Although your average school language lessons may be ok for teaching your child a certain amount of vocabularly and grammar, it isn't so good for producing a great conversationally fluent speaker. The better idea is to try and integrate your child by helping them make local bilingual friends, or watching foreign speaking TV or reading books.
Parents can play a huge role in helping their kids to learn a new language, so here are just a few ideas:
1. Pack up and go!
2. Reading and watching TV
3. Mix with other nationalities
4. Show them how it's done
5. Have fun and make it a challenge
6. Foreign exchange students
7. Take your vacations in an area that speaks your childs target language
8. Get a foreign Au Pair or Nanny
9. Buy CD-ROMs, books, videos, on-line courses, etc
10. Hire a private tutor
Emigrating
Ok, this may be a bit extreme but it is certainly THE singularly most effective way for your child to become fluent in a new language. Kids up to their mid-teens just soak up new languages like sponges. The initial transition period may be somewhat daunting, but they soon make new friends and their language skills just rocket. When a child is surrounded by foreign speaking people, at school for example, you can expect your child to be conversationally bilingual within 3 months or so (although grammar etc, will take rather longer).
Watching TV and reading foreign reading material
Fairly self-explanatory; find TV channels in foreign languages. Encourage your kids to watch TV, in say, Spanish. You can also make some rules, maybe like no more than 2 hours of TV per day, except for foreign language channels which they can watch as much as they want to.
Visit the local newsagent and see if you can pick up any foreign reading material that your child may enjoy, e.g. surfing, snowboarding, horse jumping, French fashion, etc, and offer them a years subscription. Encourage your child to show off their knowledge at school to make them proud of their language skills.
Help them make bilingual friends
Unless you live in Siberia, you probably have people of many different nationalities living around you. Encourage your kids to befriend children bilingual in their target language, or who don't speak your mother tongue well. You'll be amazed at just how quickly children begin to communicate with one another.
If you are a religious person, no matter what the denomination, consider going to a foreign speaking religious gathering. Start off with once a month, and then maybe make it more often when you feel more confident. These places usually have community activities that are great ways for you and your children to make new friends.
Show them how it's done!
Get your child off to a flying start by learning a new language yourself and include your child in your home studies. Let them know that learning other languages is a great gift in life, and give them all the encouragement possible. This will help them much more than just a couple of school lessons a week.
Make it a challenge but have fun too
How about an early morning wake up call in a foreign language?! This may sound silly, but you'll be surprised how many words and phrases can be picked up from listening to another country's music.
Have an I-pay-your-foreign-books-and-movies policy with your kids. There are many excellent movies that run in foreign languages in most big cities, and many foreign language bookshops as well. If you pay for those, you give your kids a strong incentive to practice the languages they learn.
Foreign exchanges
Arrange a year abroad for your child, or a few months in the summer at least. This will only cost you the flight ticket, as another child (let's say, a young Spaniard) will come to your house for the same amount of time. For those who actually did this during their teenage years, this is one of the most meaningful experiences of their youth. And the languages learned early stay forever, and with a much better accent too.
Take your holidays in the target country
Try to spend holidays in countries speaking your target foreign language. If you don't speak it at all and your child does, make him feel important several months before you go away, telling him that he'll be your guide and that the whole family will have to rely on his language skills during the vacations. That should motivate him to learn as much as he can, so that he can be proud to use his new skills in front of the rest of the family.
Hire a foreign Nanny or Au Pair
Employ someone to look after your home or children, but who doesn't speak very much English. Whilst she communicates with your children, ask her to do so in her mother tongue. Your children will pick up new words and phrases whilst simply playing!
Buy CD-ROMs, videos, books, on-line courses, etc.
Keep things interesting by mixing up childrens language courses in books, videos, on-line courses, etc. A new game on CD-ROM but in another language can always get'em going again!
Private tuition
In most areas, it isn't too expensive to hire a private language tutor. It is much more effective for your child to receive one-to-one tuition than to try and learn in a classroom filled with other chldren. The way to achieve optimum results, would be to combine this with any of the other methods mentioned earlier.
About the Author:
About the Writer: Clare Innes has a series of health, fitness and general lifestyle websites, including one dedicated to how to learn a new language. Watch out for more of her lifestyle websites in the 'First For....com' series that is presently under development.
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