After watching this fantastic video with tips to advance the language skills of young children (based on research), a teacher asked me “Isn’t this more a video more for parents? [Sic] What are the ramifications for modern language teachers?”

My response was, “substitute the word ‘parent’ by ‘modern language teacher,’” but that’s an easy answer.  Let me elaborate a little more.

Foreign language teachers understand that helping our students reach high levels of proficiency is the ultimate goal in our profession. Obviously, bilingual parents share this goal as well (at least many).

But the question is, do world language teachers use proficiency-building strategies like the ones on the video on a consistent basis and from early childhood?

Or do they use activities mostly targeted to learning limited vocabulary and expressions?

Judging by the fact that most students in the US never pass the Novice High level and only some reach the Intermediate levels (even fewer get to Advanced) and seeing what I see around, I suspect that more needs to be done to advance the language skills of our students.

By the way, what does it mean to graduate with a Novice High level? It means that after years spent in foreign language classes the majority of US students out there can’t communicate much further than a simple “Hi, my name is… What is your name?” and highly scripted exchanges of the sort. The moment a native speaker starts talking to them in fluent conversation, they are completely lost.

We Language Teachers Can Learn from Bilingual Parents

So going back to the video, I believe that this video is specially well-suited for foreign or modern language teachers because it points very clearly to the things that are missing in today’s foreign language classrooms and it provides great examples of how to tackle the problem in early childhood.

It’s not just a video for bilingual (or monolingual) parents!

Let’s review what the video says:

“A child isn’t born with a language ready to go.” It is all about the early experiences.

“The role of experience in shaping the brain systems [that are] important for language starts very early.” Actually, it starts from the womb.

Young children do not zero in to recordings, DVDs, etc. Social interaction is critical.

“The changes in the brain do not happen automatically when they reach a certain age. They only happen when children actually learn more words and more complex sentences.”

So what the researcher in the video highlights is the importance of “the right kind of experiences.”

***These experiences are indeed so critical in the case of language development that, as expressed in the last bullet point, the changes in the brain will not happen just because a child reaches a certain age. They will only happen if he or she receives the right type of language stimulus.***

Are we providing the “right kind of experiences” that will lead to a change in the brain and high levels of language proficiency in the target language in the current early language classrooms?

Those of you who believe with me that we are not quite there yet, may want to reexamine the video and self-apply some of the great advice there.

We, teachers of young children, together with the bilingual (or monolingual) parents shown in the video can help by:

• Talking a lot and using more complex language than our students are using.
• Taking turns in our conversations with them, not just doing all the talking.
• Providing full explanations to our students’ questions and asking questions to them as well.
• Reading to and sharing books with our students every day.

If we believe that we are incredibly fortunate to be working with children at the best time to learn languages (the “sensitive period” that the researcher mentions), then we have an equal responsibility to make sure that we provide the best possible language experiences for our students.

Let’s start the conversation, and let’s keep learning from bilingual parents (that is, let’s realize that the same advice geared to them applies to us, language teachers!).

Best,

Ana Lomba

Ana Lomba

Reimagine Your Language Learning Space

Once upon a time, I was a young Spanish teacher in a beautiful private school in Princeton, NJ, called the Chapin School. Chapin had just finished building an amazing new addition and – lucky me – I was assigned a huge classroom with big windows to the well-cared grounds.

There I was, in a wonderful empty space full of possibilities. I could do anything I wanted with my classroom – what an amazing opportunity, ah? So I, being the novice teacher that I was and not knowing any better, quickly crowded the empty space with desks, chairs, file cabinets, and posters and banners in Spanish about the colors, numbers, etc.  Not only that, I spent the next few months making hundreds of flashcards to fill up those cabinets… quite something if you know what I think about flashcards today!

In my defense I will say that it probably works like this in any profession – you first have to walk the beaten path for a while before you blaze your own trail.

My perspective about the ideal language learning space has changed 360° ever since. Or rather, I have a perspective today while back then I didn’t have any – I simply didn’t even think in terms of learning space design, period. Having taught in many different types of settings afterwards (mostly rented space in schools and churches) has probably contributed a great deal to my way of thinking today.

I invite you to look at this “Play and Learn Spaces” pin board where I have posted some pictures with play design ideas I find intriguing.

Of course it depends on what space you have available as a teacher, but if I could go back to ’97 and be the space designer of that glorious Spanish classroom, I would:

• Think in terms of a theater stage. That is, part of the classroom would essentially be used as a stage to be redecorated according to the lesson’s theme. For example, if we were working on a story, the classroom would be decorated for that particular story. Everything would be movable and storage-friendly.

