January 22, 1930 in The Nursery World
Questions of Education
“A Father” inquires: - “I should very much like to hear what you think of how early one can begin teaching French to little children. Do you think it would be a good thing to do so right from the time when they are learning to talk? We were told the other day of someone who did that, and my wife and I have been talking it over, and wondering if it would be wise. Do you think there could be any objections? One HAS to begin quite early if one wants a decent accent.”
You have raised a most interesting problem, and one that is being investigated by psychologists at this moment. There are, of course, many children who have to be bi-lingual from the start, as, e.g., children in Wales, or those of English families abroad. And it is certainly an advantage from the point of view of accent and fluency in a foreign tongue to begin speaking it quite early. But there is some evidence to suggest that “early” should not be tooearly, and that a child should have a chance to find his way about one language successfully before he begins any others, unless circumstances make it unavoidable. If he has the double problem right from the start, it is quite possible that this extra burden may hold back his general mental development. The evidence for this is not yet quite final and certain, but enough so to justify one in avoiding the risk of such an ill effect if one can.
As it happens, a case came under my own notice recently which does seem to bear out the view that it is unwise to introduce a second language right from the beginning of speech. This was a boy of four, a large and clumsy child, who was very much behind his age in balance and skill and all forms of control, and particularly in ability to express himself in words. He could not build a tower of bricks without it falling over, and he used to cry pathetically, “Oh, whydoes it fall over?” Everything he touched seemed to go wrong, and he vented his exasperation and sense of helplessness in a piercing squeal. He would just sit and open his mouth wide and let the squeal come out! Any sort of excitement, whether anger of joy, made him do this. It came much easier to him than speech. And he was very aggressive to other children. He could not pass another child without hitting him, and was, as you will imagine, an acute problem in the group of little children he was among. This was the boy as I knew him at just four years of age. And he hadbeen made to speak French as well as English right from the very beginning! His parents were both English and they lived in England; but his father never spoke anything but French to him. Now I don’t suggest that the whole of this backwardness in development can be blamed on the double language burden that had been put upon the child; but it was clear that this had not made things any easier for him. He was not equal to the double demand, and his only way out was to fall back on the squealing cries of his babyhood. It was pleasant to see that as his skill and poise developed under good conditions, and he thus felt more sure of himself, he grew both more friendly and happy, and more able to express his feelings and his views in words. The squeals happened less and less often, and then not at all. But his case does seem to help to confirm the view that it is better to postpone a second language until the child is at home in his own first. Six or seven years of age is probably quite early enough.
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