Is there a game or games (video, baord, flash cards) to help a child who speaks Thai learn English?

Question

My niece only speaks Thai, and has just moved to Maryland with my brother and sister-in-law. I want to get her a Christmas present that would be fun and help her with her English. Any ideas anyone?

My niece is 8 years old.

Answer 1

Here is a link to an online resource that has some games and flashcards online:

I teach English as a Second Language

If you go to a Barnes & Noble bookstore nearest you, they can help you find hard copy books and picture dictionaries. If there is no Barnes & Noble near you, then amazon will have some stuff.. use keywords English as a Second Language and look for children's materials.

You didn't say how old the niece is. --- okay, 8 years old is 3rd grade level. She'll be able to pick things up faster than if she were younger.

Answer 2

Kids enjoy playing games of any kind, and you might be surprised if you think about it about how many games, not just language games, but any game, use language. A friend of mine, for example, acquired American Sign Language when she was a child because she went to a school that had some deaf children and the deaf children had really cool playground equipment, so she basically just picked up ASL as she was playing with them. An eight-year-old child doesn't want to feel like she's in school all the time, but she can still learn English from interacting normally with people and doing things with them. Even a simple game like Candy Land, for example, usually involves saying lots of colors, for example. So basically any game that fosters interaction, even if it isn't specifically designed for language teaching, might do the trick.

And I hope you won't mind if I give some advice about what they should be doing with her schooling. I don't know the circumstances behind the fact that a Thai-speaking girl came to live with an American couple, but I suspect that it's something like they adopted a child from Thailand. Children in these situations may not have a normal Thai education and therefore might not be literate in any language. Also, at the age of 8, this girl is approaching the age where she may no longer be able to acquire English like native speakers do. I strongly encourage your brother and his wife to get this girl into ESL classes and keep her there until she is ready to move into mainstream classes. This might be as long as five or six years. Even if she can converse normally in English she may not be prepared to do academic work, which is both linguistically and cognitively challenging. Many people think that she'll be fine if they just stick her into a normal classroom -- they'll tell you things like, "She'll pick it up in a little while." I strongly disagree because this doesn't really help her learn any faster and it's often very hard on the child psychologically, which might lead to discipline problems and even other problems in the long run. They might also consider finding a tutor who can work with the girl on her Thai reading and writing, since research studies have shown that literacy skills transfer across languages, so strengthening her Thai literacy can help her English literacy as well.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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