When children learn their native language, they do not see it as a subject nor a chore, it is communication. It is the means to interact with their peers and parents and their mechanism to let the world know: who they are, how they feel and what they want. It is an integral part of their identity. However when most British children learn a second language, their relationship with that new language is often similar to that which most children have to mathematics. It is a subject to study and often a chore to learn. The new language is frequently only experienced as a collection of phrases to memorise and rarely are children able to see the new language as what in the long run it should be which is the way of interacting with people from a different country.
Read More