Foreign languages: Learning the lingo

Young children take to learning other languages more readily than most people think. Emma Haughton explains why the early years are the ideal time to start

Fifteen four-year-olds are crammed into the little staff room at Wybourn nursery on a socially deprived estate in Sheffield. Although many have limited language skills in English, all are happily singing a German nursery rhyme.

'What does "guten tag" mean?' asks their teacher, Lindsay Barron, once they've gone through the rhyme a couple of times.

'Hello,' the children all respond confidently. Barron runs through a gamut of simple activities designed to introduce the 60 children who attend the nursery each year to the basics of German in their last term before primary. They rehearse their names and ages in German, before moving on to numbers and colours. Despite only having studied the language for a matter of weeks, the children are impressively competent and enthusiastic. Both Lois and Brooke insist on counting up to 20 on their own, reeling off 'ein, zwei, drei...' fluently while checking off the numbers on their fingers.