• Depending on the age of the students, I would enlist their help in creating the decorations and integrate this as one more component of the language instruction (in parent-child classes, the parents can be the helpers).

• Also depending on the age of the students, the decorations would be more realistic (for young children) or more symbolic (for older children). For older children that can understand symbolic representation, something as simple as the mirror in this picture would do.

• The younger the children the more realistic the props should be, such as this ice cream truck.

• I like this picture because it shows how even lines with black tape on the walls can be quite creative and suggestive.

• One could also use green and brown cardboard on the wall and other props to suggest a jungle, a forest or a garden.

• And what about using sturdy room dividers made out of cork, flannel, cloth, cardboard or other materials? These panels could also serve as additional boards to hang, pin or draw scene images. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a good picture to show what I have in mind, but I think you’ll get the idea.

The possibilities are endless once you start exploring, and even in situations where you do not have your own classroom or playroom you can be inventive and create small theatrical stages or play centers. Take a look at this picture of the three little pigs houses that I used on a simple flannel board.

What are your ideas about fun spaces for language learning? Any pictures that you would like to share?

BTW, there are more pictures on the Play and Learn Spaces board that I mentioned, not only the ones above.

Best,

Ana Lomba

Ana Lomba

Karen and I at the ACTFL Worl Expo 2011 in Denver, Colorado

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ annual conference last week attracted more than 7,000 attendees this year. This must be roughly about 50% of its current membership – WOW! What an amazing turnout for an educational organization, and especially a foreign language organization!

It comes to show the commitment of world language educators even in these uncertain times for anything education, and also the attractiveness and quality of the workshops, events, exhibitions, and networking opportunities at this great conference.

My colleague from the preschool English/Dual Language Learning world, Karen Nemeth (author of Many Languages: One Classroom) and I presented a workshop for those interested in the early years (ages zero to five). Here is a slideshow of our presentation, “How to Teach Languages to Toddlers and Preschoolers:”

We invite you to post your questions or comments below.

Best,

Ana Lomba

Ana Lomba

Having great language-learning potential is not enough - the approach matters!

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It’s all over the news these days:

Not only are young children linguistic pros by nature, but learning languages makes them smarter too!

• “Hearing Bilingual: How Babies Sort Out Language” – New York Times
• “The Linguistic Genius of Babies” – TED
• “Bilingualism is Good Exercise for Kids (and Adults)”– NBC News, Education Nation
• “The Bilingual Advantage” – New York Times
• “5 Facts About Bilingualism” – Huffington Post
• “The benefits of bilingualism, now and later” – Montgomery News
• “How To Help Your Child’s Brain Grow Up Strong” – NPR

Those are fantastic news for young children learning languages – but what the news doesn’t tell you is that there are good and not so good ways to introduce a child to a new language.

In fact, some practices out there are so bad that, if you are not careful, you may end up flipping the coin and turning your little language Einstein into little language Frankenstein!

Let me tell you about a few common practices that may be hurting your child right now:

• Are you using flashcards with your child? That is, showing your child a card with an image and asking the child for the name of the image in the target language?
• Is he or she playing games that teach a foreign language word here and there? (For example, you touch a moving object and you hear its name)
• Are you watching videos that translate words back and forth? (“It is an elephant” / “C’est un éléphant”)

Well, there you go! With rote learning practices like those, you are well on your way to turn your child into a linguistic dummy.

I’ll tell you why most flashcard-style products are BAD NEWS for children learning languages in a moment, but first let me share with you 3 tips not to fall under their spell:

Tip #1: Learn to Recognize Flashcards Regardless of the Package

As the humorous Spanish proverb says, “Te conozco Bacalao aunque vayas disfrazado,” which literally means, “I know you Cod, even in that costume.”

Like codfish, the intense flavor of flashcards is hard to hide!

Have you noticed that codfish has a heavy smell and taste? It is hard to disguise it in other dishes[1]…

Well, you may not be currently aware of the strong smell and taste of flashcards, but they are certainly stinky and fishy too!

What are language-learning flashcards? Flashcards’ main use is to help people memorize foreign language words or phrases. In the case of young children, the most commonly used flashcards are colors, numbers, days of the week, animals, etc.

What you may not realize is that – just like cod – flashcards can be disguised within expensive yellow boxes, fancy CDs, DVDs, TV programs a la Dora the Explorer, mobile applications… you name it!

Ah, but don’t let the glamour deceive you! Not even if you see news about these types of programs on CNN, CNBC, Fox News, Univision or even on the front page of the New York Times. Your child is still learning colors, numbers, clothes, animals, etc.

