Learning to speak English - Language Support
It is parents who teach their young children to speak. Throughout the first few years of life, it is the primary care giver’s voice and their way of talking, that teaches young children about language and how to talk.
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Parents, even with a basic knowledge of English, can successfully support their young child to speak English. Young children have a remarkable ability to learn from their surroundings. Young children need to feel ‘I can speak English’ and ‘I like English’ and their parents’ support can help them achieve this from their first lessons.
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How can you help your child to speak English? Here are some ideas to start with.
- Share book, stories or newspapers with your child. Remember to talk about what you are reading; If you not confident in English talk in your native language and use individual words that you do know to make your child comfortable with English. If you are scared of English, your child will be too
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- Talk to your child about things you see in your environment or on TV;
- Notice words around you – show them the signs that are in English, such as shop signs, road signs, street name etc.
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- Enroll in extracurricular activities that use English as the medium of language such as drama, dance, art classes. Children learn English quickly when it is fun and enjoyable. You may find your child learns more quickly from a fun class than an English tutorial class;
- Make a scrapbook of familiar words and objects by cutting out pictures from magazines. Perhaps make different pages focusing on different categories such as foods; toys; transport
- Play the “Yes – No” game. E.G “Are you a boy?” “Is your name Josh” “Can a dog fly?” Encourage your child to ask you questions too and try to fool you.
- Put objects into a box or container. Have the child remove an object and tell you what it is called and how to use it. “This is my ball. I play with it. It is my favorite toy.”
- Use photographs to retell what happened, where the location is…or just make up a new story.
- Ask children to describe things around them. E.G “Remember Auntie Susan’s dog? What does it look like?” This helps children to practice using describing words and developing recall skills.
What NOT to do!
- Don’t focus too hard on pronunciation or be too critical. We don’t want the child to become scared to use English! This can happen VERY quickly, so take extra care.
- Remember that the child is making his/her best attempt to speak and copy sounds. Don't penalize him/her by making the child repeat it over and over and over. We don’t want the child to think English is too hard!
