The Benefits of Story Listening - Dr Beniko Mason

[@bealion]

The discussion around language acquisition is very close to my heart since I'm raising a child in culture/country (the US) that mostly only uses one language. Anecdotally speaking, kids seem to acquire languages most easily when they play with other kids that speak that language they are trying to acquire. I remember I learnt Gujarati simply playing with the kids on the street when I was growing up in India -- I don't ever remember trying to consciously learn Gujarati. Another example: a French mom said her son learnt English mainly after school (this is a trilingual school that has instruction in French, Spanish and English) when he was playing with other kids that spoke English. Thoughts? Stories help, I'm sure, but physically playing with other kids provides so much more context than listening to stories.

[@library4multilinguals258]

@bealion Yes, I have also observed that with my sons and Japanese. They have picked up a lot from their cousin. And this cousin has picked up a lot of French from my sons 😁 What is motivating is the fun aspect and the need to communicate. But when this is not possible, Dr Mason's use of stories does provide the benefit of making the learning process stressfree and engaging.