AT last month Before school, parents still have a chance to change their child's attitude towards English. We will tell you what needs to be done now so that the lessons foreign language in the new year they brought only pleasure, and did not hang like a sword of Damocles over an annoyed child.
1. Looking for practical application of the language now, not in the future
A common misconception is to expect a child to be inspired by stories about the possibilities that knowledge will open up for him. in English in the future: traveling the world, high-paying jobs, free communication with foreigners. Of course, this is important! Only all these “goodies” will be sometime later, but you need to sit down for cramming and break away from your favorite things for the sake of it now.
So you have to work with what you have. Maybe your child is a fan of foreign musicians: he constantly listens to the songs of his favorite bands, decorates the room with posters with their images and dreams of going to a concert? Then you can't do without English. After all, only knowing him well, you can enjoy the play on words in the lyrics or watch the interview in the original. Or maybe he watches TV shows and cartoons for days and is looking forward to the release of new seasons? It takes a long time to wait for dubbing into Russian, so it's easier to start watching everything in the original.
2. Learning English in a playful way
You don't even need to think of anything! Just remember what you liked to play with your child when he was little: who will name more words with the letter "A", the game of antonyms, I know five names of trees - all these games are great to play in English. Such entertainment is especially relevant in traffic jams, queues or other situations of forced idleness.
In addition, you can buy home board games in English and gather everyone at the big table.
It is not only useful educational occupation, but also a good occasion to spend time with family and friends, which is no less important!
3. We arrange competitions and encourage the winners
Children sometimes like participating in competitions even more than playing games. They bring excitement, and learning English becomes more fun! Who will master the new grammar rules faster? How many new words can you learn in a day? Who will have learned more poems in English by September? Of course, the winner should be waiting for an award for which you want to compete. And for the rest of the participants, it is worth providing for consolation prizes.
4. Let English help your child become more confident
Create situations in which the child can apply knowledge in practice: ask him to translate the instruction to new technology or help you find information on foreign sites that you need for work. Only do it for real when you really need it. Do not invent such tasks artificially. Children read falsehood and may perceive it as manipulation.
5. Looking for good teachers and language environment
The teacher strongly influences the desire or unwillingness to learn. English is not the easiest subject, and how the material is presented greatly depends on the enthusiasm for it. Agree, when they explain the rule to you, and you feel that you didn’t understand either the first or the tenth time, then most often this causes anger and a desire to quit your studies. Some people are, of course, pissed off. But still, let's not create unnecessary barriers and take care to find a teacher whose lessons are understandable and interesting.
You should also pay attention to language clubs where they gather in an informal setting to chat, discuss a new film or, for example, play mafia.
Knowledge of English in modern world cannot be overestimated. It will come in handy on vacation during a holiday abroad and will help you find mutual language with foreigners. Young people who speak English have the opportunity to view English-language webinars and visit foreign sites, engage in self-development and speak more complete information about events in the world. More choice in job search.
Every year more and more parents understand the importance of knowing English and want their children to master it perfectly. But how to motivate a child who does not understand why he needs an incomprehensible language, if everyone around speaks only Russian?
Arouse due interest
The first thing you need is to generate interest. Undoubtedly, a child's interest in something is usually short-term. But this is only the beginning. Pay attention to his favorite cartoons. Explain that this is a Russian translation, and the real voice of your favorite characters is in English. Try to translate an English-language cartoon together. Hearing an incomprehensible speech, the baby will want to know what the main characters are talking about. Curiosity is already a good sign.
Tell us about the people who inhabit our planet. It will be interesting for the child to know that not everyone has the same skin color as his. Besides, everyone is talking different languages and will be able to understand each other only by attending English classes.
The kid will be interested to know that he has already mastered many foreign words. And there is no deception in this, because the phone, laptop, TV and Internet are of foreign origin. Many favorite characters such as Batman and Superman are also English. Explain what their names mean and why they were named that way.
