In a previous post, I have shared with you the list of 307 sight/Oxford words that my son's school uses in their Foundation classes. After the first two terms of the school, it turned out that my son was ready for a new challenge. After a discussion with their coordinator, his teacher decided to provide him with the spelling words lists. The idea is the same as the reading sight words; each week, he is tested and once he achieves that particular lot (normally 10 a week but it also depends on the individual's pace) confidently, the next set of spelling words are worked on at home and tested at school the following week.
I thought it may be beneficial for many of you to have this list to use with your children now or save for later. To access to the list, click here.
Have a wonderful day!
Showing posts with label Tips for Language Learners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips for Language Learners. Show all posts
Thursday, 13 November 2014
Thursday, 19 September 2013
A Word Puzzle for Beginner Readers
My son is a kindergarten student and is at the early stages of reading. He knows his alphabet, he is familiar with the sounds the letters make (phonetics) and is able to read some short words. I have recently made this puzzle for him using some of the words that he can read and we had a great time working on it together. I was more of a guidance available to him and he took the lead happily as soon as he understood the requirements of the activity. He did this just before he went to his kindergarten the other day and before he left home, he asked me if I could prepare him another one for him to work on after kinder that day. Well, this is my proof that this activity is a winner!
The list of the words in the puzzle is written on the bottom of the page. The list can be folded under or cut if you prefer your child to work on it without seeing the words/clues. However, I chose to include them and asked my son to use the list when he isn't sure what the missing letters may be. To me, it is a study skill and it worked well for my son.
Click here to access the printable puzzle as a PDF file.
The list of the words in the puzzle is written on the bottom of the page. The list can be folded under or cut if you prefer your child to work on it without seeing the words/clues. However, I chose to include them and asked my son to use the list when he isn't sure what the missing letters may be. To me, it is a study skill and it worked well for my son.
Click here to access the printable puzzle as a PDF file.
Enjoy every minute of the quality time you have with your loved ones!
Thursday, 27 September 2012
MULTILIGUALISM: Advantages, Disadvantages, Tips and More
Living in a multicultural country, Australia, it is unavoidable to be exposed to many languages in daily life. In some cases, people learn a second (or a third or more) language from external sources and the LOTE (Languages Other Than English) program at schools where I live is one form of the exposure. However, in many cases, the learning occurs more naturally as there is at least one person in the family that speaks at least one other language apart from English from whom kids have an option of learning another language.
There are often discussions and various views on bilingualism (or multilingualism in general) in families mostly because it is argued to confuse the kids and the affects of learning more than one language on the learning speed and quality of English in young children. Some parents never or seldom use their mother tongue and try to promote the school language the most and communicate with their children in that particular language whereas some others prefer to encourage the learning of their native language especially at home.
This source explains the benefits of bilingualism in kids as below:
"There's often a slight lag in the speech-language development of both languages in a bilingual household. Over time, though, bilingual children can catch up with their peers and have the benefit of communicating in two languages with proficiency," says Patti Hamaguchi, author of Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know.
In other words, kids raised in a two-language household tend to start talking a bit later, but eventually they get on track. And in the long run, speaking two languages (or more) offers big benefits.
There are many other sources consistently demonstrating that there are clear cognitive advantages of multilingual people over monolinguals. There are many research results that emphasise the beneficial effects of high level of proficiency in more than one language in children in many ways such as the positive link between their educational and linguistic achievement and multilingualism.
Before moving onto some suggestions on how to encourage multilingualism in babies and children, it should be noted that children's mother tongues are fragile and can easily be lost in early years of school.
How to Encourage Multilingualism
Communicate: It is claimed that language is learnt primarily through communicating with others. Take every opportunity to interact with your children in the targeted language (your native language).
Use It Well: To be able to teach your children how to use a language appropriately, you need to be a good example too. Use the language well. Use rich vocabulary, use correct grammar etc.
Quality and Quantity: Pay attention to the quality and the quantity of your communication with your child in your target language.
