Fostering language skills in early childhood to improve integration and equality of opportunity
Interview with Dr. Edgardis Garlin from the Center for Multilingualism for Children (Zentrum für kindliche Mehrsprachigkeit e.V. zkm), Munich
You are on the board of the zkm and the founder of the KIKUS method of language teaching for young children. Could you tell us something about this method?
The purpose of KIKUS is to provide children aged three to ten with an opportunity of learning a second or foreign language in a fun, age-oriented way. KIKUS DEUTSCH is primarily directed at children from immigrant families so that – in addition to their mother tongue – they can already learn German as a second language in kindergarten. At the same time, this children’s language program also helps the youngsters develop their first language and involves the parents, giving even those with little knowledge of German the confidence to assist their children.
Dr. Edgardis Garlin from the Center for Multilingualism for Children
What led you to develop the KIKUS method?
It all started ten years ago. The language school where I was teaching was asked by a school kindergarten to provide language courses for preschool children. Since my own children were receiving a bilingual upbringing and I had just completed my doctorate on “Bilingual language acquisition” in children I was able to combine academic knowledge and practical experience. This was the basis on which I developed the concept for the KIKUS language courses for children.
KIKUS is a language program for children from three years of age. Don’t small children pick up languages automatically?
Children learn language easily when they grow up in an environment where only one language is being spoken. If a single non-German speaking child joins a German kindergarten group, he or she will in fact learn the foreign language quickly through interaction with the other children – and will usually also learn it well. This was also what happened with the first “guest-worker” children. Today however children often grow up in an environment in which fifty to eighty percent of the children do not have German as their first or family language. This of course makes “automatic” learning difficult, if not impossible. Although the children usually communicate with one another in German, this is often in a rather more basic form which is not adequate for school.
What is special about the KIKUS DEUTSCH method?
KIKUS provides early childhood educators with a highly practical way of teaching language skills to children whose first language is not German. The difficult part of the work with small children is not teaching them words, but helping them acquire grammar structures and fixed expressions. Three-year-olds don’t know what grammar is. But they do know the difference between whether something is on, under or next to a chair. And that can also be transferred to their own language. This is very important: KIKUS is based on the concept of multilingualism. In addition to teaching them German as their second language, we also help the children with the language they speak at home. This gives early childhood educators an entirely new way of approaching the parents, who thus feel that their own language and culture is accepted.
So do you also see language as a means of integration?
Even though it is not the only factor involved, it is very closely connected with integration. Integration also means being able to communicate with others. And language is the most important medium for this. We find over and over again that non-German-speaking children don’t speak at all in kindergarten. When these “silent” children start to talk, sing and laugh with other children in the group as a result of language training with the KIKUS method, this is naturally a great achievement.
You also see language as an aspect of equality of opportunity. What is the connection here?
As a result of globalization, the learning of other languages is already the educational norm in many countries. Other countries – because of their overall language situation alone – are way ahead of us in this respect. Early multilingualism provides children with an opportunity, gives them potential that can be specifically promoted. Early linguistic training is an advantage for every child, irrespective of his or her origin, as every new language introduced is easier to learn. This is thus an opportunity the children can make use of during their education and throughout their lives.
The subject of language promotion is becoming increasingly important in Germany. To what extent to do you work with existing initiatives? How does KIKUS combine with existing programs for fostering children’s language skills?
Fortunately we usually have absolutely no problem working with other initiatives and programs, especially when those responsible really have the children’s well-being at heart. We have thus been working successfully for several years with Caritas in Buchen/Baden-Württemberg, the adult learning institute in Rüsselsheim/Hessen and the town of Völklingen in Saarland, even though the conditions in the various German states are very different. The reason it is easy to work with other initiatives and programs is that KIKUS is first and foremost a method and as such can be incorporated into another framework and combined with other language materials. With KIKUS we never think in terms of competition, but always operate on the basis of cooperation – as benefits the children.
What is your organization’s vision for the future? What goals would you like to achieve?
The first step – which we can also take thanks to the partnership with Siemens Stiftung – is to make the KIKUS method well-known all over Germany. We select prominent locations in German conurbations where we run KIKUS German courses so that all those who need assistance also have the opportunity of receiving it. In addition we offer seminars where teachers receive training in the KIKUS method. In five years’ time I would like every teacher to have heard of KIKUS and be aware of the importance of promoting language skills among young children. In addition, we want to develop material for German as a second language at primary and secondary schools. This is because of the numbers of children who come to Germany when they are already school age and receive very little help with learning German. In addition, children who grow up speaking only German should be given the opportunity of learning other languages as early on as possible; for this the KIKUS foreign language department must be expanded. Early multilingualism should be the norm, not a luxury.
