SPIKE//

Ugh.  This article is actually terrible.  Not only is it inane drivel, but it’s also poorly fact-checked, from a language-learning perspective. The reporter links the “silent period” children go through when learning a second language to the trauma of living in a refugee camp.  What he fails to note is that all children immersed in a second language go through this silent stage- refugees or not.

All children acquiring a second language go through predictable stages of learning.  The first is a silent period, where the kid is observing and taking everything in.  They don’t say much- because they don’t know how yet.  Eventually they move on to imitating a word or two, usually words they’ve heard their peers say, regardless of whether they know the meaning of the words.  Eventually the kids string words together meaningfully.  And their vocabulary shoots up from there.

While being in a refugee camp certainly has the potential to be traumatic, there is no reason to link it to a kid’s silent period.  If the kid was traumatized, they won’t be talking in their native language either, and they need psychological help: not ESL instruction.

(Thanks to Beth for showing this article to me)