All children have the capacity to learn several languages at once. While for adults, learning a new language can be quite challenging, it’s not so for children. Why is that? It is just how a child’s brain is designed. And it is a brain facility that dulls as we grow older.
However, your young child, with the right input, can easily master English and speak the language with great fluency.
So how do we train her brain to be able to do this? Here are some top tips to help you help your child.
1) If you can speak English yourself, set a time of the day when you speak in English with her. It could be when you’re eating together. It could be bath time. It could be when you’re playing a game together. While it is important that your child learns her first language (mother tongue) well, make some time for English also.
2) Read books together. Find a local library that will give you access to good English books. There are several thousands of these, written specially for children. Find a book that is appropriate for your child’s age and interest. Read these together.
3) When you read a book together, stop to ask questions. You can begin with simple questions like ‘What’s this?’ or ‘What colour is that?’ Slowly build up to questions that involve higher level language, like ‘Why do you think he did that?’, ‘What do you think might happen next?’ or, ‘What would you have done, if that was you?’
4) Watch high quality TV kids shows together. Just like you do when you read books with your child, talk about what just happened in the show. Again, talk about names of favourite characters, places and what they did. Talk about what you liked about that character and what you did not. Talk about the sequence of events. The more you practice, the better your child will get at it.
5) High quality apps are a great way to help your child learn English. Remember also that machine mediated learning is more effective, if you actively participate in your child’s learning. Apps are an especially great way to get in lots of practise, in a fun way. When you’re done learning from the app, practise those words and sentences that you have learnt, in simple conversations.
Above all, have fun with your child!
And have you tried our 'Brainy Bug - Making English Easy' app? With hundreds of words and sentences, our app is designed to make English easy for your child.
