How to Help Your Children learn Languages

How to Help Your Children Learn Languages

The following activities can help your child practise using different languages:

Describe daily routines such as bath time. Initially, children hear lots of unrelated sounds but as the activity becomes more familiar and predictable, they begin to learn words such as shower and soap, and the objects or actions these refer to.

Name things together. A simple way is to look at picture books over and over together and ask your child to repeat the names of objects after you.

Vary your child's experiences by visiting different places - the bird park, shopping centres, Botanic Gardens and others. Every new experience provides opportunities to learn new words and different ways to express oneself.

Look at, listen and respond to your child. Besides bonding with him, you also provide him with a role model from whom he can learn to produce speech sounds.

Play games with your child. For example, when he is two or three years old, he may pretend to go shopping, visit a doctor or behave like a storybook character. This will let him practise expressing what he thinks and engage someone else in communication.

Read to your child and talk about the stories. He will pick up phrases, sentences and words, and how to use them. This is important to improve vocabulary and grammar, among other things.

Talk to your child at mealtimes. This will require him to use language in different ways, such as to recount events that happened at school. He will learn how to make information explicit so it can be understood by others.

Use different languages often, and well. If you want your child to learn English well, ensure you and other family members use the correct grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary.

Finally, give your child plenty of opportunities to hear family members conversing with others in a variety of languages in his early years.

Besides acquiring new languages, your child will also learn to appreciate the cultural diversity that surrounds him.

-- Dr Christine Goh and Dr Peter Gu are assistant professors of English language at the National Institute of Education.

Dr Goh is a specialist in linguistics and language. Her interest is how language is acquired and developed, especially in the areas of listening and speaking competence.

Dr Gu is a specialist in language learning strategies, particularly in learning vocabulary.

Their work has been published extensively in academic journals. They spoke to LYNN LEE.

(Extracted From Straits Times dated 18 Oct 2004)