Language Awareness
Learning an additional language has positive effects on children as they became more aware about what languages are and develop skills to become better language learners.
In this study, children are asked various questions about Spanish (e.g., Why are you learning Spanish? What do you like about it? How different is it from other languages that you might know? Can you explain how gender works in Spanish?). Interviews conducted with some of our students to date suggest that they already exhibit enhanced metalinguistic knowledge and are capable of not only describing Spanish rules but also distinguishing differences between their native language(s) and Spanish after being exposed to Spanish for only one year. In addition, they seem to understand why they are learning Spanish as well as the importance of the language in our country.