I am currently teaching my five year old niece and my 1 year old nephew American Sign Langauge. They catch on to that fine. But how should I teach them a spoken language like French? I've read a few psychology books and I know that if it's not taught properly, they will not know neother english or french fluently. How can I teach them? What is the best way that won't confuse them?
2007-01-21 16:33:47 · 3 answers · asked by animespaz 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
That's not true at all. I know of an American man who married a Japanese woman and they lived in Japan, but they wanted their child to know English. So, they decided to speak English in the house. Because they lived in Japan, the child still learned Japanese. It DID actually take a little bit longer for the child to learn Japanese, but because it was all around her, she was able to catch up to her classmates (and I mean EARLY. She wasn't still behind in 3rd grade or anything!). But, because of her parents, she knew BOTH English and Japanese, so she was actually ahead of her classmates.
That's the best way to teach a language to a child. Just speak it! Don't speak English if they don't understand. Instead, repeat it and try to give them hints with your body language.
2007-01-21 16:41:32 · answer #1 · answered by Rabbityama 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Great Question.
Actually, even though someone gave rostov a "thumbs down", he's on the right track. Children under 12 are language learning sponges. All you have to do to teach them a language is hold their attention. What holds a child's interest better than a cartoon? The most popular language learning course for children in Europe is from the BBC and is called "Muzzy in Gandoland" It is a cartoon based language course. The kids have fun and learn at the same time. Get videos intended for children which have a french sound track and let the kids watch them. Immersion is the best way to learn a language.
They may get slightly confused for a while, but if you don't mix the language, and lovingly correct them when they do, they will soon straighten out which language is which, and become fluently multilingual.
2007-01-22 07:28:18 · answer #2 · answered by rbwtexan 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
french cartoons
2007-01-22 00:41:11 · answer #3 · answered by rostov 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