No matter what the sophisticated look, a flashcard is a flashcard is a flashcard. “I know you Flashcard, even in that costume.” Remember to always look beyond the packaging.

So that’s tip #1: Learn to recognize the cod when you see it! The flashcard approach has permeated other media, but the goal remains the same: memorizing small segments of language out of context.

Tip #2: Understand Why There Is This Flashcard Mentality

The flashcard mentality originates in the (false) idea that a language is a group of words or small parts of language put together.

Therefore, after you have mastered a few colors, numbers, food, furniture, and similar stuff, all you have to do in order to master a language is… you bet! String words!

Word 1 + Word 2 + Word 3 + Word 4 = A sentence!

For example:

La + manzana + está + sobre + la + mesa = La manzana está sobre la mesa.

¡Bravo!

The next step is to change some words by others. For example, “manzana” (apple) for “naranja” (orange), or “sobre” (over) for “debajo de” (under), etc.

I think you get the idea. There are different variations of this approach, by the way.

In reality, languages are like forests. You won’t ‘get’ a forest by aligning trees in rows, and you won’t ‘get’ a language by aligning words in rows either. Better to park the tractor and leave the row cultivation to the farmers!

So that’s tip #2: Realize that the flashcard approach places undue merit on words and small pieces of language. Languages are much more than strings of words, and this is not the best way to learn them – although one would think so, judging by the gigantic flashcard industry.

Tip #3: Don’t Let Yourself Become a Flashcard!

You don’t want to stink like codfish yourself, right?

Unfortunately, you may be doing this unconsciously…

Given flashcards’ omnipresence and the astute marketing behind them, it should come as no surprise that many people end up internalizing the message and start teaching and talking in a flashcard manner – go to YouTube and watch a few videos of people teaching or learning languages and you’ll see what I mean.

At home, you may find yourself:

• Showing a thing, saying its name in Italian and then translating it in English immediately.
• Or singing English songs with a Spanish word here or there.
• Or reading books in English that contain German expressions every once in while.
• Or playing with your child a game on the iPad that teaches Arabic words while waiting at the pediatrician’s office.

See what I mean?

And if you don’t do it yourself, you may send your child to a program where that’s what they do – memorize lists of words, even if in an animated fashion.

But, Why Are Flashcards So Bad for Your Children’s Language Development?

Because the time you spend using flashcards is time not spent using fluent language, and time is ticking…

Remember that I told you that young children have the very best language learning brain? Then, why spoon-feeding them words? Why not learning fluent language? Why wasting your child’s incredible linguistic potential on flashcards?

This is what happens when you spoon-feed your child words and phrases:

• Your child doesn’t need to apply higher levels of cognition to figure out how the language works – to ‘get’ the forest.
• Your child doesn’t need to increase his or her usual range of attention in order to stay alert and understand the meaning.
• Your child doesn’t need to get over the fear of saying something wrong or sounding funny.
• Your child doesn’t need to make the effort to understand native speakers.
• Your child doesn’t need to make the effort to engage other speakers in a conversation (or play with them).
• Your child doesn’t need to make the effort to understand a new concept explained in the other language.

[By the way, it is challenging tasks like these ones that make of language learning one of the best exercises for the brain and also for social development.]

And then, there is the last drop in the bucket:

Your child will get used to flashcards and will give up easily when trying anything more complex than learning words or small chunks of language (“This is too difficult!”).

The result?

If you are not careful and continue down the flashcard road you will end up turning your little linguistic genius into a linguistic dummy. And let me tell you, it will be very hard to change your child’s negative attitude toward learning in a fluent manner after the damage is done (the same thing happens to adults as well, by the way).

A second result is that your child will not experience the intellectual growth that new research shows in children learning languages. Intellectual growth typically takes place when you challenge yourself and get out of your comfort zone, not when you are spoon-fed knowledge.

As you can see, not all language-learning approaches are created equal. In the case of flashcards, you are simply wasting your money – and your child’s prime time for language learning, which is much worse.

*On a final note to this blog post, I want to clarify that flashcards can be beneficial, but only if used smartly. I will talk more about it in a future blog. *

Until then, please share this blog post with other parents and teachers of young children learning languages.

Together, we can defeat the Flashcard Goliath.

Best wishes,

Ana Lomba

P. S.: As a program owner told me once, “Since parents don’t know the difference, why should I care?” Please realize that the Mighty Flashcard is the ultimate cash-machine in language learning. Cashing! – YOU and your child may be unsuspected victims if you are not aware of this.