See Opportunities: Everyday life offers many opportunities to practise your language. Talk about colours, shapes, numbers, feelings and so forth. You can do this naturally, without explicit teaching. A casual learning environment would work well especially for young children. As you are out for a walk with your child, talk about the weather, the cars around you, the flowers, the smells you can smell etc. When you are cooking, talk about the ingredients, preparation methods, time it is likely to take, the taste you are expecting it to have and more. When you are changing your baby's nappy, talk about what you are doing, sing a song (in your mother tongue) and so forth. Read pictures, signs and books, tell stories, make up silly songs and dances to go with them if your child responds to them better. Whatever he shows interest in, just try to expand on it using your language.
Use Facilities Around You: Go to your local library with your child and encourage the reading and borrowing of some books and other materials in your first language, try to join the story times of libraries in your language whenever possible, and use the facilities of your child's school to improve his language learning if applicable.
Make it Fun: Don't force your child to learn a language. Encourage and make it a part of your life. Play games with him in that language. Buy or make flash cards, and play word games. Matching games with pictures and puzzles etc would all be helpful too. If your child can read, ask him to read as many plate numbers as he can (in your mother tongue) when you are out for a drive (believe it or not, I used to challenge myself with plate number reading in a second language in a place where there was a constant considerable amount of traffic and I was a university student at the time. I found it fun and helpful). Another game idea is that taking turns with your child, say a word (eg name, vegetable, fruit, or animal) that begins with a particular letter in your mother tongue (eg. Foods that begin with the letter 'L': lettuce, lemon, lime, loquat etc).
Acknowledge and appreciate what you have today!
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| Photo taken from http://blog.lib.umn.edu |
This source explains the benefits of bilingualism in kids as below:
"There's often a slight lag in the speech-language development of both languages in a bilingual household. Over time, though, bilingual children can catch up with their peers and have the benefit of communicating in two languages with proficiency," says Patti Hamaguchi, author of Childhood Speech, Language, and Listening Problems: What Every Parent Should Know.
In other words, kids raised in a two-language household tend to start talking a bit later, but eventually they get on track. And in the long run, speaking two languages (or more) offers big benefits.
There are many other sources consistently demonstrating that there are clear cognitive advantages of multilingual people over monolinguals. There are many research results that emphasise the beneficial effects of high level of proficiency in more than one language in children in many ways such as the positive link between their educational and linguistic achievement and multilingualism.
Before moving onto some suggestions on how to encourage multilingualism in babies and children, it should be noted that children's mother tongues are fragile and can easily be lost in early years of school.
How to Encourage Multilingualism
Communicate: It is claimed that language is learnt primarily through communicating with others. Take every opportunity to interact with your children in the targeted language (your native language).
Use It Well: To be able to teach your children how to use a language appropriately, you need to be a good example too. Use the language well. Use rich vocabulary, use correct grammar etc.
Quality and Quantity: Pay attention to the quality and the quantity of your communication with your child in your target language.
See Opportunities: Everyday life offers many opportunities to practise your language. Talk about colours, shapes, numbers, feelings and so forth. You can do this naturally, without explicit teaching. A casual learning environment would work well especially for young children. As you are out for a walk with your child, talk about the weather, the cars around you, the flowers, the smells you can smell etc. When you are cooking, talk about the ingredients, preparation methods, time it is likely to take, the taste you are expecting it to have and more. When you are changing your baby's nappy, talk about what you are doing, sing a song (in your mother tongue) and so forth. Read pictures, signs and books, tell stories, make up silly songs and dances to go with them if your child responds to them better. Whatever he shows interest in, just try to expand on it using your language.
Use Facilities Around You: Go to your local library with your child and encourage the reading and borrowing of some books and other materials in your first language, try to join the story times of libraries in your language whenever possible, and use the facilities of your child's school to improve his language learning if applicable.
Make it Fun: Don't force your child to learn a language. Encourage and make it a part of your life. Play games with him in that language. Buy or make flash cards, and play word games. Matching games with pictures and puzzles etc would all be helpful too. If your child can read, ask him to read as many plate numbers as he can (in your mother tongue) when you are out for a drive (believe it or not, I used to challenge myself with plate number reading in a second language in a place where there was a constant considerable amount of traffic and I was a university student at the time. I found it fun and helpful). Another game idea is that taking turns with your child, say a word (eg name, vegetable, fruit, or animal) that begins with a particular letter in your mother tongue (eg. Foods that begin with the letter 'L': lettuce, lemon, lime, loquat etc).
