Language Learning in Young Children

Different Types of Learning

It can be helpful for you as a parent to understand the internal processes of language acquisition of children in a multilingual environment in order to assist your child on their journey in a multilingual setting. There is:

• Implicit Learning

  • A child is exposed to unknown into- nation, sounds, words or sentence structure. They become familiar with the specific characteristics of the language and implicitly take in the under- lying structure of the language without any conscious effort. Children are like sponges, absorbing the language around them.

• Explicit Learning

  • A child starts to notice the unknown characteristics of the language they are exposed to regularly. They investigate the differences in this specific language in order to make out its structure.

• Incidental Learning

  • A child can learn certain features of a language from context. They can grasp the meaning of a word from the context, without obvious intention or awareness. This is most noticeable in younger children.

• Intentional Learning

  • The unclear meaning of a word leads to intentional inquiry. The child might observe or ask questions. The child might explicitly ask for a certain meaning when unsure (pointing towards an object - “This? - “This is a chair”) or might explain that what they are holding is a teddy bear (“me teddy bear”).