Cultural immersion and learning English

Cultural immersion and learning English

Without leaving France

A new concept

Linguistic holidays in host families have a proven track record and are increasingly popular among young people, particularly teenagers.

However, it is not always easy to travel to the United Kingdom, Ireland, or across the Atlantic to the United States or Canada, especially for children still in primary school. Yet this is the age when children are most receptive to language acquisition.

And what if you didn’t have to leave France to learn English? Youngsters can now stay in a native English host family in France for a total cultural and linguistic experience. Without travelling too far afield from their families.

Learning a language in a classroom situation focuses on grammatical rules and vocabulary enrichment. But language is acquired first and foremost through imitation. Which makes interaction with native English speakers essential.

And it’s so much more fun to learn English while playing in a pool, at the beach, playing games or baking English cakes than in a classroom.

Music, films, games, manual activities, reading and varied actions make for fast progress when learning English.

Studies show that there are three main ways of learning :

• Visual learning – based on images, flashcards and writing words and phrases.
• Auditory learning – the student memorizes words and phrases more easily when he or she reads aloud or through verbal exchanges.
• Kinesthetic learning – the student learns through being involved in diverse and varied activities.

It goes without saying that learning English through total immersion in a host family includes these three main types of learning. Thus most children make much faster progress than in a school environment.

Some facts about language learning:

• The ideal age for language learning is about 7. But the good news is that it’s never too late.
• Learning a second language is proven to prevent the onset of dementia. The onset of the disease seems to be delayed by around four years in bilingual speakers according to a study carried out at York University in Toronto, Canada.
• According to researchers, learning a new language in a short space of time can help the brain to grow!
• The language learning process is mainly conducted by the left side of the brain, which controls logic, reasoning and mathematics.
• According to recent studies, France still has room for improvement as regards learning English.
• Bilingual people have more professional opportunities and higher earnings (on average 25 % more) than their peers.
• English is still the most important language for opening up career opportunities.
• Learning and mastering a second language presents numerous advantages and opportunities for everyone, especially children, as they absorb languages more quickly than adults. And the best way to learn any language is to live it, through total immersion.