Saturday, January 4, 2020

How to help your child learn English in a better way

Introduction:


We can help our non-native children to acquire the language easily, I will have a simple introduction so as for you to understand how the process will flow.
The natural way of learning a language is to listen, speak, read and finally write, as follows:

  • Listening: For our kids to speak Arabic they listen for almost 1 year without understanding or with less understanding, as they grow older they become better and better every day.
  • Speaking: Then gradually the child starts to speak little words and we celebrate every success and treat as of great achievement with lots of encouragement.  We always happy and very patient in this process, so why we don't follow the same methodology when we would like to inject a new language into our kids live.
  • Reading: As the child starts the normal education process (at home/school) he/she starts to read.
  • Writing: After a certain level of competence and confidence in reading the child starts writing words, sentences and finally paragraphs or stories.

To help your child learn a language in a better way, follow the five steps process.

First: build a strong foundation for the language:

In the beginning, we have to expose the child to a wide range of language as illustrated below:

  • Let him/her listen to English videos: you can watch Peppa pig, Barney, Caillou or more.
  • Read to the child stories every day and watch stories from youtube.
  • Speak with them all day long so as to make the language a routine throughout the day.
  • Play normally with the child and make drawing and crafting while you give them instructions in English or the targeted language.

Second: Teaching the sounds:

The most critical thing is to forget the letter names at all and start teaching the English sounds, for example (S) this is  /ssssss/ and not (Es).
Jolly Phonics is the best system that will help your child to learn better and faster due to the following facts https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/jolly-phonics/:
  • It was developed by well experienced British teachers based on their observation of the previous methods in teaching the language UK.
  • It engages the child using multiple senses; visual, auditory and kinesthetic (means movement).
  • Each sound has shape (visual) and a song (auditory) and an action (kinesthetic/movement).
  • Lots of resources are available on their web site or online.
  • How to teach the sounds is based on your creativity but focus on how to make it fund, simple, easy and interesting and give small chunks of lessons not long boring lessons, below are the resources:
  • Teach the 42 English sounds, for younger kids teach them the normal sounds, not the digraph (double letter making one sounds, like ch, sh, ou, ng, th, ee) below are the sounds on youtube
  • Use lots of game to reinforce the sound and revise the previous sounds as well.
  • Use many words to improve vocabulary and strengthen the concept of the sounds could exist at the beginning or middle or end of the word.

The links below will help you:

NOTE:
During this stage even if the kids are very small do your best to find easy and interesting ways to help them learn how to form the sounds correctly (write the sounds), for very little kids use sand, foam or flour on try, (cut and paste small papers or stickers on the sounds, even not tracing). The key here is not to write on paper it is just making sure they know the proper steps.

Further resources to help you at this stage:
  • Jolly Phonics App
  • Search for other arts, crafts or games.


Thirds: blending (reading words):

After the child master the sounds, start the blending process, which simply means saying the sounds one by one in a sequence to read the words, for example, you will say the following sounds together and repeat it so many times and faster to say the word /c/, /a/, /t/ then you will sat (cat).

The following video will help you how to blend:

Further resources:

Below are more fun ways to teach blending
  • Use flashcards that you can prepare at home either by typing the words on  MS word, then print, cut and illuminate or write them by a marker but make sure to use very neat handwriting.
  • Write the words/sounds by markers on blocks of wood or bottles covers and this will help at spelling as well.
  • Use images from clipart or search them on Google,  prepare a wide range of picture cards with corresponding words and let the child read and match, for this game you don’t need to be sitting with the child, he/she can do it alone and call you when done to revise and blend again.
  • Use pictures and simple sentences/phrases to match as well, the phrases could be (sad cat, mad cat, six cats, ten cats, red cats, black cat, fat cat, etc).
  • Overall use Google or Youtube you will find so many resources to use.

