What are the benefits of children learning English?

It can be seen that early exposure to foreign languages can stimulate the nervous system, thus promoting foreign language learning in the future. (2) Psychological aspects ...

Related: How to teach children to learn English >> Details ◇ Quality and connection of English teaching in primary schools >> The most effective way to learn English. Cultivate children's interest in learning English >> Details 2 Advantages of children learning English Compared with adults, the advantages of children learning English are mainly reflected in the following aspects. (1) Physiologically, the difference of brain development among children, adolescents and adults is mainly the maturity of brain development. Studies have shown that the two sides of the human brain are endowed with different functions with the gradual maturity of development, which is the phenomenon of hemispheric lateralization. The intellectual, logical and analytical functions of human language gradually shift to the left hemisphere, and the social functions of emotion gradually shift to the right hemisphere. But before puberty, the area responsible for language in the brain is constantly developing and changing, and its speech center has not yet been located, and both left and right hemispheres of the brain can participate in language learning; At the same time, children's vocal organs are soft, and the mediation of motor nerves such as vocal cords, lips and tongue has great plasticity. It can be seen that early exposure to foreign languages can stimulate the nervous system, thus promoting foreign language learning in the future. (2) Psychologically, children have no psychological obstacles in learning English, are not shy, are not afraid of mistakes, like to talk, and dare to practice their language boldly in front of groups. We find that the younger children are, the more they dare to express themselves in words. And with the growth of age, people will have a psychological defense to protect their fragile self. In second language acquisition, adolescent or post-adolescent learners tend to follow the rules, look ahead and look back, be afraid of making mistakes, and be laughed at and dare not express their views easily, thus limiting the flexibility and creativity of language acquisition. The attitude and motivation of learners are also the key to the success of second language acquisition. Children's interest in learning a second language will last as long as their interest in learning new things, because their cognitive ability is synchronized with the development of language; At the same time, the appreciation of teachers and parents and high scores in exams make children more willing to learn a second language. For adults, many people learn foreign languages because of the pressure of exams or because of social concern, so they are not as active as children. In addition, older learners' attitudes towards the target language group and its members are much more complicated than those of younger learners. It is found that in second language acquisition, the attitude towards -j will not show a positive development trend with the increase of age, on the contrary, it will show a negative development trend, that is to say, the younger the learner is, the more he can maintain a positive attitude in learning. (3) In terms of cognition, Krashen thinks that the development of cognition has a lagging influence on second language acquisition. The second language acquisition of children and adults involves different processes. The former mainly refers to a language acquisition device, which acquires a second language like a first language, while the latter, in addition to "naturally" acquiring a language, focuses on consciously learning language rules by using general cognitive ability. Language acquisition device belongs to an initial state in children's brain, which is restricted by the inherent universality of human language. Children's language acquisition mainly depends on language acquisition devices, so they can acquire language naturally in a relaxed and casual atmosphere. With the increase of age, people's ability to use language acquisition devices gradually decreases. Linguists have also found that naturally absorbed language can be transformed into proficient spoken language. Children's cognitive level is still in the development stage. When acquiring a language, children sometimes don't even realize that they are learning a language. This "unconsciousness" is the premise of second language acquisition. When children use language, they always look at "what language can do, not what language is", as long as they can express their meaning. Their brain function is not fixed, their short-term memory is strong, and they accept new things quickly. When learning a foreign language, adults often rely on other brain mechanisms, such as logical and mathematical mechanisms, seeking overall similarity from existing knowledge, slow acceptance of new things, and differences in second language learning among adults. In recent years, children's learning English is one of the hot phenomena concerned by parents and educational circles. Early childhood education theory and critical period theory show that children have physiological, psychological and cognitive advantages in learning English. Let children learn English by following the principles of cultivating interest, creating a rich language environment, learning and playing, and learning while playing. With the unprecedented development of foreign language education in China, more and more people of different ages are learning foreign languages, and foreign language teaching is also showing a trend of younger age. At present, not only some primary schools have English classes in the first grade, but also many kindergartens have no bilingual teaching and no special English classes. Although kindergartens offering English courses generally charge more than ordinary kindergartens, many parents are still willing to invest because they are afraid that their children will "learn late and miss the critical period". It seems that the earlier you learn a foreign language, the better. However, when is the best age to learn a foreign language? Is there a critical period for foreign language learning? What are the advantages of children learning a foreign language compared with adults? What principles should children follow when learning English? This paper attempts to make people have a clearer understanding of children's learning English through the discussion of the above problems. Feasibility of Children Learning English As early as two thousand years ago, educators in China had a lot of experience in early childhood education. Yan Zhitui's Yan Family Instructions in the Southern and Northern Dynasties can be regarded as the representative work of early education in ancient China. Yan Zhitui believes: "Young scholars are like the light of the rising sun; Being old and talented is like walking at night by candlelight. " At the same time, he described his personal experience as follows: "When I was seven years old, I recited" Luling Photoelectricity Fu ". As for today, ten years have passed and I have never forgotten it. Twenty years later, if the chanting book is abandoned in January, it will be deserted. " The above is a full affirmation of early education. Ge Hong, a thinker of the Eastern Jin Dynasty in China, also emphasized early education: "The few are unforgettable, and the elderly are easy to lose. Therefore, learning early is specialized, learning is natural, and it is not different from nature. That is to say, because children can be single-minded and have a solid memory, what they learn early can be