P.S.S: Establishing good language-learning strategies and habits is crucial in early childhood. It will be VERY hard to change habits once they are well established. The moment to act is NOW. You will never get those early years back.

P.S.S.S: If you want to get informed about best practices in early language education, join my list on this website and follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

Ana (the Big Bad Wolf) about to pay a visit to his friends the three pigs

Storytelling is one of the most enjoyable and effective techniques to teach languages to young children.

When you read or tell stories to children you immerse them in rich language in context, which in turn leads to higher levels of sophistication in speech and literacy. Since this is true for both the first and the second language, it makes sense to introduce children to the best possible language experience from the very moment they start learning a language!

My interest in storytelling began almost ten years ago when I attended a workshop for early childhood educators at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) conference.

I immediately understood the great potential that storytelling held for language learning, but I had first to deal with a great obstacle: my Spanish students would not understand anything if I presented stories the way I saw that day.

Therefore, I would have to come up with a different approach. In addition, I wanted to engage the help of the parents in my classes to continue the language learning process at home, and this meant that the stories would have to be easy and appealing enough for adults as well.

The first thing I did was to choose the type of story that I was going to use. I decided to go with traditional stories known all over the world. I grew up with these stories and so did generations of people here in the US and in other countries (most of these stories are over two hundred years old). I figured that the familiarity would be essential in creating an instant connection to the language.

Secondly, I tackled the structure of the stories. Language learners do better when they develop conversational skills alongside literacy skills—imagine how it is for a young child to be engaged in reading or writing activities when he can’t even talk to the kid sitting next to him! Therefore, I decided to shorten the narration and make it highly descriptive and include lots of action and conversations among the characters.

The stories started to look like theater scripts, except that they included some narration as well—I believe that the balance between narration and dialogue makes the stories more effective as language learning tools.

The third step I took was to personalize the stories to suit my style of teaching. After researching different versions of the stories (tons of hours spent at the local library), I removed parts that I thought were not essential or that I didn’t like (some were really spooky or inappropriate!), re-wrote other parts, and introduced lots of humor and fun twists. This made the stories less predictable and much more engaging. One of the most important elements of education is motivation, and I wanted my students to have a great time in my classes.

I’m describing this as a sequence of steps, but in reality I was trying and testing everything in my classes and changing things as I went along.

The first story that I wrote and presented during a storytelling session in my class was The Three Little Pigs (actually, the story within the story that you can read in the e-storybook available in my website).

Pretending to be the Big Bad Wolf wondering what to do next

My students had a blast with it! Can you imagine the teacher wearing a wolf snout and talking to three little pigs on a board?

This first attempt was very short though, and it was over before I could get the whole “juice” out of it. I then decided to extend the stories so that I could work on different topics. In order to do so, I begun to think in terms of scenes—each scene to be acted out and reinforced with many different activities during a longer period of time.

The stories became more theatrical, and I would act them out using wigs, masks and all sorts of props. This made the experience even more fun and engaging for my students.

These are the same stories that I offer as e-storybooks in my website and as books in Amazon.com and other stores. Which means that you can now use the stories the same way, that is, in a theatrical manner. You will be surprised at the magic that happens when you do that in your class or with your children at home!

You will then realize how powerful storytelling is for language learning.

A great audience for The Three Little Pigs performance

There are many more things that I could tell you about my approach to storytelling, but I hope you find this brief introduction informative and useful.

P.S.: To subscribe to the e-storybooks, click on “Kids Learn Spanish,” “Kids Learn French,” or “Kids Learn Chinese” on the navigation bar according to your chosen language and follow the instructions to purchase through PayPal.

P.S.S.: The stories are bilingual with English, and can also be used in reverse (that is, to learn English from Chinese or the other two languages). The audio is by native professional actresses.

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

A teacher's guide to teach Spanish to toddlers, preschoolers and early elementary school children

If your goal is to go way beyond drilling your students with vocabulary words (so fashionable these days), this is the guide for you.

Young children have the best brain as well as the best disposition to learn languages. It is a shame – and a waste of time – to expose them to isolated words without a context.

Memorizing vocabulary flashcards, using constant translation, a focus on grammar, and other widespread techniques used with young children today are not only inefficient, but also detrimental in many instances.

The thing is, if you make it too easy, your students will not learn. If you make it too hard, they won’t learn either. When teaching young children Spanish, there is a “just right” or “al dente” point of teaching that brings out the best results.

