Importance of Foreign Language Teaching in The Preschool Period

Some Notions About Language

Language has quite a variety of definitions. In ancient times, language was considered a miracle. There were two main considerations to explain this amazing acquisition of language. While the first sight language was seen as a gift from God to man, the other view regarded language as something that man spoke and invented.

The first information about the language is seen in different societies with various myths. For example, in Chinese culture, a water turtle carried the secret of writing in striped shapes on its back. Then came before the emperor and taught it. In the Babylonians, a half-fish, half-human sea monster came ashore from the water and led them to write.

Since there is confusion in the emergence of the language, it also has various definitions. While defining the language, is based on three main functions:

1. Communicating
2. Information transfer
3. Developing notion

Undoubtedly, the most characteristic aspect of language is its sociability. In general, there is an interaction between language development and social institutions' evolution. In particular, there is a strong link between individual natural languages and the cultures of the communities that speak them.

The Necessity of Learning a Foreign Language

Language is one of the ways to communicate. Individuals living in a society communicate with each other by speaking the same language. Today, we must communicate with other nations in our rapidly developing and changing world. In other words, we have to know at least one foreign language other than our mother tongue in order to be able to exchange information with other countries in every field, conduct our economic relations, and express our own thoughts.

In today’s world, due to economic and technological developments, English has become a "world language" used in almost all countries. For this reason, foreign language teaching in our country has mainly focused on teaching English.

Benefits of Learning a Foreign Language

Knowing a foreign language is the ability of an individual to know the words and grammatical structures in that language, as well as to communicate verbally or in writing with people who speak that language by using these words and structures. In other words, knowing a language is not just knowing the necessary grammar rules about that language, which means having "grammatical competence." At the same time, it is essential to have "communicative competence," which means knowing which structures and words will be used in which environments. In order to gain this, it is necessary to have knowledge about the culture and literature of that language.

It is known that second language learners also enhance their reading comprehension skills in their own language and also get higher grades in reading exams. In many cases, learning another language improves a child's Turkish ability. While children learn the structures of other languages, they also learn a lot about Turkish.

Opinions on Foreign Language Teaching at Early Ages

Language is inseparably intertwined with all our mental processes. There is language in all mental activities, such as thinking, remembering, grasping, directing attention, perceiving, etc... Language and mind develop parallel to each other. For this reason, the child's language development supports his entire mental development. When babies are born, they have the potential to acquire the language spoken in the environment they were born into. While babies worldwide can make all sounds from the moment they are born, as time passes, they only repeat the sounds in the language spoken around them.

Krashen (1973), çocukların beyinlerindeki dil gelişiminin iki yaşında başladığını ve bu gelişimin ergenlik dönemine kadar sürdüğünü açıklamaktadır. Eğer çocuk bu dönemde yabancı dil öğrenmeye başlarsa yabancı dili de ana dili gibi rahatlıkla öğrenebilir. Lambert’in (1972) belirttiğine göre, ana dil edinimini kazanmaya başlayan çocuk kritik yaş dönemini geçirmeden yabancı dil eğitimine başlarsa ilerdeki eğitim hayatında da akranlarına göre daha başarılı olmaktadır. Erken çocukluk döneminde kazanılan yabancı dile yönelik bu yatkınlık çocukların bilişsel gelişimine de büyük katkı sağlamaktadır.

Linguists suggest that the problem-solving skills of children who learn a foreign language in preschool are also solid. Foreign language teaching at an early age improves the child's intelligence and increases the ability to understand in the mother tongue. Accordingly, the earlier you start learning a foreign language, the easier it is to learn the language. In fact, the purpose of foreign language teaching in preschool is not to make the child acquire a foreign language as he/she learned his/her mother tongue but to raise awareness of the existence of languages and cultures other than his/her own language and culture.

