Helping Your Child Learn a New Language
If you’re interested in helping your child to learn a new language, then you probably know that the earlier you start, the more chance of success you will have. More than one language is a huge advantage in terms of a child’s future opportunities in both education and work. That’s without even considering the social benefits. This independent school in London believes that excellence is achieved in small increments and that’s how you should look at developing your child’s language skills. Small hurdles, one step at a time.
It’s never too soon to begin
When your child is only a toddler, they’re already recognising common speech patterns. Exposure to more than one language helps a small child to begin to process the patterns and to grasp the spoken word. As babies, children are incredibly talented when it comes to understanding and noting variation in speech patterns and pronunciation. They can hear the difference in accents. Expose your child to the language you want them to speak as a baby and they’ll find it far easier to speak that language when the time comes. You don’t need to be fluent yourself. Let your child hear the other language via apps, song and video.
Create opportunities for your child to practice
No matter how young your child is, exposure to the language is vital. If you can, travel to the country of the language you’re interested in your child learning then your child will have the advantage of hearing the language spoken in very natural settings and constantly.
Not everyone can travel extensively though so if you can’t, look to videos and apps which will expose your child to more of the spoken language. This is a very casual learning style and it’s great because to a child, it doesn’t feel like learning at all. If your child is struggling you may consider hiring a tutor to help them in their studies.
Starting small
Teach your child the simplest words to begin with. Move on to using them in sentences. As your child’s confidence grows, they will begin to practice without your assistance. It’s a speedy process when the child is very young, you might be surprised by how fast your child learns to speak fluently.
Exposure is everything
Showing videos and singing songs are great not quite enough to get your child speaking confidently. It’s regular use and exposure to the language which really makes it stick. Seek out as many opportunities as you can to help expose your child to the language that you’d like them to speak.This may mean that a trip to the country is necessary or if could mean finding occasions for them to meet people who already speak the language. If you employ a nanny, you could find one who speaks the language you’re interested in for example. However you tackle it, ensure that your child gets to practice as often as possible and they’ll be confidently speaking the language before you know it.
Great tips thanks – the subject I struggled with most during lockdown!
I wish I had learnt a language when I was younger. I did one year of French at school but gave that up as it was all repetitive grammar learning and very boring. It needs to be fun and useful!