To achieve high levels of proficiency in Spanish or other languages, young children need to be exposed to – and be helped to use - fluent language. If you teach your students to say, let’s say, “un perro” (“a dog”), this will in no way help them understand people talking about dogs in Spanish, much less talk themselves about dogs in Spanish.

Shouldn’t fluency be the real goal?

Watch this video introduction to the Spanish for Preschoolers E-Guide to discover how you can use my favorite “easy immersion” techniques to create lesson plans that target real fluency from day one:

P.S: Please note that the Spanish for Preschoolers E-Guide is targeted to teachers. I will soon offer a different edition for parents as well as one for people who want to start their own program teaching Spanish. The content is appropriate for teachers of toddlers, preschoolers, kindergarteners and early elementary school students.

P.S.S: If you want to learn how to plan your instruction with a fluency goal in mind, go to www.spanishforpreschoolers.com and claim your own copy of the Spanish for Preschoolers E-Guide.

The guide comes with a 100% money-back guarantee, so if you don’t like it, just write to me and ask for a refund. As easy as that!

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

Parents May Be the Tipping Point in Early Language Education

On a recent Wednesday evening a couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of participating in a very interesting panel discussion focused on early bilingual education in Manhattan hosted by New York Family magazine. The audience was a mix of bilingual and monolingual parents exploring the best ways to introduce their kids to a second language.

Affluent, highly educated and highly motivated, these parents certainly understand that by selecting bilingual schools or programs they are making one of the best investments in their children’s future. A few of the parents had lived in different countries and spoke several languages themselves.

There were three main points that I covered in my presentation:

• Early childhood is the best time to introduce languages

• Parents are the catalysts in their children’s language education

• Parents can be excellent language teachers, even if they are monolingual

Early childhood is the best time to introduce languages

If you follow my blog, you are already aware that early childhood is the best time to introduce languages. New studies focused on the preschool years are coming out all the time, and in the panel discussion I made reference to the video by Dr. Patricia Kuhl focused on her research on babies’ amazing sound discrimination prowess that I highly recommend to you as well.

Parents are the catalysts in their children’s language education

This second point is a bit more subtle. Let me explain.

In many parts of the world (e.g. Europe) it is taken for granted that children will study a second language, and world languages are part of the core curriculum from the first years of school.

This is not the case here in the States, which means that it is up to the parents to take the initiative if their children are going to get off to a great start in a second language. This is true pretty much anywhere in the US, even in the largest cities such as NYC.

A survey conducted in 2008 by the Center for Applied Linguistics showed that about 25% of US elementary public schools offered world languages, a decrease from 31% a decade earlier. The data shows that, even today, the large majority of schools in the US only offer programs in high school, way too late to generate a pool of graduates at the advanced level (most kids who start taking languages in high school only achieve a Novice-High or Intermediate-Low level, so pretty much they just know how to perform very basic functions such as finding out where the bathroom is). [Click here to learn more about the ACTFL speaking proficiency levels]

For this reason, it’s up to US parents to research what if anything is available in their local schools, locate high quality enrichment or afterschool classes, private tutoring, and other options.

Parents can be excellent language teachers, even if they are monolingual

The reality is that even if you are lucky enough to find a fantastic program with a highly motivated teacher and your young child loves the class, he or she will only learn so much in a 45-minute session once or twice a week. The good news is that parents are ideally situated to reinforce the language learning at home through playful everyday activities if they are shown how to do so.

Once parents understand that they are in the perfect position to teach their kids, they will need to find the right resources to guide them through this process. This is true whether the parents are bilingual or monolingual. It just requires a bit more effort on the part of monolingual parents, as they will really be learning along with their kids.

Of course bilingual parents have the advantage that they can provide an immersive environment for their children, but even short amounts of time on a frequent basis go a long way in language learning.

The tipping point in early language education is possible

I have been working on enabling parents to teach their children (fluent) languages for several years. My goal during the next few months is to take the project a few steps farther and provide stay-at-home moms and other parents interested in teaching languages to their young children the bilingual resources and planning information they’ll need as they move along.

Co-presenters

My co-presenters for the Manhattan panel were:

• Patricia Lo, Director of the Asian Languages Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center for the NYC Department of Education.
• Sharon Huang, of Bilingual Buds, a Chinese immersion program for toddlers and preschoolers in Manhattan and NJ.
• Lora Heller, Founder of Baby Fingers, a sign-language program for young children in Manhattan.

How Preschool Children Learn Languages and How Administrators Can Help Webinar

On March 9^th, I also presented a free webinar sponsored by Early Childhood Investigations. To listen to the webinar recording click here “How Preschool Children Learn Languages”

To read the responses to the participants’ questions, click here: “Q&A for Ana Lomba’s Session on How Preschool Children Learn Languages.”

