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TET · Frequent questions 

From what age do you teach children?

We start with them from 4 months of age, because at that age they begin to understand the meaning of words or phrases. They could start earlier if they wanted to, because according to some research, children can distinguish the phonemes of two similar languages (e.g. Valencian and Spanish) as early as 2 months of age. The earlier the better, as children can learn any foreign language naturally at the same time as their mother tongue. As researchers say: “It is difficult to learn a foreign language after the first one: It is easy to learn a second language TOGETHER with the first one”.

But are they not too little?

The earlier a child is exposed to a foreign language the better, as neural connections that are not made at a certain age are lost forever.

For example, many musical geniuses were in contact with music from an early age, usually their parents were concert pianists or teachers.

Can they get confused with learning Spanish?

Human beings have the natural capacity to learn more than one language at the same time without getting confused. Our methodology respects the maturation times of children. This is important for the parent to understand, as the baby should not be pressured to say words or phrases without wanting to.

They distinguish perfectly well when they are spoken to in a different language by different people. We have had great experiences in communities where there is more than one official language, which has never been a problem, on the contrary, it nurtures their intellectual capacity and favours learning in general.

But what can a baby learn?

During the first year of life, the auditory neurological map is formed. In other words, it is at this time that the sounds of language are recorded. Research in Washington found that the grammatical structures of the language are recorded in the baby’s mind like a computer chip, so the earlier they learn a second language, the easier it will be for them to use it, as they will be able to produce the grammatical structures of the language spontaneously, without the need for memory, as teenagers and adults do.

What are the class contents?
What will they end up learning?

The contents are related to the baby’s “interests”. The vocabulary that children learn is related to colours, clothes, animals, toys, weather, vocabulary related to games, home, school and family. The most important thing is that:

  1. They will remember the language structure in a natural way.
  2. The quality that they will achieve, like excellent pronunciation.

But doesn’t an older child learn faster?

An older child has to develop learning strategies, has to study and learn by heart vocabulary, tenses, language structure, so they have to think in their mother tongue to translate into English.

If you start as a baby, you don’t have to think in your native language, but directly think in English and achieve better quality – better pronunciation and more spontaneity, just like a native English speaker.

The later you start studying, the more you will need to rely on memory and thus the more effort you will have to make and the less natural you will be.