I wrote a newsletter about language learning through television and film and I shared our reviews of specific learning apps in Spanish, but what's missing from this discussion is what children can (and cannot) learn from learning apps. Most children love screen time, and if kids are on screens anyway, it might as well be in their minority language, right? But can kids really screen-time their way to bilingualism? App marketing agencies would certainly like you to believe they can, and since language-learning apps generated $8.21 billion in 2021, a 32% year-on-year increase, it seems that many people do.
After six months of living in Mexico, I've finally figured out that the last Friday of every month is a professional development day, which means no school for kiddos, so we spent February's last Friday reviewing educational apps for Spanish language learners (SLLs). We only made it through 6 apps, but there are many more available, especially if you consider apps developed for native-Spanish speaking children. We'll have to do a Part 2 on the last Friday of March.
2/22/2023
Watching your way to bilingualismExperts in bilingualism make different recommendations for how much input children need in each of their languages in order to develop into proficient speakers, but most recommendations fall in the range of 20 hours per week or 20%-30% of the total language input. 20 hours per week can be a heavy lift for parents raising bilingual children in a predominantly monolingual setting. Children enrolled in a bilingual school program might receive approximately 15 hours of minority language input per week. So, if school is the only place where children use their minority language, many parents will want to supplement minority language input in some way.
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