Language Learning Tips

27 September 2010

by Heather Vlach

Here are some tips for your family that can support the development and strengthening of the Mother Tongue, which will ultimately also enhance additional languages that are learned.

• Make a Plan and Set a Goal: Decide which Family Language Plan suits your family situation and your child. Think about your mother tongue and the research that supports preserving and enhancing this language. Determine the level of language ability you want your child to development in both the mother tongue and language learned at school.
• Your Commitment: After you have chosen Family Language Plan strategy, please be consistent with it! Changes will not occur overnight, and you may even find that your child will rebel from the linguistic plan. Be persistent, perseverant, and patient!
• Speak Your Language Properly: When talking to your child, speak your language articulately, using rich vocabulary, and without the use of "baby talk". Use the appropriate names and create whole, articulate sentences. Children can handle this, and develop stronger language skills (In multiple languages) as a result. You can develop Mother Tongue skills by reading, talking and writing in your native language.
• Different Topics: Talk about everything (In your mother tongue, of course)! Speak with your child about what is happening around you, encourage your child to ask questions, and take the time to answer them too. Remember, knowledge, skills and concepts that are learned in the native language can easily be transferred into another language. However, if no concepts are learned in the mother tongue, the vocabulary and literacy of the child will be very limited - in all the languages that he/she is studying.
• Different Means: Follow up your Family Language Plan with music, books, stories, tapes and computer software in your mother tongue language. You can also create native language games according to your child's development, and make your own collection of rhymes and riddles that can be used over and over again.
• Broad Range of Conversation Partners: Show your child that other people speak your language too. Your child needs to hear the language from many different speakers (Old, young, male and female voices, various accents and dialects, and in different media such as the telephone or radio). Enlist the help of family members to help support this. Also, mix with other people from the community who speak your language to expose your child to different situations and environments. This allows the child to learn how adults communicate, as he/she has the opportunity to listen to communication between same language speakers.
• Take Your Language To School: Let teachers, other parents and children know, what language(s) your family speaks. It is important to know that teachers support your mother tongue, and often encourage parents to participate in creating a multicultural climate with global students through projects and information about your culture and language. Children feel a deeper sense of cultural pride and self-awareness when they know that their mother tongue is valued both at home and school.
• Praise Your Child and Have Fun!: Continue to positively nurture and praise your child's growth and development both at home and school. Support your child at his/her own pace. Focus on the fun involved and avoid stress. Enjoy and praise every little progress and focus on small success.

Tell us how you support the development and strengthening of the Mother Tongue. Are you committed to your child learning his/her mother tongue? How do you help your child stay motivated?