6 Benefits of Spanish Immersion for Children
You need to learn about the benefits of Spanish immersion for kids!
As parents, we try to keep up with the latest learning techniques to give our children the best education possible.
Improving problem-solving skills, working memory, social skills, cognitive abilities, emotional intelligence, and cultural awareness is a heavy task.
But what if you could get all these benefits out of one class?
Immersion learning is an attempt to understand a new language like you did with your native one: by being immersed in it.
With no translations available, just your kids being exposed to Spanish with audio, written exercises, conversations imitating new phonetics, and writing it eventually.
This approach to bilingual education has proven to be very effective, the best according to a CARLA study.
Not only in terms of understanding new words and forming phrases but also in improving executive function skills, working out the brain, preventing mental illness and brain aging, and having more success making social relations.
What can you expect from Spanish immersion for kids?
- An integrated two-language curriculum where kids develop bilingual skills and even biculturalism
- Understanding and making relations with words and meanings instead of writing repetition pages
- Learning written and spoken Spanish better and faster
- Building up their vocabulary words and grammatical knowledge
- An experience more than a class
- Sharper kids not only in school but also at home in their day-to-day lives
Want to learn more? Discover these language immersion benefits for kids!
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1. Increased Activation of Neuronal Pathways and Brain Chemicals
Learning by immersion implies enhancing listening, writing, speaking, and reading skills while translating phrases in your mind.
When you engage in these activities, many regions of your brain light up and connect to help with learning, processing information, verbal and nonverbal stimulation, and comprehension.
This means that learning a foreign language is the ultimate brain workout! But wait! There’s more!
Learning a second language releases “feel-good” chemicals in your brain, increasing the size of gray matter and the learning center region.
This is related to other benefits of Spanish immersion: improved executive function and social skills.
Read also: The Pros and Cons of Bilingual Education for Kids
2. Improved Executive Function Skills
The improvement of executive function skills is primarily found in immersion learning.
Proficient bilinguals who use both languages regularly outperform their monolingual peers in problem-solving, working memory, selective attention, and executive control.
This means they can be more focused, sensitive to misleading verbal and non-verbal cues, and feel more confident around conflict.
One of the top benefits of Spanish immersion for kids is the development of cognitive skills. But how can you notice a change in cognitive ability?
Easy. Your children will likely have better listening skills and improved focus.
Also, they will show more attention to detail and be better at processing information, resulting in improved school performance, more specifically, in math and verbal aptitudes.
3. Neuroplasticity
Some people are hesitant about having their children learn a second language while learning their mother tongue.
While it can seem demanding for a little one, the truth is that the younger the kids, the faster and easier they’ll learn a new language.
Neuroplasticity is “the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience,” according to the Oxford dictionary.
This attribute works more and better in younger brains, which is why you must benefit from it while your kids are young.
This doesn’t mean that learning Spanish will become impossible with age, it just won’t be as easy or fast.
Children can effortlessly imitate new, strange phonetics since they did it a couple of years ago in their native language.
And they’re more likely to understand and apply rapidly complex grammar rules and structures.
4. Immersion Is Easier Than Other Methods
Sometimes we think of learning a new language as a way of getting high school credit or being more employable in the future.
And sure, it looks good on one’s resume, but we tend to forget about the most important thing.
We want our children to learn Spanish mainly because we want them to engage in real conversations with people who might not know a single word of English and still manage to communicate efficiently.
Traditional school methods involve repeating words and meanings, so children become more of a dictionary than a storybook.
Better understanding means longer retention, more effective communication methods, and more fluent conversations with others.
Hand-picked for you: 10 Ways Learning Spanish Can Improve Your Child’s Behavior
5. Social Skills and Emotional Intelligence
One of the most underrated benefits of Spanish immersion for kids is one of the best ones!
Immersion environments are very relaxed and have nothing to do with the rules of traditional classroom teaching.
When your kids feel at ease, they will likely make new friends and take risks.
Remember the pressure of giving the wrong answer when the teacher asked you a question?
The classroom would stay silent, building up your self-consciousness and making you more susceptible to getting nervous and not trusting your knowledge.
This doesn’t happen in immersive spaces!
Spanish immersion for kids promotes free speaking and trying out different answers while they’re helped by a fellow student, receiving corrections, or having the time to answer correctly.
Kids will speak and connect in a more meaningful way with others in the same situation: by doing teamwork and learning together.
These benefits of Spanish immersion lead to emotional intelligence, just like language learning: the sooner, the better.
Your children’s self-awareness, self-motivation, and self-regulation should be an educational priority, and they can achieve it by learning Spanish.
Do you remember the number one benefit of this list?
According to the NEA, the “feel-good” chemicals your brain produces when learning a foreign language can contribute to more confidence, better self-image and self-esteem, and lower stress levels.
6. Cultural Awareness
Being culturally aware and tolerant is not a luxury anymore but a must-have in our kids’ lives.
These social skills can result in cultural awareness and the promotion of diversity since your kids will always get to know people from different cultures and backgrounds.
Did you know that almost 500 million people speak Spanish around the world?
It is the most natively spoken language after Mandarin and Hindi.
Knowing Spanish will give your kids a better chance of employment and better opportunities for working and living abroad, as well as experiences like traveling and making friends faster and more significantly.
See also: 10 Ways to Learn How to Think in Spanish
Get all the Benefits of Spanish Immersion for Kids Today!
We hope this article about the benefits of Spanish immersion was useful.
This is a more natural way of learning a second language while gaining all the above advantages and becoming fluent instinctively.
As you can see, Spanish immersion is a powerful tool and a valuable investment for your kids’ future.
This is the best gift you can give them since it will enhance their lives by giving them cultural awareness and emotional intelligence while benefiting their neuroplasticity to improve brain health and cognitive functions.
HSA offers the benefits of Spanish immersion instructed by native Spanish speakers and using our first-rate, expert curriculum.
Our innovative, human-centered learning strategies will help your kids and family achieve your learner-specific language goals.
We’ve been teaching Spanish for more than 10 years with flexible scheduling.
Try our free trial class today and see why parents voted us the “Best Overall Online Spanish Classes for Kids.”
We can’t wait for you to join us!
Join one of the 40,000 classes that we teach each month and you can experience results like these…
“This is the best way for your kid to learn Spanish. It’s one-on-one, taught by native Spanish speakers, and uses a curriculum.”
– Sharon K, Parent of 3
“It’s a great way to learn Spanish, from native Spanish speakers in a 1-on-1 environment. It’s been fairly easy to schedule classes around my daughter’s other classes. The best value for us has been ordering multiple classes at a time. All the instructors have been great!”
– Cindy D, Parent of 3
“HSA offers very affordable, quality, one on one classes with a native speaker. My son has greatly benefited from taking classes. We have seen his confidence increase as well as his pronunciation improve, because he learns from a native Spanish speaker. HSA has quick, personal customer service. Our family has been very pleased with our experience so far!”
– Erica P. Parent of 1
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