Go For It; Multilingual Games

Suppose a child is raised from birth to age 2 hearing our language-strings and suppose further that the child, at say age 2 or 3, has assimilated the material as poetry. Where do you go from there?

[A language-string is composed of a long sequence of segments -- each segment is in a different language. The meaning of each segment is the same. The words used in a given sequence generally avoid word order problems by presenting a series of nouns or a series of verbs or adjectives and/or phrases.]

The problem is that the sequences are available much like the series “30 days has November, April, June and...” You actually have to say (or think through) the sequence to find say, “August”. The language-strings really are like poetry -- long strings of information. What is needed is a method for randomizing access to the segments.

To create this type of random access, a game (and/or a device) termed “Go For It” is suggested. A segment from a language-string is quoted (one speaker -- 5 seconds or so) in a given language (e.g., in French) and then another language is stated (e.g., the word “Polish”). The object of the game is to repeat the segment in the named language before the answer is given. There is a pause for a few seconds to allow for a spoken response. The game continues by either stating a new language or by giving a new segment and a new language.

One estimate is that at least 80% of humanity speaks at least one of the 25 languages presented in the Baby Safari language-strings (based on population figures from the World Almanac). The object of hearing these language-strings is to establish good native pronunciation skills for these languages at an early age (under age 2). The vocabulary used is broad and useful.

There are various tests available for testing the language skills of a child. However, there are no published accounts documenting the multilingual skills of children under the age of 4 for three or more languages. In India, virtually the entire population speaks at least 3 languages (i.e., English, Hindi and a local language such as Tamil, Punjabi, etc.). The average Indian child apparently is as conversant in 3 languages as many children are with one language when they are raised in an environment in which only that language is spoken.

There are several advantages to the use of the language-string format which presents a few concepts over and over in different languages. First a child tends to treat the series as a single entity, each segment of which has the same meaning. The use of a pair of native speakers (first a woman and then a man) for a segment presents of a range of permissible pronunciation for the concepts. The uniqueness of the voices of each pair of speakers binds all the language-strings together. For a shift of emphasis, the MP3 CDs present the language-strings both with and without background music. The music is deliberately unscored with the result that there is only occasional congruence.

No scientific publication has ever raised an objection to the assertion that native pronunciation skills can be obtained by an infant (under the age of 2) just by hearing these or other language materials.

A study of older children examined the value of hearing language materials with regard to acquiring pronunciation skills, however the format used and the context in which the tests were administered raise serious doubts as to the conclusions which were reached. Further, no songs in foreign languages were used in the testing. Perhaps the tests should be rerun using popular movies (e.g., Disney) which have been translated into non-English languages. In any case, testing of this type for children over the age of 2 is not particularly meaningful as serious adverse rejection of such materials by 3 year olds has been informally observed (but has not been published; personal observation by the author). The age of the child is a very critical factor in their receptivity of novel material.

It is beyond question that most adults struggle to learn a new language and that one of their basic problems is with acquiring accurate pronunciation skills. Just to have heard concepts grouped into a series with many languages when young provides an exposure which is a valuable resource when attempting to understand or master one or more of these languages.

By about the age of 3 years, most children have established a robust "linguistic framework" which is functional and reliable. This seems to occur roughly between the ages of 2 and 3. By this age, whatever languages are needed are used and are deemed to be "adequate". The framework may be composed of one or more languages. A "foreign" language which is thereafter heard largely fails to register as important and tend to be ignored as background noise. However if the child becomes involved with one or more persons who use that language and/or who to some degree interact with the child then there is a learning or acclimation process of the new language. This normally tends to occur when a young child in a family moves to a new country which has an unfamiliar language as its native language. One of the strongest incentives to learn a new language at this stage is when the child associates with other children for whom the new language is their native language.

A language-string is a series of 5 to 8 words repeated over and over in different languages. Complete sentences are only rarely used and many language-strings are comprised of a series of verbs or nouns. The concepts are sometimes somewhat related to each other. An example would be, "root, branch, stick...leaves, moss...chilly".

Most infants have not had any hand signing experience and the process of learning the use of language usually starts by saying the name of a parent or sibling. The most common transition starts when a child expresses a need by pointing at an object. The common response of a parent is to name the object and say, "Do you want this ball (or other object)?" In Korean, the response is more like, "Shall I give the ball to you?"

There is a critical point at which the child both points at an object and says the familiar word which has been used to name it. When the child names the object without pointing, a major threshold has been crossed. The child then realizes that there is no need to point to get something. This quickly evolves into "I want..." (in Korean, "You give...).

A key factor for an infant from birth is the quality of the voices of those with whom the child interacts. It is the uniqueness of a voice together with its emotional content that is memorable. For an infant, what is heard and what seems to be important is (1) speech, (2) music and then (3) everything else.

Each segment in a language-string is comprised of a pair of native speakers -- first a woman an then a man. This provides a range of permissible pronunciation for the child. Also it means that the child can hear the same material twice and that a woman's voice always means that a new language is being heard and that a man's voice will follow in the same language.

For most children, there is at least one language in a language-string which is spoken in the child's household. The 25 languages used in each language-string encompass native languages used by at least 80% of humanity. This imbedded segment provides a guide to a child as to the meaning of the other language segments in a language-string. If the various language-strings are heard frequently, then they become familiar and the result is that good native pronunciation skills are acquired. Of equal important is the systematic exposure to the vocabularies of the other languages. These two factors -- good pronunciation and vocabularies formulated into language-strings -- create a basic linguistic foundation. With this background, the refinement and use of these languages can become much easier.