Saturday morning language school Ene Due Rabe is going from strength to strength. Learning languages through fun activities is proving popular with both children and parents. Galway parents understand the importance of early language learning and how crucial it is for their children's future. Not only does it provide you with better job opportunities, it also makes you more likely to succeed, as learning other languages makes you smarter.
Ene Due Rabe at Gaelscoil Dara in Renmore offers classes in Polish, Spanish, French, Italian and German.
In addition to classroom activities in individual languages all children attending the school can take part in Spanish hip hop classes. The school makes a really exciting learning experience offering also music, yoga, and arts and crafts classes. Additionally children speaking Polish can improve their skills through speech and language therapy.
Throughout 2016 music classes were co-funded with the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Children could attend classes for free. The school is also supported by the Polish Embassy in Dublin. All teachers have extensive experience of working with bilingual children. Agnieszka Currie, the school’s director, said: “As a great start to 2017, our teachers have been very fortunate to attend training with Prof Jagoda Cieszynska, a scientist and practical specialist in teaching of bilingual children. Professor Cieszynska’s lectures and workshops were based on her extensive research in many countries and the most effective ways of working with bilingual children and their parents. We have learned many new activity based teaching methods, as well as found broader scientific background to the techniques we have been already applying in our school. It is so important for a child’s development to know the language of its parents. Language is a great gift and we can’t deprive our children of it. It is so easy for children to learn and this gift will stay with them for life.”
With its diverse range of nationalities, Galway is a great place for a children’s language school. Parents who are bringing up young children with more than one language know how difficult it is to keep up a second language when children go to school. English dominates the communication very quickly, unless a conscious effort is made to use the family’s home language.
Children will only continue to use two languages if doing so is perceived to be valuable, and that is why they need a stimulating and creative context to use the second language. Ene Due Rabe gives them just that, a stimulating environment filled with fun activities, and the company of other children like themselves who are also working on practising their language. It is exciting for parents to hear new words being spoken and new songs learned. It is all part of becoming a global child in a modern world.
Research shows that children can learn up to seven languages up to the age of nine, but only three per cent of Irish primary schoolchildren learn a foreign language (while the European average is 79 per cent ). We all know that children have an amazing ability to absorb any language without conscious effort. The earlier children start learning other languages, the greater their chance of becoming truly multilingual.
See www.EneDueRabe.ie or call 086 3222818 for more details.
