Speaking English For School Children – Dos and Dont’s
If you take any Sunday newspaper, you will find a lot of advertisements for Speaking English for children. These ads would appear in different formats – Spoken English Course for kids, English Classes for Children, Conversational English for kids etc. There would be classes run by reputed English language training institutes like the British Council and there would also be a lot of classes conducted by local teachers. In the middle of all this advertising, how do you as a parent teach Speaking English to your child in the best possible manner?
Here are some tips we would like to share.
Immerse your kids in English from an early age
Little children are like sponges. They absorb languages extremely fast. If you get a Native English Teacher to practice speaking English with your child 3 times a week, your child with start speaking fluent English with a perfect accent and grammar in a few weeks!
Surprised? Don’t be. Infant, children can even learn to speak more than one language when they are young. Make use of this golden opportunity and get a Native English teacher to work with your child from a very early age. You can do this using video conferencing/ Skype with parent supervision.
Want to take a trial English speaking lesson for your child? Click below
Don’t worry about Grammar
Remember how you learned your first language? Did you memorize grammar rules before learning to speak? No, right.
The same rules applies to teaching Speaking English to your children. If you teach them grammar too early, they will not be able to learn English speaking naturally.
Rather than teaching them grammar, try to expose them to different outlets in English – movies, cartoons, karaoke, magazines, conversations clubs, book clubs, videos etc. Use English as the main language when speaking at home. Encourage your children to make mistakes while speaking English.
Speaking English for Kids via Skype
The beauty of technology such as Skype is that you get to voice chat with people all over the globe. If you have friends in English speaking countries who have kids the same age as yours, interact with them via Skype. This will be a great way to improve speaking English while making new friends and learning about other cultures.
Also, there are good Speaking English courses offered by companies like Spoken English Practice that allow your children to practice English speaking with native speakers.
Don’t make learning Speaking English a chore
Most importantly, don’t make learning Speaking English a chore. Let your child have fun learning Spoken English. The goal should be to make them learn Conversational English through practice and not for them to pass any exams.
So make it a fun learning exercise and a family activity. Who knows, you might also improve your accent and pronunciation while teaching your child Speaking English.