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

There has been much talk over the past year about Apple’s revolutionary iPad and how it will change the way kids learn. Many schools have started introducing iPads into the classroom, most recently the New York Times reported on January 4, 2011 that Rosalyn High School, located on Long Island, provided 47 iPads to students and teachers, and at some point they would like to have iPads for all 1,100 students.

It’s a significant investment at an estimated $750 cost for each iPad, but the investment is expected to save money in the long run by cutting printing and textbook costs. The fact that the iPads are cool and the kids love to use them is just a bonus. The NYT article states that there are currently about 5,400 educational applications on the ipad.

Many other high schools and colleges across the country have started using the iPad in the classroom as well, but how about the little ones? Is the iPad an effective platform for young language learners? Well, it depends … it depends on the apps that are used.

The iPad absolutely can be a phenomenal platform for kids learning Spanish, French or Chinese in preschool if you have the right apps. The key is that the iPad apps for toddlers and preschoolers must meet the unique developmental needs and interests of this age group. The iPad itself will get their initial interest but it is the apps that will get them hooked. A textbook type approach won’t work – you will not be able to get a little kid to start conjugating verbs (you will lose them from the start, and this isn’t even an effective approach). On the other hand, a flashcard based approach with colors, days of the week, numbers, etc. is just not effective or particularly interesting.

Preschool language experts will tell you that one of the best ways to introduce kids to language is through storytelling. If done right, the kids are captivated while learning whole language in context. The kids hear words, phrases, and whole sentences in the dialogue (ideally with lively narration and vivid illustrations). For further reinforcement, the language can be supported with related games, crafts, songs, pretend play and other activities revolving around the story’s theme (e.g. The Three Little Pigs). Best of all, if the iPads and the story apps can travel home this will create an educational partnership with the parents – and this is when the language proficiency takes off.

As a firm believer in the iPad revolution and an advocate for early language learners, my company is proud to offer a 50% discount to educational institutions when purchasing multiple versions of my iPad apps. Current offerings include The Red Hen, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Thumbelina, Jack and The Beanstalk, and The Ugly Duckling. All titles are bilingual Spanish/English, French/English and Mandarin/English.

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

Need Inspiration for 2011? What's Holding Your Dream of a Language Program?

I believe in making New Year resolutions. Most people don’t have new resolutions each year, but I think it is a healthy thing to do, especially when we focus on the big picture and significant goals.

Actually, this is how I started my business. Let me tell you about it. Maybe my story will be the trigger that sets you in motion:

Twelve years ago, I was a graduate student at Princeton University and I lived on campus with my husband and our toddler son. While I loved literature (that’s what I was studying), I was growing increasingly impatient. I knew that I didn’t want to be a professor (nothing wrong about it, just not for me). I wanted to do something different. It had to be something I felt passionate about and something flexible enough that I could be there for my kids. I had NO idea what. That was a problem…

I was starting to feel like this group of friends in the Disney movie The Jungle Book:

In my mind everything was an obstacle: “So what in the world am I going to do with a degree in literature? What other professional assets do I have? I studied Law in Spain, but my degree was worth zero here. I could not work as a lawyer. And what will I do with my kids? I want to be here for them….” And on and on and on.

During that restless year, I discovered that Princeton Univ. had a program to help students who wanted to get out of the academic world. I found the ‘Out of the Ivy-League Tower’ workshops and book very interesting, but in my mind I kept thinking that I couldn’t possibly do it, because the other attendees had studied things that I thought were more ‘useful.’ Literature was not the most practical or marketable asset.

I understand today that this was just my negative mindset at the time. Do you ever find yourself focusing on the negatives rather than potential opportunities?

Fortunately for me, I was restless and I knew I had to explore new frontiers. After five years teaching Spanish to Princeton undergrads I tried teaching Spanish in a private middle school for a year and I didn’t like it. I guess once I was in the ‘exploratory’ mode I needed more freedom than that of a classroom teacher.

So now what? I then started posting fliers all over offering to teach groups of little children and their parents. A friend provided a room in the back of her children’s bookstore (she sold international books, what an ideal partnership!). By then it was November.

My first attempts at teaching parent-child groups on my own were not great, but I loved it, and by December I had formulated my next year resolution: I would figure out how to teach Spanish to toddlers and preschoolers (at that point I had taught Spanish for 8 years at the University and middle school level, but young children are a much different ‘animal’ than the older crowd, as I was discovering…).

