5 Activities to Encourage Language Development
To expose to a more extensive vocabulary, kids need many opportunities to apply what they have learned in their language development classes. The standard language class, whether running in a school or a weekend class, often has issues with too rigid teaching methods, boring written exercises, or a lack of opportunities for kids to use the language beyond the class. Practicing a new phrase or a word may also be intimidating, specifically for kids with a higher effective filtration system or negative psychological factors that may hinder language learning.
An excellent way to give kids meaningful opportunities to use their learning and turn negative feelings into positive ones is to make learning fun! Language teachers and parents alike will find that by using activities that produce learning participation and fun, kids are more likely to participate and plunge in. Having a great time while learning also helps kids retain language skills better because the experience is exciting and easy to store in their memory.
1- Learn the language with songs
Almost all kids are in some way encouraged to sing a foreign song at some stage. Music is also at the top of the list of fun-way-of-learning-a-language. To find artists who sing in the language your kids are learning, check out the playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, or the type of music channel your kid favor. Type the name of your chosen language + music (e.g., Spanish music), and you should get a variety of songs or playlists for you to choose from.
Listen actively to make the most of it: let your kids listen to it a few times, find lyrics and look up the meaning. Remember, they DON’T have to understand every single word of the song! While the music sinks in, your kids will sing along with the language; eventually, the meaning will register in their language skill memory. This will be a slow and fun process; tell your kids they don’t have to struggle, enjoy the sing-along, and it will become natural after they have mastered the song completely!
2- Learn the language with karaoke
You might want to laugh, karaoke? Yes, learning to sing is different than sing-along with karaoke, as if you are singing to an audience. This will not only develop your kids’ pronunciation skills and get them to focus on getting the sounds as closer to the original singers as possible but also; it will improve kids’ confidence as if they are singing for real, at a show or on TV if you want to push it a little.
But make the step smaller at a time; first, let your kids practice on their own while there’s no one in the house, or let them do it in the shower. When they are fully confident, you can suggest you, as a parent, be his first audience; if it goes well, they can record themselves and upload it onto YouTube or sing in front of the whole family and friends!
There are tons of kids recording themselves singing on YouTube; this can also be used to encourage your kids to act up! If other kids can do it, why not you?!!!
Many YouTube videos also provide karaoke practice, with lyrics displayed with the music. It saves you buying your karaoke equipment for your kids. Give it a try, and you might be surprised at its effectiveness!
3- Learn nursery rhymes
‘Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear, one step, two steps, tickly under there!’ A rhyme like this is easy to remember and sticks in your kid’s head like magic! Every language will have similar rhymes that are easy to pronounce and remember!
The only thing to take notice of is to choose the one with vocabulary still relevant to modern days. You don’t want kids to learn the words that no longer mean the same thing from the rhyme.
Ask language teachers to give some suggestions; this will provide you with an accurate selection to learn from. Your kids will find fun in learning which is the main goal to achieve. The happier they see in learning a language, the more they would like to know!
4- Find a language meetup group
Somewhere in your area, there are most likely groups of kids and parents learning the same language as you are. Search for them in your local library, community center, or supermarket notice board. You will likely find some information promoting the group.
In North West England, the UK, where I live, not only can you find local language learning groups in the above local centers, you can find these groups via Facebook and Eventbrite, and there’s even an App called ‘Meetup’; most of these are free. If not, they do not charge a fortune for you to attend the regular meetup group.
You can go with your kids to these language learning groups; it provides opportunities to meet new friends and practice speaking in real life, which is essential for language learning. If you let your kids go on their own, please make sure the group is suitable to your kids’ age, i.e., they are supervised by adults with specific security clearances.
5- Learn the language by watching TV
Watching TV is not always a waste of time for learning. So pause our keen brains for a moment and just put some rubbish TV on! The mass picture and conversation do not have to make sense; as long as your kids are having fun, they will pick up a few phases!
Particularly with top-performance acting, some language conversation is straightforward to understand. Kids can start to imitate them straightforwardly and have a laugh at the same time! Some Reality TV programs provide a perfect opportunity for your kids to practice hearing skills and pick up slang words that are used more frequently than the language phrases they learn from a book.
If you enjoy this post, please comment below, have a good day wherever you are!
Yes teaching a foreign might not be easy unless a good strategy is used to to captivate the children. I remember when I was still in Nursery school my French teacher will be teaching us songs in French. Also the same strategy with English. English is not my mother tongue but with those great strategies we developed a good attitude to the Language. I can’t speak French but I’m a teacher of English Language today. Teacher should be dynamic in their teaching strategy.
Nice one.
Thanks for your comments Tsquare, I was a teacher myself once teaching English as a foreign language. Now I am trying very hard to encourage my kids to speak my mother tongue Mandrin Chinese! It’s hard but these tricks work!
Hello Kitty,
I remember my mom trying to make me learn a new language when I was quite young. It never worked out. Here I am today trying to figure out how to encourage my boy to learn a new language. For starters it’s not easy motivating someone to learn a new language especially since the kid doesn’t understand the usefulness of the language. I’ll put your tips to work and hopefully I’ll have a positive feedback.
Thanks for Sharing
Hi Louis, thanks for the comments. True our kids don’t quite understand the usefulness of foreign language skill yet, not until they are much older. That’s why we need to try to get fun way for them to learn! Hope your kids will benefit from these tips!
Thank you for this great post, I think you have really provided great insight into learning a new language, I can’t agree less with all the tips you have provided above. I think one of the best way to learn a new language is through music, music is universal and covers foreign language. I will share this post with my uncle ,it will be of great help to his kids.
Thanks Clement, yes we all love music and it helps us learning language! Thanks for sharing!
Hello Kitty,This is very good to know that there are fun ways to learn language. I agree with you that the conventional ways of learning language is quite boring and rigid. The songs and karaoke which is truly a very interactive and creative way to learn a language. Great tips that you have covered.Thanks for a helpful resource
I love all of these tips for helping kids learn languages. My favorite tip is probably “Learn language with songs.” I think singing songs is SUCH a good way to remember things.
When my kids were little, in order to teach them how to learn our phone number, I made a song out of it. We still sing it to this day. lol
I know in school my kids’ language classes do use some music. I think they think it’s kind of cheesy, but at the same time, it really gets it stuck in their head. I almost think every class should have songs! I’m sure that would drive the teacher nuts though. lol
Thanks again for these great tips! I’m sure my kids’ favorite would be Watching TV! 😉
Thanks Christina! I love to sing myself when I’m a kid learning foreign languages. So I think this is a great for my kids to learn now! Like the one you get them to sing your phone number, brilliant!
I believe these 5 tips for learning other languages are not only great for kids. Even adults like us who are very much interested to learn foreign languages without necessarily taking up formal lessons can apply these. With the rising popularity of Korean TV series and Korean bands and singers all over Asia, almost everyone, kids and adults are now learning how to speak Korean while having fun.
But if we’re really serious about encouraging our kids to learn another language, I’d say singing and nursery rhymes are very effective. I worked as a nanny for a few years and my wards absolutely loved singing the alphabet song in different languages like French and Hebrew, ain’t that cool?
Thank you for your comments Alice. I agree nursery rhyme is a great learning tool! Both of my own kids love them!
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