(This article originally appeared as “Niet meertalig opgroeien maar toch meer dan één taal” and was translated by Anastasiya Polozun).
Not all children grow up bilingual. An increasing number of schools in the Netherlands have started to use English in classes for a few hours every week, allowing monolingual children to familiarize with a second language at a young age. Although it is common practice in the Netherlands to start with English lessons in grades 7 or 8 of the primary school, various schools introduce English lessons earlier. Some primary schools also offer French, German or Spanish for the youngest groups. English, however, is by far the most common language, and classes often start already in grade 1 (when children are 4 years old).
In the last few years we have investigated children between 4 and 6 years old, who have received English classes. We observed that children who have more contact with their second language perform better. We are talking about very small differences: elementary schools in the Netherlands offer only a limited number of hours in English. We found no difference between the groups of children that received English one hour per week and groups that received English three and a half hours per week. We saw however that children who receive less than one hour per week in English do not increase their English vocabulary as fast as those with more English instruction. The vocabulary of the kids with little instruction was after two years comparable to the vocabulary of a control group of children who had received no English lessons at school. Children who grow up bilingual have (almost) always significantly more hours of contact with both their languages, and this is reflected in the size of their vocabulary. Sufficient contact with the foreign language seems to be crucial for successful language acquisition, although preschoolers, even with less input in their second language, can improve their language skills.
For more information about early foreign language learning and the results of the Foreign Languages in Primary School project, please mail to l.persson@uu.nl.