So those are the very humble beginnings of my company.

During the early years of my program, I had to change my teaching approach several times as I learned through trial and error. I also developed my own materials – at that time there was really nothing available in the market for kids beyond simple flashcards (which I hope that by now you know are a big “no no” for me).

In addition, I had to change my business model as life happened. The most dramatic moment was when my youngest daughter was born almost 8 years ago. She had to be resuscitated at birth, and during her first two years of life she spent long periods of time in the hospital. Today, she doesn’t sit, walk, or eat on her own (she has a feeding tube). Her cognition is that of a 6 month old baby. We love her very much and celebrate her milestones. This year something wonderful happened: she started to play on her own.

The birth of my youngest daughter meant it would be difficult to continue my Princeton-based Spanish classes for toddlers and preschoolers, so I shifted gears, focusing on the development and web based distribution of materials for teachers and parents who want their kids to learn languages.

In an amazing stroke of good fortune in that difficult year of 2003, when my daughter was born, an editor from the McGraw-Hill publishing company found my website, read about my background, and asked me to submit a book proposal. This proposal is the one that led to the Parents Choice Award-winning books Play and Learn Spanish and Play and Learn French.

Some may say I was very lucky, but I rather believe that this is due to the “being-ready” factor, or as the famous chemist Louis Pasteur put it, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

For everything worthwhile there are always challenges along the way, personal or professional. Everybody has them. I have shared some of mine with you. I guess my message would be that the challenges should not get in the way of chasing your dreams. Rather, they should be the spring that impulses you to reach them.

“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me…  It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.  Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.  Don’t lose faith.  I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.  You’ve got to find what you love.  And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.  Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.   And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.  If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.  Don’t settle.  As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.  And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.  So keep looking until you find it.  Don’t settle.”

-Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple

[Quote added after Jobs' death on October 2011]

If you love languages and children as I do, and you have talents to share as an experienced (or aspiring) teacher, then 2011 may just be the year for you to consider starting your own program. For sure, building a successful business is not easy, and there will be plenty of challenges along the way.

However, on this special 1/1/11 New Year’s Day, let’s remember the old Chinese adage, “A journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.” It’s all about embarking in the journey. You don’t have to do EVERYTHING at once. It can be as simple as posting some fliers around…

Are you ready to take the first step? If so, I am ready to help.

My resolution for 2011 is to make it easier for new businesses to get started teaching Spanish, French, and Chinese to toddlers, preschoolers, and young children. In the next few months, I’ll be offering curriculum-starter packages, workshops, and consulting opportunities. These will be appropriate for at-home bilingual moms getting their feet wet teaching one or two classes at home or in the local church or library. The offerings will also be well suited for professional educators or business people looking to set up larger scale operations.

As you proceed, there will always be challenges, but it is important to look back at what you have achieved. Perhaps you could tie these moments to your New Year’s resolutions.

Here are a few of my highlights in 2010:

• Signed new contracts with McGraw-Hill for second and expanded editions of Parents’ Choice award-winning books Play and Learn Spanish and Play and Learn French as well as a new Play and Learn Chinese, to be published in the fall of 2011.
• New subscriptions to the e-storybooks via my analomba.com website.
• New iPad applications. Over 40,000 downloads since launch in late August.
• Almost 900 sales of McGraw-Hill books in the US in December alone.
• Substantially completed the curriculum for 1 to 10 year olds: almost 4 years in the making, 24 thematic units per language. Thousands upon thousands of hours of writing at home, the library, or in local cafés.
• Ready to repackage the curriculum in programs for parents, exploring moms like myself a few years ago, startups, and language schools.
• Interesting conversations and leads with parents and businesses that want to learn more about our offerings and even take us in new directions.

Ana Lomba

P.S.: I’ll leave you with this inspiring video by Steve Jobs (long but worth watching in its entirety):

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba

A great way to learn Spanish food names through fairy tales

Knowing what we now know about children learning two or more languages, I find it quite puzzling that schools and homes don’t stack their libraries’ shelves with bilingual books.

Why are bilingual books important? Because…

Bilingual books and materials serve as a scaffold for our children’s skills in the second or weaker language by mobilizing the assets of their first or stronger language.

And the beauty of it all is that they work in reverse as well:

The more our children learn in their weaker language, the stronger their dominant language gets.

Why? Because our brain is constantly making connections, and because language skills transfer.

