Exposing Young Children to Hebrew as a Second Language and to the Jewish Culture - A MOFET International Webinar
Source: MOFET International
The number of children who are raised with two or more languages has increased worldwide. While Hebrew is the first language for many people living in Israel, it constitutes a second or a foreign language for Jews who live in the Diaspora. In this MOFET International webinar in Hebrew to be held on January 07, 2016 at 10 pm IST, Dr. Efrat Harel will focus on exposing young children to Hebrew as a second or third language, and will consist of three parts: (1) Theories of second-language acquisition among adults as compared to children will be introduced as the framework; (2) Authentic ways of teaching young children a second or a foreign language, focusing on the integration of games, will be discussed; and (3) The Hebrew language and some of the challenges that may be experienced by Hebrew teachers in the Diaspora will be examined.
The webinar will pose various open questions that will be addressed in MOFET's online course "Exposing Young Children to Hebrew as a Second Language and to Jewish Culture".
Dr. Efrat Harel is a researcher of language development among bilingual children as compared to monolingual children. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the linguistic profile of children who speak both English and Hebrew from a very young age.
In addition, Dr. Harel is part of a project whose purpose is to create a diagnostic tool for use with bilingual populations. This tool would be able to accurately identify language deficiencies among bilingual people. Efrat lectures at several colleges of education and prepares kindergarten teachers and interns on the subjects of bilingualism and multiculturalism in Israel as well as the development of first and second languages.
Register for the webinar here.