Gradually and constantly instill a love for the language
Don't think that once you've shown curiosity, your child will begin to express a desire to learn English regularly. Love for him needs to be instilled constantly, without exerting pressure and without loading a large amount of information. Lessons should not cause unpleasant feelings. Otherwise, the child will be capricious, and let everything that they are trying to teach him go unnoticed.
Use English words daily in communication, especially those that the child hears most often in your family. If your child's favorite toy is a car, tell him how it sounds in English. What color is she. What does a pet or favorite activity sound like.
English should be associated with something pleasant
Children love to play. They enjoy playing rather than learning. And if the English language will evoke associations with interesting game, this will give the little future polyglot additional interest. The main thing is to find an idea how to make English words an element of the game.
Children love to draw, dance, sing. Alternate words from Russian to English, and do not forget to cheer and praise when the child guesses the animal on the card in English, or remembers how the drawn things sound. A visit to the zoo will be very informative. Together you can not only look at exotic animals, but also learn their name.
Find out what they sing about in the songs of your favorite cartoons. Or try to translate together. Sing along as the song plays again. Of course, here you should not focus on pronunciation or anything else. Interest shown and pleasant associations are important.
In no case should you show irritation or anger if he forgot or answered the question incorrectly.
Show your imagination, an individual approach will give the baby extra interest in the language, because the parents of other children do not come up with the kind of games that you come up with. Educational activities for children will prepare them for school activities, which are not always so interesting as to be zealous on their own.
Don't forget to show interest. Ask what he learned, what he remembered, and what he could not. Praise, it's important. If you decide to hire a tutor, then choose those who love children and have a lot of experience working with them. Read the reviews, look at the recommendations, the Internet has all the necessary information. Be sure to ask your child if he likes the teacher and his classes. If the answer is no, then it is better to find another tutor. The methods of teachers should be no less interesting than your homework. So the child will not waste interest in the lessons in the future.
Don't forget games. With age, the child's games change, but the approach to them should remain the same - diluting the use of English words during the game.
Good literature helps a lot in developing interest in the language. A clear and colorfully designed book with English words will become an invariable attribute for a child before going to bed. However, not all children are interested in popular fairy tales. If your child does not like one of them, replace it with one that is interesting to him.
If you do the same thing for an hour, be sure it will get boring. Children are big fidgets, they are full of energy. Therefore, lessons should not be monotonous. Every 15 - 20 minutes you need to change the type of activity. Reading fairy tales for an hour will only put the child to sleep. Great if that's what you're looking for. But if your goal was to instill in your child some knowledge of English, then the classes should be varied.
Results
Whether or not your child will show interest in English is largely up to you. The main thing is to approach the process creatively and exclude any academicism. This is what he will do after school, in high school. educational institution. Show the same interest that you want to see in your child. After all, children are very sensitive to falsehood. Be interested yourself, and your child will certainly show his own interest. And remember, the task of learning a language in the early stages is not set. The child himself will put it in front of him when he grows up, if you manage to interest him in this.
Pavel Burtovoy
Video designer of the St. Petersburg media channel "First Popular Television". He is fond of cinematography, animation and everything connected with it.
My son has been studying English at school for the second year. Recently I found out that his knowledge in this area is simply terrible. Problems were found even with the alphabet. Something had to be done.
For some reason, the method of memorizing words using double-sided cards did not work in our situation. Probably due to poor knowledge of the alphabet. I am generally silent about various programs for a smartphone: the child’s language learning is not zero, but rather negative, so that these programs can interest him.
I had to, relying on the experience of my predecessors, develop and test my own method. Well, personally manage the learning process.
A bit of theory
Memorization can be reduced to a cyclical process of three components:
- Perception.
- Repetition.
- Testing.
When we want the child to remember the information, the task becomes more complicated: it is not clear how well he perceived it, how many times he repeated it, and testing the student leads to stress and negative emotions in case of a bad result.
Let's look at all three components of the memorization process and how they can be improved.
Perception
For high-quality perception, it is desirable to use as much as possible more species memory: auditory, visual, motor. You can also add such a variety as verbal memory.
Repetition
When repeating the material, oddly enough, an effective method turned out to be multiple recording of the subjects being studied with their simultaneous pronunciation.
