How to learn ENGLISH with
your young child
As
English is becoming more and more important for academic and business success,
some more ambitious parents are going as far as switching to only speaking to
their own children in their (usually less than perfect) English. Unless you are
going to move to an English-speaking country in the very near future I would
definitely not recommend this, as it could ruin your relationship with your
child and they might anyway reject the language later if they don't need it
and/ or it they feel it is stopping them being accepted by their friends. There
are plenty of much easier and more sensible ways of learning and practising
English with a young child outside class, some of which are explained in this
article.
In
bilingual families, parents often find that the child learns the distinction
between the two languages more quickly if each parent always speaks just one
language, so that one becomes "Daddy's language" and the other
"Mummy's language". Again, I'd suggest caution about adopting this approach
if it meant one parent struggling to communicate in English and so distancing
them from their own children. Having an English-speaking nanny is much more
natural, but of course beyond the budget of most of us. You can use the idea of
having a clear distinction between languages in more sensible ways, however.
One
thing that many families have found successful is to have a particular time
when the foreign language is spoken. Some families have every Wednesday as
Spanish day and every Monday as French day, or you could set just dinner time
aside for communication by everyone in a foreign language. Children shouldn't
be pushed too much into using the language, but they will usually see it as a
fun game and join in.
Another
clear distinction you can make is that you will talk about English things in
English. For example, if they are watching Playtime Disney in English, you will
chat about what is happening on screen and their reactions to it in English.
Again, replies in L1 should be allowed until they get used to it or if it is
something they can't say in English yet. The same thing can be done with
English language books and songs, discussing the crafts they made in their
English lesson, etc.
English
language songs, books and TV programmes are probably the most important things
when learning English together. To keep the distinction between different
languages I mentioned above, don't translate for your child but instead show
them the meaning with pictures, simpler English or actions. Alternatively, they
will probably be quite happy not understanding every word and will eventually
pick it up from somewhere else - after all, I still have no idea what a
"tuffet" is despite being an English speaker who sang about Little
Miss Muffet sitting on one for years! Other English language things that might
be useful includes posters, electric toys (e.g. speaking teddy bears), computer
games, board games, card games, and animated songs and stories online. The
important thing with all of these is to use them as a way of interacting in English,
not something that the child passively sits in front of. Having and using these
things in English should not stop them learning about their own language and
culture, of course. Again, it might be worth clearly dividing the two by having
a different toy box, a different book shelf or set time every day for English
language things.
One
particularly difficult point is how and when to teach your child how to read in
English. Being able to read in English is perhaps the most important way of
being able to pick up English on their own, but starting too early can ruin the
fun of learning and be a bit of waste of time when they would pick it up in a
tenth of the time once they can read in L1 and are a bit older. Perhaps the
best way is to read lots of books with them and have some books and games
specifically on the alphabet and phonics, and start actually teaching it when
they start taking an interest in how the words on the page should be read.