Critical Period in Language Learning

The most central and important role in language acquisition and learning is given to the brain. There is a region in the brain's left hemisphere involved in language acquisition. This region is very active from birth, and this activity level decreases until the age of 10-14, which is the beginning of puberty. Language acquisition becomes more difficult with the development of the right and left cerebral hemispheres ending in adolescence.

A child who learns a foreign language at an early age is more mature than his peers in terms of psychology and is more successful than his peers in his future education life. In addition, learning a foreign language makes a great contribution to the mental development of children and to be more social in society. Even if children forget what they have learned due to not actively using the second language in daily life, their curiosity about foreign languages awakens, and they realize that it is a different language and culture. As in bilingualism, We should not forget that the mother tongue must be taught very well when teaching a second language at an early age.

How should a foreign language be taught at an early age?

In the preschool period, children can be taught a foreign language not directly but indirectly through games, songs, and nursery rhymes. Thus, the child comes across a foreign language in a natural environment and learns personally by hearing, seeing, and experiencing it. The teacher can use movements, gestures, mimics, appropriate clues, showing pictures and figures, singing, reading poetry, and talking to each other. Children who get used to hearing foreign language sounds adopt them over time. Choosing the words and sentences taught in children's daily life increases their interest. Whatever toys and objects the child plays with, they can quickly learn their English names. Play is the best way of learning for the child. Learning becomes easier and more enjoyable when a game and a foreign language are combined. Song and movement also increase success in language teaching. With rhythm and melody, learning becomes fun, and it becomes easier to retain information in memory. The child memorizes the songs without knowing the meaning at first and figures out the meaning as they learn the words. In addition, coloring or story books and cassettes used for foreign language teaching can be used. Frequent repetitions while teaching a language to children ensure that what has been learned is reinforced and that those who cannot attend the lesson have the opportunity to learn.

The child should come face to face with a foreign language in a natural environment in kindergarten. Language education should be taught with natural methods such as games, songs, and nursery rhymes in parallel with information technologies in preschool. In particular, foreign language teaching with games helps the development of these skills, such as listening, imitation, and concept formation, which form the basis of language development (Dönmez et al., 1997). In the preschool period, children are more successful in listening and speaking skills, so these criteria should be taken into account when giving foreign language education.

Roth (1998) states that children can easily express themselves in their mother tongue until the age of 3-4, and he explains that they can reach the level of perceiving tenses after the age of 6 years. Today, foreign language learning begins at the age of 5-6 in most European countries. According to Mirici (2001), since children's and adults' motivation levels, readiness levels, and reactions to learning activities are quite different, there should be programs suitable to both groups. Furthermore, goals and behaviors should be determined according to these learning capacities.

What are the concerns of educators and families about early language education?

Experts researching foreign language education talked to many parents and educators during their research. They tried to identify questions whose answers were unclear to them. As a result of these studies, they focused on two main questions. These are :

1) Does learning a language other than their mother tongue damage the language development of early children?

Experts answer absolutely “no” to this question. They even argue that research has revealed the opposite answer to this question. During language learning at an early age (at the age of 2-6), the brain does not distinguish between two different language learning and continues the development of the two languages in parallel. For this reason, the child's learning a foreign language does not prevent him/her from learning his mother tongue; on the contrary, thanks to its positive effects, it contributes to the child's learning of his/her mother tongue more easily.

2) Does the foreign language education given to the child at an early age reduce his/her tendency towards language learning?

Children, as we all know, are one of the most curious creatures in the world. It is undoubtedly in the hands of educators and parents to make this natural sense of curiosity available in children suitable for language education. The most crucial point to be considered while doing this is not to force the child too much into foreign language education. The child will become cold or give up learning a new language if it is too rough.

Foreign language teaching is a process that can be applied at any age and at any level but should be taken very seriously. Foreign language teaching at an early age has gained great importance in our country in recent years. It is now a scientific fact that there are certain critical periods for children to learn languages. In these crucial times, the cooperation of school, family, and environment is extremely important.