Bilingual books facilitate this connective process by visually contrasting the two languages – Boom! You open the book and there they are, right in front of you. The child doesn’t have to spend hours trying to decipher the language in order to understand the content. Instead, with a little bit of preparation in the stronger language, she can focus her attention on building up the weaker or newer language. And if the books or materials include audio, that is another wonderful scaffolding tool for the brain.

Our children’s time is best spent on developing strategies to advance further in the new language, not on figuring out what’s going on every step of the way – the latter can be tremendously frustrating!

Keep in mind, however, that:

• Not all bilingual books are created equal (there are different types of bilingual books).

• Not all usage of even great bilingual books is equally effective.

• Not all bilingual books are equally useful to different audiences.

This article focuses on the third point, the audience, and specifically on three important factors to consider about the audience: the cultural background of the child, the age of the child, and the adult teachers of the child.

So, why does the audience matter?

1. The cultural background of the child

A western child new to Chinese has different needs than a child of Chinese-American heritage. A book that is too culture-centered may overwhelm the western child. Moreover, chances are that she will rarely use the language included in the book because it has little application to her everyday life. However, the same book may be perfect for the Chinese-American child if she is an active participant of that culture.

Parents can learn to speak with their children in Spanish with Play and Learn Spanish

In my opinion, many world language programs rush too quickly into remote cultural topics of little relevance to young children; consequently these students don’t learn language for the here and now.

A better approach would be to introduce cultural topics in stages: focus on building a solid language foundation around the child’s everyday life first so that the student can operate at a more advanced level as she encounters more of the culture. Otherwise, language study ends up feeling like a social studies class.

Please note that this does not mean that culture should not be introduced from the beginning. What I am saying is that it makes sense to focus on elements of the culture that ‘flow’ with the children’s developmental stage and everyday environment as opposed to taking them too far too quickly.

2. The age of the child

The younger the child the more child-centric the books should be. Don’t expect a four year old to understand things that are outside her life experience. As an author specializing in writing for young children, I try to create bilingual books that engage toddlers and preschoolers, but that are aimed at parents as well. The idea is to help the parents learn a new language or improve their language skills so that they can use them with their children in an interactive manner.

3. The adult teachers of the child

In my years of writing bilingual books and curriculum, I have come to realize that it is critical to consider not only the children as audience, but their parents or caregivers as well.

When I started writing bilingual books, I noticed a few things:

• The large majority of adults teaching languages to young children (that is, ages 0 to are educated and have varying degrees of command of the target language, but often lack formal training in language education.

• Many parents trying to raise their children bilingually at home do not do so systematically or with a plan in mind, even if they are themselves bilingual.

• To complicate matters, there are quite a few deeply entrenched misconceptions about language learning in the general public.

I concluded that as an author, I had to focus more on the needs of these adults, and to model effective interactions to help them advance their own language skills. If you use the book Play and Learn Spanish, for example (a bilingual book geared to parents), you will see that it depicts parents and children interacting in typical everyday situations. Parents using this book can incorporate these interactions in their daily routines little by little.

My stories also enhance literacy acquisition while developing oral skills (they are very dialogue rich), and include games that help with building vocabulary.

As I go along, I am discovering other audiences for my books that I didn’t anticipate. For example, many grandparents use the books to learn or to pass on their native language to their grandchildren. This is not surprising. In my culture (I’m from Spain), grandparents play a very important role in their grand children’s upbringing, so it is only natural that they are interested in learning new things with their grandchildren. Similarly, there are many stay-at-home moms (and dads) who want to boost their children’s education while developing new professional skills for themselves.

In sum, bilingual books are fantastic tools to conserve our children’s energy and redirect it to where it will have the most impact (growth). It is important to be strategic in relation to the audience. As an author with a specific audience in mind, I integrate that consideration into the planning and design of my products.

Teachers, administrators, parents, and grandparents can also have greater success if they understand not only the needs of the children in their care but also their own needs as active participants in their children’s education.

With best wishes,
Ana Lomba

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Ana Lomba is changing the way people think about and interact with young children learning languages. Her Parents’ Choice award-winning books, lively songs, games, stories, and mobile applications are quickly becoming favorites with teachers and parents who want to nurture young children’ inborn language abilities. Key to the success of Ana’s break-through method is a focus on the family as the ideal environment for early language learning – even her signature curriculum for language programs is built with parents in mind. Ana has taught toddler, preschool, elementary school, and college-level Spanish courses, and held leadership positions with some of the most influential language organizations in the US, including ACTFL, NNELL and FLENJ. After graduating with a law degree from Spain, her native country, Ana pursued graduate studies at Binghamton University, Princeton University, and NYU.

Ana Lomba