I read about this method in the memoirs of one Soviet spy. He called this technique the most effective for increasing vocabulary.
The effectiveness of the combination of multiple rewriting of words with their simultaneous pronunciation can be explained by the fact that all possible types of memory are involved in the process.
Rewriting allows you to automate the process, depersonalize it. In addition, recorded words document the fact of repetition and make it possible to find out which material is remembered better and which is worse.
Testing
When testing knowledge, it would be good to hide the very fact of testing from the child, but leave a reward for its successful completion. That is, hide the whip, but stick out the gingerbread in every possible way.
If confirmed, then the cycle "perception - repetition - testing" is interrupted. If not, we repeat. So there is an incentive to quickly learn all the material.
At the same time, knowledge is obtained in portions and tested in portions, and not like this: "Sit down, now I will check how you learned what you were asked today."
How the method works
Since the son did not know the alphabet very well, we started with him. I found the simplest recipes on the Internet, similar to these:
First, I got my son to fully associate the pronunciation of each letter with its spelling: this will be very important in the future. After the alphabet, we moved on to words. To do this, I used and continue to use an ordinary student notebook in a ruler or sheets from such a notebook. In the margins I write the Russian meanings of the words (expressions) that I have to learn.
On the appropriate lines you need to write these words. Since each word is new, I allow you to rewrite it from the textbook for the first time. Then the son writes the word as many times as it fits on the line.
At the same time, he not only writes, but every time he says the word aloud.
At the end, the sheet turns over, and there is a surprise! The same Russian words are in the margins, and you need to fill in all the lines with their English counterparts, but without peeping into the textbook.
Three important points:
- I'm against the child, I do not reproach him for mistakes.
- If he doesn't remember the spelling, I spell it out (this is where a good knowledge of the alphabet comes in handy).
- If the child wrote and pronounced the word without prompts the first time, then there is an agreement between us that he does not repeat it on the entire line. In the future, the word is removed from the lists. It is believed that it has been learned and the cycle of "perception - repetition - testing" is completed for it.
The process is repeated until all words from the original list are excluded. The photo below is about the fourth iteration.
In the same way, we previously taught the alphabet with our son. I wrote in Russian “hey”, “bi”, “si”, “di” and so on in the margins, and my son filled in the lines with English uppercase and lowercase letters.
Pros and cons of the method
The method has several strengths. Almost all types of memory are involved: auditory, visual, verbal and motor. Learning is stress-free, the student does not suffer.
The rules of the game are simple and fair. We can say that the method works automatically and the result appears as if by itself. A vivid demonstration of the dialectical principle of the transition of quantity into quality. The algorithm is applicable for repeating forgotten material and is easily scaled for different volumes of words.
The method gives the student objective criteria for achieving the goal. There are real incentives to quickly learn everything and go for a walk.
The disadvantages of this method of learning are also obvious: you need a lot of paper and a "supervisor".
The son learned the spelling and pronunciation of the English names of the days of the week in an evening. Received the next day verification work five, praise and surprise of the teacher. And this is not the only success.
It was also interesting to observe how the material, if not repeated. First of all, the ability to write without errors disappears, then the pronunciation begins to suffer, and last of all, the sound of the word is forgotten. But the ability to recognize it in the text remains for a long time.
I do not think that the method is ideal, but using the memorization mechanisms described, you can always come up with something of your own.
Small children have amazing feature: quickly perceive and remember the received new information. Data and information that are difficult to remember and are given to an adult are “grasped on the fly” by little boys and girls.
Foreign language for modern successful person plays an important role. It is for this reason that parents strive to ensure that they acquire knowledge of English, French or German at an early age.
For classes to be effective, it is necessary to arouse sincere interest in a son or daughter. Only in this case, the lessons will give the desired result.
Helpful information
For school-age children, a foreign language is just another subject at school, where only formal learning takes place. The child feels the need to study in the same way as solving mathematical problems or writing an essay. Therefore, students do not feel enthusiastic and are not interested in learning English, French or another language. The formal atmosphere provokes low efficiency from the educational process.
