How effective is Language Stars?

[Anonymous]

My 5.5 year old goes there, and is in the 3-5 yo classes 4x/week. She has been doing it for about 7 months. I'd say she is learning and I hope to continue it thru the full program, up until age 10. After that I don't know where we'll go, but I hope to learn more about that b/w now and then. My DD loves going to her classes. LOVES it.

[Anonymous]

Oh, wow, who can do it 4 times a week??

[Anonymous]

11:24 can.

[Anonymous]

Yes, she goes to two sessions back-to-back on Saturdays, and two during the week.

There are quite a # of kids who do this at the location we go to.

[Anonymous]

Love it, love it, love it. My 3-year-old son has been going since he was 23 months. He goes twice a week (when we can get him there) and now teaches us Mandarin.

It's not cheap, but it's not overpriced: if you can afford it, it's worth it. And if you want them to learn a language, there is no substitute for early exposure (especially if it's a tonal language--someday my son is going to realize I can't tell the difference between "mother" and "horse" and have a great laugh at my expense). I have referred others to it and, so far, they've also been very pleased.

Also, the flexibility is great, the teachers are wonderful, and the center directors are outstanding. I can't say enough great things about it.

[Anonymous]

I disagree. It is not effective at all.

[Anonymous]

I think it all depends on what you are looking for. Nothing can replace being spoken to at home. I'm sending my daughter because she think its fun. We tried traditional Chinese school (which are usually very effective) and she hated it. So I choose to have her have positive feelings about the language rather than shooting for the goal of making her fluent.

And the American accent thing is almost unavoidable if your child grows up in the US. I was spoken to at home (i didn't learn to speak English until i was 5), spent my summers in China, and continued Chinese language studies in college and I still have a slight American accent. Only native people can tell.

[Anonymous]

You and your family are the only valuable source of language learning at this point

[Anonymous]

OP, I'm an early childhood language educator and this is the advice I will give you. if you speak Mandarin fluently, YOU are the only one who can help achieve fluency for your child. 14 months is a pivotal age - child will soon realize who speaks which language, and if you're not speaking Mandarin all the time, child will only speak English with you. Your only other options are moving to China, or enrolling your child in a Mandarin immersion preschool program (not bilingual - full immersion) at the earliest possible age.

Programs like Language Stars provide fun activities and will expose children to some words, phrases, etc. They will never achieve a super high level of fluency. It's simply not enough time exposed to the target language. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages recommends at least nine hours per week for children to achieve fluency.

I work with multilingual families all the time and the ones who are successful in passing their language down to their children are the ones who speak their native language ALL THE TIME. You simply can't start slipping into English. Once you do, that's it. Children learn by around 18 months who speaks which language and they start pushing back and only answering in Engllish by about age 3.

Prechool programs that are full immersion can help children achieve a high level of fluency if they spend a good amount of time in the target language. I've seen amazing outcomes in children who are in immersion preschool programs at least 30 hours per week, even when the parents don't speak the target langauge. The challenge is to find a quality preschool program, and then an immersion/bilingual elementary program so the child can continue to maintain and improve literacy skills in the target language.

I would just speak, speak, speak Mandarin with your child. All the time. Don't ever speak English, even in front of your husband. This works. You must keep going when child starts to resist (and child WILL resist at some point - they all do!).

Good luck. You can do it!

[Anonymous]

I do not think there is any Mandarin immersion program besides the one in Chinatown DC. I heard very mixed reviews about it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not think there is any Mandarin immersion program besides the one in Chinatown DC. I heard very mixed reviews about it...

There is one at Potomac Elementary and one in Rockville.

[Anonymous]

We definitely did not like LS. We're now at Alliance Francaise

[Anonymous]

What age are they starting though?

[Anonymous]

I am the one whose child attends Lang Stars classes 4x/week (so that is 6 hours / week). I agree that it won't make her fully fluent. That is not my goal. I think back to (and maybe this is too simplistiic, but it was my experience and so it resonates with me) how I was exposed to Spanish thru very simple things when I was little, such as on "Sesame Street" and "Electric Company," etc. My parents spoke no Spanish at all and yet I feel that my early exposure made it much easier for me to pick up Spanish later, and I did not even take Spanish until I was in 10th grade in high school. That's right: TENTH GRADE. But I felt it was really easy b/c I was already familiar with the general accent, some words, etc. It wasn't totally "Greek" to me.

So, that is my goal in taking my DD to classes at Lang. Stars 4x/week. I am not thinking it will make her fluent, give her a flawless accent, make her rattle off in a 2nd language a mile a minute. I am trying to expose her to the tones, make it very familiar somewhere in the back of her brain, so that, later, it's not totally foreign and bizarre to her when she really tries to learn it.

So, I'd say, Lang Stars is highly effective for us, b/c those are our goals. Will it be effective to you and your child? Depends upon what your goals are.

[Anonymous]

11:54, are you very wealthy? That is a lot of money.