- Practice vocabulary with flash cards with your child. You can say the English word and then ask your child can say and spell out the foreign word. Make a game out of it; you can try and say the foreign word and see if your child can figure out which vocabulary work you are saying and give you the correct pronunciation and meaning. Kids love to correct their parents!
- Be interested in the language and the culture that your child is learning.
- Look over your child's homework.
- Talk to your child's teacher to see what they are learning in class and follow up on this with your child at home. For example, if the class is learning about food, make sure that you take the opportunity to ask which foods they know how to identify in the foreign language. This kind of support can happen at times your child isn't working on homework, but are engaged in regular activities. Using the example of food, again, you could
- If you see the words in the language that your child is learning, point it out to your child. For example, you might find words on a menu, in an advertisement, or in the newspaper. Making real life connections make language learning seem more important and relevant.
- Be supportive of your child's language choice. In some cases there might not be many choices offered in the school, but if there are, it is important to let your child choose because motivation plays such an important role in language learning.
- Explore the language on the World Wide Web with your child. Bookmark your favorite sites so that he/she can visit them often.
- Support good study habits of their language homework. Learning a language is a skill and requires ongoing learning and practice. No one learns another language overnight!
- Check to see if there is a website for your child's language textbook. Publishers' sites are often full of information and additional activities for kids.
- Patiently listen to your child read aloud or speak the language, just enjoy the different sounds, even if you don't understand.
- Encourage your child to repeat and practice as this is the key to retention. Once is not enough.
- Rent a foreign film and when it's over, discuss what you watched.
- Point out experiences that you have encountered different languages in your life, work, vacation, at the store, etc.
- Encourage your child to share their experiences with world languages in their other classes.
- Recognize foreign food in the store and point it out; better yet, buy it!
- Visit an ethnic restaurant and take the opportunity to talk about different foods in different countries. Try something new!
- Enroll in a world language class yourself.
- Help your child learn how to use a bilingual dictionary.
- Often times foreign words look like English and can be recognized. For example, "kaffe" in German and "cafe" in French mean "coffee" in English. Encourage your child to try this strategy to figure out the meaning of new vocabulary, but note that is doesn't always work.
- Pictures in the textbook often go along with the topic discussed on each page. Ask your child to describe how the picture relates to what is being studied in class.
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