Acknowledge and appreciate what you have today!
Monday, 6 August 2012
AUDIO RECORDING IN LANGUAGE LEARNING
If you are a learner of a language that is not your mother-tongue, this is a pretty effective way to spot your strengths and weaknesses and build on them. You can also see your progress in certain ares and aspects of the language such as reading and speaking easier using this tool. Here is what you need to do:
Record yourself, especially your voice. Even though video recording is beneficial in certain areas, for this activity, I would prefer only an audio recording to eliminate the risks of being distracted with other things such as the way you look or act while talking.
While doing some self-study, just turn on your voice recorder and start reading out loud or pretend to be giving a presentation or a speech. Don't record yourself for more than 10 minutes. It should be only for a few minutes at a time to be able to pay extensive attention to details while listening to yourself. Listen to yourself again and again and see what you can spot: Any grammatical errors? How is your vocabulary, pronunciation, stress and intonation? Do you have some fluency issues? etc. Your own judgement would be limited but still very helpful.
If you have the luxury of having a teacher, a friend or a family member who is competent in your target language within your reach, see what they think of your recorded piece too. Their feedback is likely to be very valuable and help you improve your language skills. You may even leave it for a while and go back to it later on and you may be surprised how much of a difference you see in your current skills compared to the ones that were recorded at the time or that you may be able to analyse your own language skills better.
Do something to better yourself today.
Record yourself, especially your voice. Even though video recording is beneficial in certain areas, for this activity, I would prefer only an audio recording to eliminate the risks of being distracted with other things such as the way you look or act while talking.
While doing some self-study, just turn on your voice recorder and start reading out loud or pretend to be giving a presentation or a speech. Don't record yourself for more than 10 minutes. It should be only for a few minutes at a time to be able to pay extensive attention to details while listening to yourself. Listen to yourself again and again and see what you can spot: Any grammatical errors? How is your vocabulary, pronunciation, stress and intonation? Do you have some fluency issues? etc. Your own judgement would be limited but still very helpful.
If you have the luxury of having a teacher, a friend or a family member who is competent in your target language within your reach, see what they think of your recorded piece too. Their feedback is likely to be very valuable and help you improve your language skills. You may even leave it for a while and go back to it later on and you may be surprised how much of a difference you see in your current skills compared to the ones that were recorded at the time or that you may be able to analyse your own language skills better.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
MIRACLE THREE IN VOCABULARY ENHANCEMENT
The tips below are the most commonly approved teaching methods of vocabulary especially for babies and young children universally. They can be used in teaching kids a second language as well as the mother tongue. All you need to do is that whatever language is your target language, apply the methods below using that particular language. These are recommended especially for enhancing vocabulary.
Enjoy a day when you teach someone something useful today!
- Read out loud.
- Talk. Conversations are a really great tool in language development at any age.
- Introduce words. Name things as often as you can and try to use different words when talking to your child. Do not underestimate your child's learning capability. As they say, their brains are like sponges. Don't hesitate to use a good variety of words from your rich vocabulary when labeling or talking about things.
Enjoy a day when you teach someone something useful today!
Thursday, 12 April 2012
A VOCABULARY ENHANCING ACTIVITY
This is one of the techniques that I used to use as I was doing some self study on a language during my university years. I was trying to learn French but I was aiming to learn only the spoken language for practical reasons at the time. A good friend of mine was quite fluent and accurate in that particular language, French, and he was kind enough to help with especially vocabulary. I used to learn words and their meanings (as well as some grammar points) from him and then using my own strategies, I used to memorise them.
Below is one of the methods I used and found helpful then. It can be used for whichever language you are trying to learn and it is practical and easy. You can also use this technique for phrases, idioms, opposites or synonyms too.
