Written by Mrs Ritha Maidom-Lampadan
Is it possible for young children, including babies and toddlers, to learn a second language when that language is not used in their community? How can English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers and parents make this possible? These questions were answered at a seminar on teaching English to young children held on Muak Lek campus on the 29th of April this year.
The speaker, Mrs. Marlise Schneider-Bernhardt, was the right person to address those questions. She has not only the academic qualification, but also substantial experiences at both professional and personal levels in the field. She holds a bachelor’s degree in teaching ESL from River Plate Adventist University in Argentina, and a master’s degree in second language studies from Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her professional experience includes teaching ESL for several years at Asia-Pacific International University. Her most recent experience involves teaching ESL to babies and toddlers based on a curriculum she has personally developed.
The seminar discussed different alternatives to raising bilingual children, but focused more on what ESL teachers and parents can do when teaching a non-native language to very young children. Among others, Mrs. Marlise recommended well-planned teaching/learning sessions that are sensitive to short attention span and supported by teaching aids that are safe for young learners to handle. She also introduced the seminar participants consisting of parents, teachers and university students to a wide variety of teaching aids designed to give children rich multi-sensory language learning sessions. The participants found the seminar helpful. They rated the usefulness of the seminar at 4.89 on the scale of 5.00.
The event organizer, the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, arranged for Mrs. Marlise’s presentation to be recorded based on requests from those who were interested on the subject but were unable to attend the seminar. The title of the video is Teaching English to Young Children, Toddlers and Babies on YouTube. Below is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1BWlj0NfZw&feature=youtu.be
More information on the topic is available at Mrs. Marlise’s website, www.languageforlittles.com