As a linguist, Helen Doron, founder and CEO of Helen Doron Educational Group, is naturally fascinated by languages. What also intrigues her is the innate ability of children to pick up and master languages within a few years.
Even more amazing, Doron believes, is their capacity to learn languages simultaneously, and perfect all of them equally, if, of course, they are exposed to the right examples.
"I started out, 30 years ago, with a conviction that young children can learn many languages and very easily if properly presented, but no one was doing it. So, I looked around the world, years before the internet, and I couldn't find anyone doing it. This was absolutely crazy," said Doron, who has centres in more than 30 countries around the world, including five in Thailand. She was in Bangkok recently to visit her schools and talked to the press.
Her idea is simple — teaching a new language should be the same as teaching a mother tongue. It should be done in a natural environment, in a way that makes sense to the child, with positive reinforcement and consistency.
"You have to teach babies and children like they learn their mother tongue – repeated hearing and positive reinforcement," she said, citing an example of when a child utters his first few words and is rewarded with compliments. It's the parents' enthusiasm that prompts the child to want to learn.
British-born Doron recognises the importance of speaking English as, throughout the world, it is considered a vital skill that she believes should be mastered as young as possible. It is for this reason that she designed courses for children as young as three months old, to make sure they are exposed to the language in a way that is relevant, fun, and useful.
For example, Doron suggests playing English songs in the home so that the child can feel familiar with the language.
"This is our principle. They hear it in the background every day when they're eating, playing, going to sleep," she said.
"Make sure they hear. It's through the hearing that the brain is stimulated. If they go to a class once or twice a week, it's not enough to stimulate the brain. Everyday stimulation is needed in order to become bilingual."
Being bilingual is more than just being able to speak another language. Doron said that a second language stimulates the brain and encourages progress in other areas as well.
"When children learn English, or a second language, at a young age, everything becomes easier. There's nothing more stimulating for the brain than learning a language," said Doron, adding that it would be a waste of a great opportunity if parents did not encourage a second language when the child's brain is at its readiest to learn.
In her experience, she noticed that many parents are also worried that their children will pick up the "right" accent. Doron, however, thinks accents are not a major worry.
"My daughter has an English accent. She goes to America and comes back with an American accent. You can acquire accents easily if you hear them a lot.
There are hundreds, if not thousands of British and American accents. Have you ever spoken to a Scottish person? Is that the accent the parents want their children to have? I don't think so."
In fact, Dorn believes that there is no such thing as the right accent, and even with grammar, what's right for one group of people might sound wrong for others. She provides an example of her first assignment in university, in which she was given many sentences and asked to identify which were grammatically correct and which weren't. She later found out that the sentences were all spoken by native English speakers in different parts of the country and to them, they were correct grammar.
She also believes that non-standard accents can be a good lesson for children learning English as well. "Exposure to different accents is good because it means more flexibility for the child to understand. English is an international language. Everyone has a different accent, and you will have to tune in and listen to different accents. When you speak to a French person, it might not sound like English, but you have to understand that. When we teach our teenagers in our listening course, we deliberately record different accents," she said.
While Doron believes in the most natural way of learning, she also does not write off technology. In fact, Helen Doron English has developed fun educational videos and interactive applications to help the students learn.
"You can't fight technology. I think the most important thing to us is the repeated hearing. We now use videos to support this, but we don't spend all our lessons watching videos. We watch a portion, and the rest is activities. It's really supportive and it motivates children a lot more. It's fun and they repeat whole sentences much easier," she commented.
One important thing she highlighted is positive reinforcement, which she said is not just a learning method but a family philosophy. Saying "no" or labelling a child's response "wrong" is not a good way to encourage them to learn. "The word 'no', even if you say it nicely, always means 'No, stupid.'"
Instead of saying they are wrong, tell them what's right, explained Doron. For example, if you hold up a flash card, and the child says it's a dog when it's a cat, simply tell them that it's a cat. When he repeats it, compliment him on his effort.
"That way, he'll have forgotten he ever said it wrong. Everyone comes out a winner. It's actually a family philosophy. You do it with your whole family. Instead of saying no to them, use positive reinforcement to get them to do the right thing," said Doron.
