Humble Observer - News
Skills help kids bridge communication gap
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| Children learn foreign languages through play at Kingwood Language Academy. Here, from left, Adriana Gutierrez, Tai Landry and Hudson Hollingsworth learn Spanish by sorting letters. |
By STEFANIE THOMAS
The sounds seem foreign because they are.
“Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi,” 4-year-old Adriana fires off in rapid succession. Then, without skipping a beat, Adriana switches from counting in Mandarin to launching into a Spanish version of the animal alphabet: “A dice abeja, b dice ballena, c dice cabra,...”
The little girl’s mother, Melissa Gutierrez, nods her approval and leaves her to the remainder of her Spanish class.
Gutierrez is the owner and academic director of Kingwood Language Academy, where anyone, from infants to adults, can immerse himself in foreign languages, honing existing skills or embarking on a brand-new adventure in Spanish, French, Mandarin, German, Italian, even American Sign Language.
“Language and communication is one of the most wonderful gifts you can give your children,” said Jeanette Brown, whose daughters Claire and Rachel, ages 7 and 9, regularly attend Spanish classes at KLA. “They’re going to take that with them all through life, and wherever they go they’ll be able to communicate and bring people together.”
Gutierrez, who said she has always had a fascination with languages, feels that children learn foreign languages in much the same way as they do their first language - through immersion and play.
“They learn their colors by coloring, so we color. We ask what color they want to use and they have to answer in that language,” she explained, adding that all the instructors at KLA are native speakers of the language they teach. “They learn about families by playing with dolls. We have a kitchen set so they learn about things in the kitchen. We have a snack each class so they learn about food and manners. And basically, they have to use the foreign language to get what they want.”
Gutierrez added that for pre-schoolers, for example, the curriculum is essentially the same as any other pre-school curriculum and includes letters, phonics and beginnings in reading - all in the foreign language, of course.
“The teachers make it so much fun, my kids don’t even realize they’re learning,” said Alysia Landry, whose 3-year-old daughter Tai and 6-year-old son Logan are enrolled in Spanish classes. “They sing, watch foreign cartoons, they’re having a good time. Tai recently started taking French, too. It’s fascinating how much she’s grown and how much she’s learned.”
Although Gutierrez loves watching the children in her care progress in their language skills, she’s hardly surprised at their grasp of language concepts.
“The language portion of the brain is open until adolescence,” she said. “Any language a child is exposed to will stay in that language portion of the brain. It’s there.”
Robin Hollingsworth said that her 3-year-old son Hudson just started his second semester of Spanish classes at KLA. Because she had trouble learning a foreign language as an adult, she decided to give her son a head start.
“How important is it for us to communicate with people? Tons,” Hollingsworth said. “And if we can do it in two or more languages instead of just one, even better. Especially here in Texas, we have so many Spanish speakers, and we have so many Spanish speaking countries so close to the U.S.”
Parents also say that knowing a foreign language has many more advantages besides communication with people from other lands. As globalization reaches into every conceivable aspect ranging from the economy to the increasingly nomadic lifestyles of families throughout the world, familiarizing oneself with other people’s cultures becomes more and more important.
Landry’s family, for example, combines a mix of backgrounds - her husband is French Creole with Spanish ancestors, and her sister lives in Italy where she started a family of her own. Landry hopes that Tai and Logan will one day be able to relate to and communicate will all of them. It’s also a way to pass family history on to future generations.
Brown summed it up as “life skills.” Not only does the knowledge of a foreign language promote acceptance and tolerance of people of different backgrounds, but it is also beneficial in academics and employment. And in her own daughter, she witnessed a tremendous boost of confidence that turned a shy child into a communicative student.
“It just expands a child’s brain, their mental capacity, in all kinds of directions, like their creativity,” she said. “And later, if you have languages on your resume, it’s nothing but good.”
According to Gutierrez, parents need not worry about children confusing their mother tongue with a foreign language they’re learning. Although there may be an initial delay in the development of both languages in a very young child, she said, eventually each will blossom.
“Suddenly, all of the languages just explode at once,” she said. “It just opens up the world for a child, and then there’s no end to where he can go.”
