the mother tongue of both parents is not the main language used in the place of residence, such as some immigrant families. In such a family, parents will not only worry about how to let their children learn and maintain minority languages, but also worry about whether their children are proficient in the main languages used in their place of residence. Parents in this family can use their mother tongue with their children at birth, and if you want their children to learn their mother tongue, you should mainly communicate with them in this language. You can also introduce a second language at the same time. We should also pay attention to the quantity and quality of input and interaction between the two languages. Communicating with children in your most comfortable language is very important for their cognitive ability and academic development. A researcher at Harvard University studied children in a United Nations international school in new york, trying to understand the influence of language used at home on children's academic performance. She tested three groups of children. Children in group A come from English-speaking families, children in group B come from minority language-speaking families, and children in group C come from minority language-speaking families, but their parents speak English to their children. The results show that the scores of group A and group B are very close, while the score of group C is lower. The researcher's explanation is that it is more advantageous for parents to use their mother tongue because it can provide rich and complicated language input for their children. This part also talks about whether DVD and multimedia software are helpful to foreign language learning. The view is that it has little effect on infants, but has a positive effect on older children, especially school-age children. I also analyzed different types of language schools and programs and how parents choose them. I think most parents must have comprehensively investigated and considered all kinds of resources around them and made a decision suitable for their children, so I won't write in detail. The fourth part is mainly to answer all kinds of questions that parents will encounter. In fact, in the process of bilingual parenting, different environments and different stages will encounter various problems, some of which are answered in the book and some are not mentioned in the book. Limited to space, I won't write much here. I'll discuss it with you later. The above is the main content of this book. When I introduce, I try to avoid adding personal understanding and my own experience (of course, the choice of content in the book and the use of translation language are subjective enough.