Creating bilingual minds | Naja Ferjan Ramirez | TEDxLjubljana (2)

because we know that at birth,

the human brain is just as capable of learning two languages

as it is to learn one.

So what should we do?

How can we provide all babies with an opportunity

to learn two languages from a very young age.

In families like mine, the answer is straightforward

because parents are native speakers of languages

that are different from what the child hears outside of the home.

But what about everybody else?

As a child language development specialist,

I often hear from parents who are eager to provide their baby

with an opportunity to learn another language,

but they're not native speakers of that language,

and they can't afford to hire a nanny who's a native speaker of that language.

Some parents think that their baby may be able to learn a foreign language

by watching television.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Older children may be able to learn some foreign language words

from electronic media,

but babies learn languages through play,

through frequent social interactions with live human beings

who are fully competent and comfortable users of that target language.

So really, the question comes down to this:

Can we create environments, within public education,

through which all babies will be able to learn foreign languages

from a very early age?

If we start very very early,

how much and what kind of language exposure

is needed to create a truly bilingual mind?

From research,

we know that babies can learn foreign languages surprisingly quickly,

but at the same time,

we also know that the type of language they hear

is critical in determining how much they will learn

and how quickly they will learn.

So can we make this work?

We think that we can.

From research,

we know that there are six principles, six ingredients, if you will,

that grow children's language.

We think that if we take the right science-based approach

that combines these six ingredients,

we can create educational programs

through which all babies will be able to learn foreign languages through play,

in the context of public early education centers.

We recently started to test this idea in one of the European capitals

where the government is very excited to promote foreign language learning

for all babies from birth.

The results of these studies are extremely exciting and extremely promising.

So stay tuned.

We think that this approach has the potential

to change the game for bilingual education.

We're hoping to scale it up

so that it will one day allow all babies to reach their full potential

and to start learning two languages from a very young age.

Thank you.

(Applause)