Many expat children go to international schools in Bangkok and in other cities around the country. International schools have outstanding facilities, and the kids are exposed to modern teaching strategies that prepare them for life after graduation. One of the few areas where international schools fall down is the environment. Most classes are taught in English, so students don’t get to practice the local language or their native tongue as often as they would like.
Here are some tips to help support language learning outside the classroom.
Learn Yourself
Let’s say your kids are starting their first day in an international school in Bangkok and they are being taught Thai for the first time. This is going to be a really strange experience for them, especially if they don’t understand tones. If you’ve made the move to Thailand and you will be settling in the country for the foreseeable future, why not learn the local language with them?
A great way to support their learning outside of the classroom is to learn a new language with them at home. Learning together is an excellent way to spend time with them and have some fun with a new language.
You can try some fun activities and make language learning enjoyable for everyone. When they learn something new in class, let them be the teacher and show you how to greet someone in Thai or how to ask for directions to the bathroom.
Learning a new language with someone and letting your kids teach you is a great way to progress and get better at it. When you make a mistake, they can have a good laugh at their parents.
Playful Experimentation
If you’ve young kids who are learning a language for the first time, let them increase their vocabulary by playing with them.
To ensure they get better at the new language, use games and other fun activities to help them learn outside of the classroom. You can try all sorts of games like hide & seek or eye spy. Kids don’t see this as learning, so they are more inclined to play the games and pick up the language.
Older kids or teens won’t be interested in these types of games, so you must come up with other ideas. For older kids, it is best to look for online resources. Provide them with a reward if they complete language tasks or converse in the new language.
Read Stories
Again, this is more a strategy for younger kids, but you can offer to buy good books for older kids when they learn a new language. When you’ve younger children in the house who are just learning a new language, read to them at bedtime.
If you are both learning the language together, listen to podcasts or YouTube videos to help you learn basic phrases. You can easily get online story books that kids can listen to when they go to sleep or during the day. It is a good idea to use stories they already know, but in a new language to make it more interesting or funny.
Encourage Social Interactions
Kids learn more from copying other kids, so make sure you encourage social interactions with other children who don’t speak your child’s first language. If they are attending an international school in Bangkok, bring them to the local park or join a local team where everyone speaks Thai.
This will force them to use the language they have learned, and they’ll pick up new vocabulary and phrases. They’ll be speaking like the natives in no time once you put them in an environment where they have to practice the new language they are learning.
TV & Music
Your child is taking Thai or Chinese lessons at school and you want to improve their skills at home. They love to watch cartoons and listen to music in English, so why not reverse the trend and put on their favourite cartoon, but in another language.
There is a massive difference between being exposed to a language and learning a language, the latter mostly occurs in the classroom. When you expose kids to a new language and make it part of their everyday life, they pick it up a lot quicker.
Early learners should be given a chance to learn the sounds and rhythm of a new language before they start to learn about grammar and verb tenses.
Get children to watch TV and listen to music in the language they are learning. At a young age kids soak up everything and their brains are programmed to learn all sorts of information that adults disregard.
Early Exposure to Sounds
As we get older, it gets harder for us to learn to speak a new language like the natives. For example, in languages like Thai and Spanish, they roll the R sound. If you haven’t been doing this or hearing the sound in natural conversation, it may seem strange and difficult to do as you get older.
Get children use to the phonics and make sure they hear sounds in natural conversation. This can be done by putting on the local radio station or turning over to a TV series.
Call on Bilingual Family or Friends
Children look up to their peers and there is no better way to get them to progress in a new language than to have friends or family over who speak the new language they are learning. Tell friends or family not to speak in the child’s native language and try conversing in Thai, Chinese, or a European language – depending on what they are learning in school.
When your kids are learning a new language, don’t push them too hard as they may start to dislike it and rebel against your forcefulness. Find ways to reward them for developing their language skills and make sure each strategy you use outside of the classroom is fun and enjoyable. When you can, put them in an environment or situations where they have to use the second language to get by.