It should be noted that according to official data and studies, young students learn knowledge better at the age of three to ten years. It is during this period that their right hemisphere develops. How to arouse interest in a foreign language at this age?
1. Tutors. It is advisable to use the services of tutors who offer lessons according to specially developed methods for young students. It is individual lessons that will help to get the desired result, as the teacher develops special program taking into account the abilities of the future student and other important factors.
It is very important that the selected teacher has extensive experience working with a children's audience, for example, has experience at school. When choosing, you need to pay attention to the reviews of former students and their parents.
German, French and English via Skype is a great modern distance learning option that saves time and money.
2. Communication. It is very important to immerse children in the language environment. To consolidate the knowledge received from the tutor, you need to regularly watch cartoons and videos together with him, which are interesting to the “young child prodigy”. When viewing, you need to communicate: ask questions or answer them.
3. Create an active language environment. If parents speak a foreign language, then you should try to constantly communicate in it. Children like to look “smart”, so you can ask them how this or that object, thing or product will sound in French, German or English, pretending that you do not know the correct answer.
4. Game. Any kid masters foreign speech several times better if learning takes place in a playful way. Therefore, it is important that both the tutor and the parents convey the necessary knowledge with the help of toys, etc.
5. Sincere interest. The child often does not show that something is not working out for him, and because of this, complexes may arise that will greatly interfere in the future. Parents often see this, but in certain situations they do not notice. Therefore, it is very important to carefully ask your daughter or son: what does he fail to do, what is difficult, what problems does he have when teaching a foreign language. Under no circumstances should you raise your voice or swear. This will lead to negative impact on the child's psyche and closeness.
An experienced tutor, regular watching of cartoons and listening to children's songs in English, German or French, active participation of parents in the learning process will lead to the desired result.
Many argue about the age at which children should start learning English. If you want to develop bilingualism, you should start paying attention to both languages.
Note that the two languages must be used for exactly the same amount of time. If you spend 30 minutes on Russian, spend 30 minutes on English as well. If such a task seems overwhelming to you, start teaching your child a foreign language when he speaks his native language well.
So, how to captivate a child with English?
To a small child, all the activities in which he is involved resemble a game. And therefore, in such a game, cards, color pictures, toys, dishes, poems, rhymes, and, of course, the teacher's imagination should be used. From the point of view of the little peanut, the same thing happens to him as before, only in a different language. Plunging into the game, the child involuntarily repeats everything that he is told. But the main task is to constantly change activities so that the child does not get bored.
- Primary school age, or Through a computer - to English
Children of primary school age tend to receive interesting information. Do not enroll your child in a course that resembles a school. Thus, the desire to learn English will only decrease to a minimum. Find where multiple types of work will be used, such as imitation, design and visual activity, role-playing games, board games, card games and more.
The task of parents at home is to support the child's desire to acquire new knowledge. If a child wants to read a book in English, it is necessary to find that book and help the child master it. Also include video games, audio books, songs in English. Use the full power of the Internet so that the child can realize the acquired knowledge: read, translate, retell. The influence of a parent at a young age is quite high, so use it for good.
- I see, I hear, I repeat, or
Another way to get your child interested in English is online learning. With the help of such activities, the child can learn the language together with the parent, without leaving home. Modern techniques allow you to involve your child in learning the language as much as possible, so that after a short period of time you will notice the results.
- Hello! Hi! How are you doing? Traveling and learning a language
The opportunity to travel is another way to attract a child's attention to a different culture. Feel free to explain to your child that the world is full of discoveries. Tell us that among the 7 billion people on Earth, more than 46% of people (including native speakers) know English. Explain to the child that in order to be understood, he must say “Hello” instead of the standard “Hi”, and say “Bye-bye” instead of “Bye”. In a situation where a child is in a foreign language environment, it is easier for him to adjust, understand and repeat than, being at home, to find the true reason to learn English.
Frederico Fellini said: "Another language is a different vision of life." (A different language is a different vision of life). Instill this different vision in your child and he will grow up to be a good person.
