Tips for Arousing Kids’ Interest in Learning A Second Language

With the accelerated development of globalization nowadays, more and more parents are intending to have their children learn another language than ever. It is known that now over half of the world’s population speaks at least two languages. Whether in monolingual or bilingual families, it is practical to expect a child to be bilingual. But in most situations, it is just the intention we have as parents. Would the kids themselves want to learn another language? What can parents do to arouse the interest of children in learning another language? Here are some tips.

Advantages of speaking a second language:

• It is helpful for cross-cultural communication and making friends cross-culturally.
• It helps broaden cross-cultural curiosity and vision and see things from multiple perspectives.
• It will help to get more career opportunities and be more competitive in future career development.
• Mastering more than one language means mastering one more skill to increase self-confidence.
• Studies also have shown that speaking more than one language helps develop intelligence, and allows the brain to process information more efficiently. And there are more advantages in addition to the above mentioned.

Depending on the learning characteristics of different age groups, different methods are adopted to inspire children’s interests.

age 0 to age 3: Children under 18 months of age are discouraged from watching screens given that it may lead to some health problems. To avoid this, parents can play songs and stories in the second language, read picture books to their children, or play games with dolls and toys using the second language.  Children older than 18 months can also do the activities mentioned above, in addition, they can watch children’s songs and animation videos in the second language,  10-20 minutes each time is recommended and no longer than one hour a day.

Ages 4 to 5: Watch kids’ songs and animation videos. Listen to stories, and read picture books. If one parent knows the second language, suggest the parent read picture books for their children. If parents do not know this language, they can play audiobooks or video picture books, but please accompany the kid. After listening to a story or reading a picture book, children are encouraged to say or draw the story they understand in their own language.

Children in this age group learn language mainly through listening and speaking. They are not required to be able to write, but they can learn to write simple words if they are interested.

Ages 6 and up read picture books and graded reading books according to a child’s level. Watch auto-read books, cartoons, movies, or TV series, and listen to stories on APP. They can start writing now so parents may download and print some worksheets for them to write. 

Note: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that screen time for children before 18 months should be discouraged. Children of 18 months to 2 years old should use high-quality programming/apps and be accompanied by parents as this is the way that they learn best. 2 to 5 years old should be limited to no more than one hour a day. For ages 6 and older, encourage healthy habits and limit activities that include screens.

Set up a bilingual environment.

Children input and output a language through visual stimuli. Set up a bilingual environment at home such as affixing the foreign language names on the objects and furniture in the house. Put posters on your walls in foreign languages, stock your bookshelves with books in foreign languages, etc.

If someone in your family speaks a second language, it is recommended to spend ten minutes talking with your child every day. The topics can be anything from how is the weather today, the clothes people should wear in such weather, who he/she usually plays with, what happens at school, and anything that he/she enjoys talking about in a relaxed chat. When you eat dinner, ask your child how to say the food in the second language.

If no one speaks the second language in your house, no worries at all, there are many ways to help your child with it such as watching audiobooks and videos and exercising through interactive games. For example, the parents pretend not to remember the words or expressions that they learned with their child together and seek their child’s help on how to say these words. The children will be really happy and can not wait to tell the parents. This way a child will gain a sense of achievement and be willing to talk more.

Children can also take online lessons, which are recommended for 25 minutes under age 3 and 30 minutes between ages 3 and 6, especially if parents accompany their children until the age of 6. 45 minutes for ages 7-10 and one hour for ages 11 and older. Attend classes at least twice a week and do some homework if possible to help consolidate.

Things to bear in mind

Don’t push your child to study when he/she is tired or in no mood. It will not have a good learning outcome, and it can also affect the child’s interest in learning it.

Don’t forget to praise and reward children. It could be stickers, books, toys, treats, etc. After a period of learning, acknowledge the achievement of your child. It is important that a child is recognized, as it can help a child continue learning and enjoy the learning journey.

Learning a language is a long process, so it is important to keep learning it, even if it is only 10 or 20 minutes a day but keep the long run.

I am raising two trilingual kids, I say trilingual because we are basically a bilingual family ( Dad is from Japan, and Mom, or say me myself is from China). We live in Japan, and Japanese is their main language but I teach them Chinese at home. We are also intending our kids to learn English as English is a widely used language in the world.

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