integrated with people's natural qualifications. The Book of Learning also said: "If you study after your time, you will study hard and practice hard." . It can be seen that thinkers and educators in ancient China all realized the existence of the critical period of education, so they all advocated that children should be educated without losing time. Western educators also attach great importance to early education. In the 1970s, it was inferred that children's foreign language learning ability was better than that of teenagers and adults from the phenomenon that children seemed to acquire their mother tongue effortlessly and immigrant children learned a second language more successfully. Therefore, they conducted experimental research and put forward some theories and hypotheses, among which the critical period or critical period hypothesis is one of the famous viewpoints for early education. The critical period hypothesis was first put forward by psycholinguist Reinberg. According to this hypothesis, the key period of language learning is from 2 years old to adolescence, because the human brain is plastic during this period, and children can learn their mother tongue without difficulty. After this period, it is difficult for children to learn their mother tongue successfully, which is also a crucial period for mother tongue acquisition. Since the critical period theory was put forward, it has caused numerous disputes, both supported and questioned. The focus of its heated debate is whether children have advantages over adults in learning foreign languages and the definition of critical age. By the end of 1970s, the debate had reached its climax and there was a major breakthrough in research. Krashen and others distinguished "initial velocity" and "final stage" for the first time. They believe that language has different components, including pronunciation, morphology, syntax, semantics and so on. , and each part of the difficulty is different, the way is different. Adult learners may begin to have an advantage in the acquisition of second language morphology and syntax, that is, the initial speed is faster, but the final level of second language is gradually negatively correlated with the learning age. This conclusion has made children's advantages in learning foreign languages widely recognized. From the above discussion, we can know that children have comparative advantages in learning foreign languages psychologically, physically and cognitively. Therefore, purposeful and targeted teaching according to children's characteristics will help to cultivate children's interest in learning and lay a good foundation for their further English learning. (1) Cultivate interest in English learning. China has a saying since ancient times that "the knower is not as good as the doer, and the doer is not as happy as the musician". Interest is the best teacher. Preschool children should not be required to master many words or sentences in English learning, but should insist on stimulating and cultivating children's interest in learning English in the first place and take it as an important indicator to measure the effectiveness of preschool children's English education. Cultivating children's interest in learning and promoting their all-round development should be the real purpose of English education in kindergartens. Children's interests are always associated with some positive emotions, which can stimulate children's thirst for knowledge, make children's attention focus on certain activities for a long time, and stimulate children's rich imagination and creativity. With interest, children will actively and consciously participate in the learning process and fully express themselves in this process. In a sense, preschool children's learning is a kind of interest learning. Therefore, in children's English learning activities, teachers need to create a relaxed and happy learning atmosphere through various vivid, vivid and interesting means, stimulate children's interest, and let children naturally acquire English in a relaxed and happy atmosphere. At the same time, activities should respect children's physical and mental characteristics and the difficulty should be appropriate. When children make even a little progress, they should be praised and encouraged in time, so that their interest in learning will be higher. Otherwise, it will stifle the interest of budding learners, have a huge negative effect on preschool children's future learning, and even affect their lifelong second language learning. (2) Creating a Rich Language Environment "The Guiding Outline of Kindergarten Education (Trial)" clearly points out that "the environment is an important educational resource, and the development of children should be effectively promoted through the creation and utilization of the environment". Language environment is extremely important for language learning. Fundamentally speaking, language is not acquired through classroom teaching, but developed by children in natural language environment. When the baby was born, no one taught him much vocabulary usage and grammar rules, but when he was one or two years old, he naturally began to learn English. After four or five years old, he can usually express his ideas in complete sentences. It is in the good language environment around him that children learn their mother tongue easily. Therefore, the feasibility of children's English education depends on whether there is a natural language environment around children. On the contrary, even the smartest children can't speak without or out of this language environment. Language environment is the decisive factor for human beings to acquire language ability. (3) Let children play middle school, children are naturally active in school, and games play a leading role in the activities. According to children's "nature", ancient educators in China put great emphasis on early education: "Generally speaking, children love to play and are afraid of being caught. Every grass and tree germinates, and it is comfortable. If they are scratched, they will decline. " Mr. Chen Heqin, a child educator, also attaches great importance to gamification teaching and thinks that "the first thing is to let children accept language learning as a game." Games are the nature of children and the need of their development. It is inevitable that games will become a means of children's education. Game method accords with the characteristics of preschool children's physical and mental development and is the key to effective teaching. Because preschool children's thinking has concrete and vivid characteristics, it requires that learning should not emphasize the logical system of knowledge, but the sensitivity of children in constructing knowledge. Although children's English teaching generally only stops at letting children hear some simple sentences commonly used in daily life, seemingly simple words, if spoken over and over again, will definitely make children feel boring. Therefore, it is necessary to integrate knowledge into games, so that children can learn while playing, master knowledge unconsciously, and increase their friendship and interest in learning English. Starting English education at an early age is the general trend of English education in China. Although the age of the critical period is still a controversial issue, in a sense, this issue is no longer the focus of attention. The urgent task of the education department is to follow children's psychological and physiological characteristics, carry out extensive experiments, foster strengths and avoid weaknesses, and deeply explore the contents, methods, forms and means of children's English education to promote children's all-round development.