A Whole-Family Solution to Learning Languages

● A selection of modern languages from which a family can choose, giving the option of continuing a heritage that may have been lost or extending a family tie, preparing for a move, or learning the language of Wales.

● Multi-age classes conducted, in the same place, at the same time.

● Play-based immersion to make learning fun and social.

● Accessible prices.

● Playgroups for young families to socialise and find comfort in community.

A Global Community in South Wales

The Saturday Circle is a completely new offering, unique in Wales.

"The Saturday Circle" was chosen as a name because the community aspect is fundamental. The group will bring internationally-minded people together to form a global community within a small, real community.

The group will conduct globally-focused events around the language lessons, fundraising for foreign causes, maintaining relationships abroad, and eventually becoming an organisation that strengthens Wales’s ties with other countries through exchanges, camps, and welcoming foreigners to the capital city.

Why Should Children Learn Languages?

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Why Should Children Learn Languages?

● Children under the age of 6 have an aptitude for absorbing and internalising language that is not repeated at any other point in life.

● Learning another language provides cognitive benefits that last well into adulthood. The later the child is exposed to another language, the lesser those benefits.

● Research strongly supports the benefits of bilingualism in language, literacy, social, and cognitive development.

● A family language can strengthen family ties and pass on what may have become a lost heritage.

● Speaking and understanding foreign languages opens up opportunities throughout life, socially, educationally and career-wise.

Children under Age 6 acquire language easily

Researchers at the University of British Columbia delved into how babies learn two languages simultaneously. They found out not only is there no disadvantage to learning two languages at the same time, these babies are actually able to decipher differences between the two as early as 7 months.

There are many cognitive benefits for young children who are simultaneously exposed to more than one language. For example, they have greater neural activity and denser tissue in the areas of the brain related to memory, attention, and language than monolingual learners. These indicators are associated with long-term positive cognitive outcomes for children (Bialystok 2001, Mechelli et al., 2004; Kovelman, Baker, & Petitto, 2006).

Recent studies (1–5) show that children raised bilingually develop a specific type of cognitive benefit during infancy, and that bilingualism offers some protection against symptoms of Alzheimer's dementia in old people.

The benefits, by contrast, are both strong and long-lasting. Bilingual children as young as seven months outperform monolinguals at tasks requiring “executive function”: prioritising and planning complex tasks and switching mental gears. This is probably because monitoring the use of two languages is itself an exercise in executive function. Such studies control for socio-economic status, and in fact the same beneficial effects have been shown in bilingual children of poor families. Finally, the effects appear to be lifelong: bilinguals have later onset of Alzheimer’s disease, on average, than do monolinguals.

Proved cognitive benefits of early language learning

Social, developmental, literacy-based benefits

● Research shows that bilinguals, especially those who have acquired their second language before the age of six, demonstrate superior reading and writing skills, as well as advanced analytical and social skills. Bilingualism has also been shown to improve vocabulary in a child’s native tongue.

● Learning a second language has been shown to improve memory and analytical abilities. A person can become better at multitasking, strengthen problem-solving skills and give abstract thinking a boost.

Social, developmental, literacy-based benefits

● While some teachers and parents believe that in order to succeed academically in the U.S. all children must learn English as quickly as possible, research demonstrates just the opposite. In fact, evidence suggests that children who continue to learn academic concepts in their native language while gradually learning English outperform academically and socially children who are immersed in English-only programs (Chang et al., 2007; Restrepo & Kruth, 2003).

Research strongly supports the benefits of bilingualism in language, literacy, social, and cognitive development. For example, bilingual children have performed better than monolingual speakers on measures of analytical ability, concept formation, cognitive flexibility, and metalinguistic skills (Espinosa, 2008; Hakuta, Ferdman, & Diaz, 1987; Roseberry-McKibbin & Brice, 2005).

Preserving Culture, Creating Opportunities

...being bilingual or multilingual can only give a child an advantage in future endeavours, whatever career path they may choose. “We live in an increasingly global world. Learning a language now is an investment that pays off for a lifetime. Parents realize their kids are going to be competing with not just Americans in the marketplace but peers from all over the world,” says Levine.

There are many advantages to being bilingual: to communicate with people of different languages and cultures; to speak to relatives with whom one would not communicate otherwise; to become literate in more than one language; to facilitate the learning of other languages; to foster open-mindedness and have different perspectives on life; to increase job opportunities; to help others whose language and culture you know, etc. These reasons are not based directly on research as such - they are the opinions of individuals, many of them bilingual - but they make a lot of sense and they are heard repeatedly.

Career Growth and Flexibility

Is native language development stunted?

● Research consistently shows this assumption false.

● Learning another language undisputedly provides cognitive benefits that last well into adulthood.

● Research shows multilingual children, on the whole, to be ahead in terms of linguistic, analytical and social development.

Despite the ongoing research on childhood bilingualism and researchers around the world doing their best to get the word out, the belief that language delay is a byproduct of bilingualism is still an ongoing misconception.

Why Immersion?

This is the root of the “one parent, one language” theory that many bilingual families swear by. By this theory, consistency is important for the learning brain. But one researcher on the topic, François Grosjean (who blogs here), disagrees that one-parent, one-language is a must. Instead, he says, “the need factor is crucial”—that is, the child must experience regular monolingual situations in each language. If there are no domains (school, travel, grandparents) where only one of the two languages will do, “children are very good at judging whether it is worth maintaining a language or letting it wither away.”

First, the input should come from interaction with people (talking, playing, or reading) and not just from DVDs and television. Children will develop a language if they feel they need it and human interactants create that need. Second, moments should be reserved where the input comes from people who do not know the other language, if at all possible, so that the input is free of elements of that other language in the form of code-switches and borrowings. Bringing in the other language is normal in a bilingual environment but it is important that bilingual children realize that they will also find themselves in monolingual situations at various times where only one language can be used.

Why Play-Based?

Jean Houston (1997), author of Educating the Possible Human: "Children can learn almost anything if they are dancing, tasting, touching, seeing, and feeling information" (Dryden & Vos, 1997).

We have four brains in one: the reptile brain, the emotional brain, the "little brain," and the thinking brain (Jensen, 1994; Dryden & Vos, 1997; MacLean, 1990). The brain stem, sometimes called the reptile brain, controls many of our body's involuntary functions such as breathing. The mammalian or emotional brain is located in the center of the brain and stores memory. Therefore, learning is easier if it is made emotional or fun. In fact, the door to learning is emotion (Jensen, 1994; MacLean, 1990; Dryden & Vos, 1997).

The success of foreign language training during the preschool years can be found by visiting migrant nursery schools in Sweden. In these schools you will find three-year-olds speaking three different languages fluently (Dryden & Vos, 1997). In fact, Sweden has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Many people speak different languages, especially at migrant camps where they learn languages quickly. So how is that possible? They use sensory stimulation and play combined with language learning.