Kingwood Language Academy
Finding out more about Kingwood Language Academy and its multitude of programs and services is as easy as one, two, three:
Stop by in person: 3007 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood
Pick up the phone: 281-361-8982
Get on the web: www.kingwoodlanguageacademy.com
“Yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi,” 4-year-old Adriana fires off in rapid succession. Then, without skipping a beat, Adriana switches from counting in Mandarin to launching into a Spanish version of the animal alphabet: “A dice abeja, b dice ballena, c dice cabra,...”
The little girl’s mother, Melissa Gutierrez, nods her approval and leaves her to the remainder of her Spanish class.
Gutierrez is the owner and academic director of Kingwood Language Academy, where anyone, from infants to adults, can immerse himself in foreign languages, honing existing skills or embarking on a brand-new adventure in Spanish, French, Mandarin, German, Italian, even American Sign Language.
“Language and communication is one of the most wonderful gifts you can give your children,” said Jeanette Brown, whose daughters Claire and Rachel, ages 7 and 9, regularly attend Spanish classes at KLA. “They’re going to take that with them all through life, and wherever they go they’ll be able to communicate and bring people together.”
Gutierrez, who said she has always had a fascination with languages, feels that children learn foreign languages in much the same way as they do their first language - through immersion and play.
“They learn their colors by coloring, so we color. We ask what color they want to use and they have to answer in that language,” she explained, adding that all the instructors at KLA are native speakers of the language they teach. “They learn about families by playing with dolls. We have a kitchen set so they learn about things in the kitchen. We have a snack each class so they learn about food and manners. And basically, they have to use the foreign language to get what they want.”
Gutierrez added that for pre-schoolers, for example, the curriculum is essentially the same as any other pre-school curriculum and includes letters, phonics and beginnings in reading - all in the foreign language, of course.
“The teachers make it so much fun, my kids don’t even realize they’re learning,” said Alysia Landry, whose 3-year-old daughter Tai and 6-year-old son Logan are enrolled in Spanish classes. “They sing, watch foreign cartoons, they’re having a good time. Tai recently started taking French, too. It’s fascinating how much she’s grown and how much she’s learned.”
Although Gutierrez loves watching the children in her care progress in their language skills, she’s hardly surprised at their grasp of language concepts.
“The language portion of the brain is open until adolescence,” she said. “Any language a child is exposed to will stay in that language portion of the brain. It’s there.”
Robin Hollingsworth said that her 3-year-old son Hudson just started his second semester of Spanish classes at KLA. Because she had trouble learning a foreign language as an adult, she decided to give her son a head start.
“How important is it for us to communicate with people? Tons,” Hollingsworth said. “And if we can do it in two or more languages instead of just one, even better. Especially here in Texas, we have so many Spanish speakers, and we have so many Spanish speaking countries so close to the U.S.”
Parents also say that knowing a foreign language has many more advantages besides communication with people from other lands. As globalization reaches into every conceivable aspect ranging from the economy to the increasingly nomadic lifestyles of families throughout the world, familiarizing oneself with other people’s cultures becomes more and more important.
Landry’s family, for example, combines a mix of backgrounds - her husband is French Creole with Spanish ancestors, and her sister lives in Italy where she started a family of her own. Landry hopes that Tai and Logan will one day be able to relate to and communicate will all of them. It’s also a way to pass family history on to future generations.
Brown summed it up as “life skills.” Not only does the knowledge of a foreign language promote acceptance and tolerance of people of different backgrounds, but it is also beneficial in academics and employment. And in her own daughter, she witnessed a tremendous boost of confidence that turned a shy child into a communicative student.
“It just expands a child’s brain, their mental capacity, in all kinds of directions, like their creativity,” she said. “And later, if you have languages on your resume, it’s nothing but good.”
According to Gutierrez, parents need not worry about children confusing their mother tongue with a foreign language they’re learning. Although there may be an initial delay in the development of both languages in a very young child, she said, eventually each will blossom.
“Suddenly, all of the languages just explode at once,” she said. “It just opens up the world for a child, and then there’s no end to where he can go.”
Kingwood Language Academy
Finding out more about Kingwood Language Academy and its multitude of programs and services is as easy as one, two, three:
Stop by in person: 3007 Woodland Hills Drive, Kingwood
Pick up the phone: 281-361-8982
Get on the web: www.kingwoodlanguageacademy.com
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