How can I teach my child to speak English? This is the question that every parent is facing and trying to find a solution. Kids often complain that they didn’t understand the chapter or didn’t reply to the teacher as she asked the question in English & expected an answer in the English language.
Children are like clay..whatever shape we want to give them, they can be easily molded. As far as language is concerned, one can learn it by listening as a toddler does at home & quickly grasps the words spoken in the family. We never teach our children Punjabi, Rajasthani & other local languages spoken in India. The only need arises for English because many of us don’t have that environment at home in which children can learn to speak English.
Most of us have been through the same problem at some point of time. So I have tried to come up with a set of all the possible ways a child can be taught English. Someone asked me this question during my coaching classes and I have tried to answer it. Hope it helps anyone in the same situation.
1st option: The best way is to take him/her to an English-speaking environment where he/she hears only English and talks only in English. This will make him/her comfortable with the language and will not give any chance for them to be embarrassed by his/her inability to speak or understand it properly. This also applies if you are teaching your child from home as well.
2nd Option: The concept of this is to prepare your child to speak the language by providing the basic sentence structures and words. You can begin with simple sentences like, “I am good” or “Where are you going?”. You can start with Yes/ No type questions like:
Do you go to school?
Is there a maths class today?
Do you have your notebook?
Have you arranged your bag?
Have you made your bed?
Did you brush your teeth?
Have you prepared for the test?
Can you solve this question?
Can you Swim?
Are you ready?
Slowly, you can make them understand how to reply to wh- questions but before that, he/ she needs to understand the basic grammar or sentence structure, use of prepositions, conjunctions, modals in the sentences.
There are many sites on the internet that provide youtube videos for kids. Visuals have a deep impact on the mind, so it can be a better option to watch one video per day. If it is with subtitles, it will be more beneficial.
3rd Option: Choose a short story for your child to read. It should be about two pages long. If your child is a beginner then he/she should be reading no more than one page per day.
Ask your child to read the story out loud to you (or another family member who speaks English well). Then ask him/her questions about the story (e.g., what happened first, next, last?). When your child answers these questions, give him/her positive reinforcement for answering correctly.
After reading the story, have your child summarize it as if he/she were telling it in his/her own words. You can also ask him/her to pretend that he/she was in a movie and had only one minute to tell someone else what happened in the story.
Make him/her learn 5 – 10 vocabulary words daily. Provide him/ her with some words & ask to make his/ her own story or sentences with those words.
It is not advisable to force them to do anything. If they say no, then do not force them and let them go away. Always try to maintain a friendly environment between you and your kids so that they feel free to speak what they want to express and also give you input about their life.
Your presence will always motivate your kids so much that they will feel free to share their thoughts with you or tell some stories or jokes any time they like if you are around with your kid
There are many benefits for kids in learning English, from boosting their confidence and getting them talking to improving their reading, writing, and grammar skills.
To improve vocabulary read https://converseacademy.com/how-to-improve-english-vocabulary/
For worksheets https://www.kids-pages.com/
