While a lot of students choose to learn English as a second language in school, their parents can't always help them as much as they can.
The biggest reason they can't help them is because they don't speak English natively.
They want to be involved in their children's education either through helping them revise or studying with them, but this can be difficult when they don't know the subject or speak the language.
This may be because they never had the opportunity themselves, but regardless of the reasons, they want to help as much as they can.
It's fairly common for children to start learning English when they start school, even if this is just the basics like numbers, colours, animals, and the days of the week.
Very young children will happily show off what they learn in their English classes and even if their parents don't really understand their new vocabulary, it's important for them to encourage their child's learning.
It's difficult for a child to remain motivated when their parents have very little interest in what they're learning.
This is why parents can really help their children with their English by learning English together.
Obviously, a parent can't attend their child's lessons at school, but they can learn together in dedicated private ESOL tutorials.
Looking for ESOL tutors or ways to learn English online? Superprof can help!
How to Learn English as a Second Language with Your Child
In the very early stages of learning a language, an adult can learn just as quickly as their children even though they're not in their everyday classes at school. They can do this by going over what the child has been learning in class when they do their homework or help them when revising vocabulary and grammar points.
Suddenly, learning English is something they can both do and they can learn at the same pace as one another and in most cases, learn more quickly than they would independently.
Speaking English can help in many different careers and while certain jobs won't require any English at all, it's almost essential in a lot of others.
When kids first start learning English, they'll likely end up with lots of vocabulary, conjugations, and irregular verbs that they have to memorise.
Speak English With Your Child
Children whose parents don't speak English will have to spend more of their time learning English through reading and writing.
While it can help students to write as part of their revision, other students learn much better by speaking and listening to English.
Quieter children mightn't get an opportunity to speak much in class as they're too shy to participate, which could lead them to miss out on a lot of important speaking practice.
If their parents don't speak English with them, they'll get even fewer opportunities to practise their English and they run the risk of falling even further behind their peers.
By practising English with their parents, they'll gain confidence when speaking English and have the chance to work on their accent and pronunciation, which they can't do by just reading and writing.
Learn English by Swapping Roles
Parents can let their children play the role of the teacher by explaining what they learned in class and showing them how to do it.
The best way to test your understanding of a concept is by explaining it to somebody who doesn't understand it or explaining it in a way that they can understand.
If your child is finding it difficult, it might mean that this is something they need to spend more time studying. Not only is this is a good way to check for gaps in your child's knowledge, but it also gives them an opportunity to show off what they do know.
Don't Translate English Word-for-Word
English is its own language and it rarely will translate eloquently word-for-word into another language. Not only that, but it has its own idiomatic expressions that won't work in another language.
By translating word-by-word, you'll lose a lot of the meaning and continue to use your mother tongue as a crutch.
Every language has its own expressions that don't translate nicely into another language if you translate all of the words.
A lot of adults approach language learning in a clinical and logical way and try to translate every word back into their mother tongue rather than understand the semantic meaning.
In their classes, children are often taught English without the translations in their mother tongue. After all, when it comes to speaking English, it's important to speak it naturally, rather than translating everything to and from their mother tongue.
You can still have fun with the English language by learning tongue twisters, jokes, puns, and even slang. Children, in particular, will have a lot of fun learning these when studying English as a foreign language and it's a great way to keep them interested in the language.
Using Music to Help Children Learn English as a Foreign Language
English-language music is everywhere and it's very likely that your child will know songs whose lyrics are in English.
Rather than asking for the translation of song lyrics, it's better to ask children what the lyrics mean or at least what they think they mean.
Your child will have probably understood the gist of the song and some of the most important words and phrases from the song, allowing them to use these expressions and terms in their everyday English.
The music they listen to can also change their pronunciation as children pick up accents quite quickly so even if they're learning English in New Zealand, they may have aspects of British or American English from the music that they listen to.
Talk To Your Child's Teacher About Learning English
It's important to speak to your children's teachers and tutors about how you can best help your child to learn how to speak English and discuss their progress in the subject.
Some parents may avoid helping their children with their English homework or revision because they're embarrassed about getting the pronunciation wrong.
Lots of aspects of English can be difficult for ESOL learners, especially pronunciation when there are sounds that don't exist in your mother tongue.
Children can learn more about accents, intonation, and pronunciation through listening to audio recordings and native speakers. A lot of teachers will include reading, writing, speaking, listening, and grammar in their lessons.
You can ask your child's teachers or tutors which resources they recommend to help you and your child work on your pronunciation and listening skills.
Get Quality ESOL Learning Resources
As an important international language, learners of English need to regularly work on studying the language. How long it will take to learn English depends on a number of factors, but high-quality resources can reduce this time.
For children who find English difficult, it can help to invest in ESOL resources that they can use at home. Different resources work better for some students than others so find the resources that your child enjoys using.
Private tutors can go over mistakes as we can learn a lot more from the things we get wrong than the things we get right.
Whether it's complicated grammar exercises, spelling, tenses, or vocabulary, using good resources will help them improve their English and perform well in English exams.
Pay for Good English Tuition Resources
As with a lot of things, with ESOL resources, you get what you pay for and the very best resources will need to be paid for. Fortunately, there are lots of high-quality English language resources that are quite affordable.
Even things like magazines, newspapers, and games can be useful resources for children to learn English from even if they don't think that they're actually learning when they're using them. There are also dedicated websites for children learning English and they often focus on learning through fun.
Online English Courses for Parents
For parents who want to learn with their children, it can help to focus on resources and approaches that work better for them. One thing they should do is find the perfect English teacher to help them.
In addition to helping their children with their English, they'll also learn valuable skills that they can use in their own careers.
As every student is different, it's important you look at a lot of different ways to learn English including the most effective ways of learning English.
The same is true when looking for private tutors. You need to find tutors that will tailor their lessons to you and your child and are both capable and experienced working with students of different ages and abilities, especially if you're going to be taking the lessons together with your child.
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