- The process of successfully learning a foreign language replicates in many ways the process by which a child first learns the mother tongue. Essential for both processes is a rich linguistic environment that reflects the culture.
- Nursery rhymes, songs, nonsense verses and other verbal rituals are more than amusements for young ears. They provide practice in getting our tongues round strange sounds. They help to provide basic linguistic tructures, a skeleton upon which the learners can build their language proficiency.
- The pleasure of interaction, communication, shared laughter, rhyme and rhythm ensure that we rapidly build our linguistic competence effortlessly and unconsciously.
- When we use rhymes accompanied by actions, children will at first concentrate on getting the action right, but in time they will also be able to recite the rhyme as they move their fingers, and in the process they will eventually internalise the pronunciation and the meaning of the words.