Fourth: Reading Stories:

In order to get right, let's differentiate between two types of reading, remember the key here for both types of reading is “daily routine” in order to get better and guaranteed results, it ould be as simple as 15 minutes/day:

1. Read aloud for your child (DAILY):

The mum or dad or both should read for their children daily, the books could be beyond their level, it is helpful in the following areas:

  • The child listens and exposes the language daily.
  • It creates a bond between you and the child.
  • It opens wider doors for communication between you and your n child.
  • It is a great chance to use for any behavior discussion or correction using the characters in the stories.
  • You can review/reinforce the sounds while you are reading and blending as well.
  • It is a great source for boosting your child's vocabulary level.
  • Give the child confidence in speaking.
  • It builds their comprehension ability.


2. Leveled reading by the child himself/herself (DAILY):

This is the type of reading where your child will read independently daily with your guidance and close monitoring and support. 

To get the maximum out of reading, follow the techniques below:
  • You can engage in discussion before start reading, talk about the title and the cover picture.
  • Ask the child lots of questions along the way, this will ensure he/she understands the text, not just good at reading.
  • Ask the child to retell the story using their own words or the same words and you can help them to feel comfortable.
  • Review the older stories before you move to the next one.
  • You could add additional activities if you would like; it could be based on your context, maybe connect the story to real-life or something happening.

Recommended Books (logical series and sequence) are:
  • Songbird, Julia Donaldson, 6 levels each 12 stories/books except level 5 and 6 only 6 stories/books.
  • Biff, Chip and Kipper, 6 levels each 8 books.
  • Ladybird, 4 levels a total of 50 books.
  • Peter and Jane, a collection of 36 books.
  • Or any other books that you might find easier and leveled to ensure smooth progress.

You can find all of those books at the following addresses:
Other general books at:
  • Hira Bookshop, David 0990366293 or 019088088
  • Mr. Eltijani who make book fairs at schools, call him at 0909926560
  • Aldar Alsodanya for books, Albaladya Street Khartoum.
  • Or visit the used books at Omdurman beside Post Office, Bahri, or beside Unity School or along Algasr Street Khartoum.
  • Search on amazon or ebay to get whatever you want.
  • Whenever you travel bring some toys & books back as gifts to your kids, so they will value them as toys.

NOTE: you know the level of children and their interests and levels, so this will guide you.

Fifth: Writing:

The first message I’d like to share with those who have younger children (2-5), hold your horse as rushing the kids to write will be a disaster, calm down and let them enjoy the reading first. Writing will happen naturally as they will become confident readers.
For younger children, writing could be as easy as just knowing how to form the sound properly using the following ideas:

  • Write on the air or the sand.
  • Spray flour on a tray and write on it.
  • Write a big sound on a paper and let the child take small stickers, or small pieces of papers or any hard material to paste on the sound following the correct movement.
  • Write on a mini-whiteboard using whiteboard marker, if you don’t have a whiteboard, take A4 paper draw lines on it and illuminate it.
  • Draw or print a big letter on paper and let the child color it using the correct sequence/movement with brush, crayon, coloring pencil, stick any materials depends on the ability of your child.


For older children below are the logical sequence of writing:
  • Print-ready worksheets or make it yourself, by place number of pictures and ask the child to write its name, this is could be another option to a normal boring spelling.
  • Let them draw anything on a paper and label their drawing (write the name of the things or its parts).
  • Cut photos from old books or magazines and stick it on a note book page and ask the child to write as many sentences as he/she can from the picture.
  • Search for stories from Google or old books and the child will cut them, put them in order, then will express about the photos in writing.
  • Search for any further writing program to enrich your child level.

Conclusion:

Educating your child is not an easy task at all; it requires lots of efforts from both parents and lots of research in order to get it right. It will not be perfect but its journey with lots of ups and downs and us have to go through it and enjoy it with our children.
All of the information above based on our own personal experience with my kids, you may find something that will work best for you. But it worked very well for us and with every child, we are getting better and learn. Fortunately, we and the school completing each other, therefore the result was very satisfactory for us.