Just cut up some blank double sided paper into squares. The size is upto you but I believe that 8x8cm should be appropriate enough. On one side, write a word (or an idiom or a phrase) in the language that you are trying to acquire and on the back of it, depending on your level, write the definition/explanation/synonym/ in either your native language, especially if you are a beginner, or in the same language as the one you are trying to learn. Then, fold it in half and then fold it in half again. So, it becomes a little square and you cannot see the writing on it.
What I did with this was that I put may be 15-20 of those squares in one of my pockets at a time (this was particularly easy especially during winter when I had big jackets with pockets on me). Every time I had a chance, I took one out of my pocket, read the writing on one side, and tried to remember the info on the other side without looking at it. If I remembered it well, I put it in my other pocket. If I wasn't sure or correct, then, I put it back into the same pocket. At the time, I used buses for transport quite a bit and the travel time on buses gave me a lot of practice time. You can do it wherever and whenever suits you. This activity is pretty flexible and is easy to personalise.
Have a day when you learn something new and useful today!
Below is one of the methods I used and found helpful then. It can be used for whichever language you are trying to learn and it is practical and easy. You can also use this technique for phrases, idioms, opposites or synonyms too.
Just cut up some blank double sided paper into squares. The size is upto you but I believe that 8x8cm should be appropriate enough. On one side, write a word (or an idiom or a phrase) in the language that you are trying to acquire and on the back of it, depending on your level, write the definition/explanation/synonym/ in either your native language, especially if you are a beginner, or in the same language as the one you are trying to learn. Then, fold it in half and then fold it in half again. So, it becomes a little square and you cannot see the writing on it.
What I did with this was that I put may be 15-20 of those squares in one of my pockets at a time (this was particularly easy especially during winter when I had big jackets with pockets on me). Every time I had a chance, I took one out of my pocket, read the writing on one side, and tried to remember the info on the other side without looking at it. If I remembered it well, I put it in my other pocket. If I wasn't sure or correct, then, I put it back into the same pocket. At the time, I used buses for transport quite a bit and the travel time on buses gave me a lot of practice time. You can do it wherever and whenever suits you. This activity is pretty flexible and is easy to personalise.
Have a day when you learn something new and useful today!
Thursday, 22 March 2012
LANGUAGE LEARNING ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
I have a few suggestions for people who take public transport and also try to learn a new language. However, here is only one of them for you today.
This will work only if you are at a place where the target language is widely spoken. I had experienced this personally and it had definitely worked for me. Here is what you do:
Hop on a train/tram/bus and before taking a seat, eye out the people in it. If there is someone sitting alone and you are a chatty person, go sit next to him/her and start a conversation even if you are not very accurate or fluent in that language. If you see that there is a group of people (at least two people) talking to each other, try to sit somewhere close by to them and listen. I know it doesn't morally sound good but hey, you are only trying to do this as a part of your language studies, not to really listen to what they are talking or gossiping about. Especially if you are a shy person or don't have enough confidence to talk to people at this stage, this may work better for you. You can't necessarily practice your speaking but you can improve your listening skills by doing that.
Another point I would like to make even if it may not sound right is that try to sit beside/around people that look like native speakers of your target language. For instance, if you are in Japan, trying to improve your Japanese, then try to sit close to 'Japanese looking' people rather than Middle Eastern or Western looking ones. You can always be surprised at who speaks a language better than who but if you need to take a guess, then this is the safest.
I also highly recommend you to take notes especially if you sit on the seat behind the people that you are trying to listen to without making it too obvious. If you hear a word that you are unfamiliar with, just try to remember it and jot it down as soon as you can. You may not be able to write it correctly but then you can ask for help from a friend/teacher etc later on for correction. Additionally, pay attention to the way they pronounce the words that you are familiar with as well. You may see that they may be pronounced differently than you think they do.
I need to remind you once again that the intentions here are not to interfere with anyone's privacy or disturb anyone. Nor is it to discriminate. The idea here is that you use the time you are on public transport as an opportunity to practice your language skills by trying to catch some words/sayings/idioms/cultural aspects that are associated with that language that native speakers of that language have, pronunciation, intonation and so forth.
Have a day when you learn something useful today!
This will work only if you are at a place where the target language is widely spoken. I had experienced this personally and it had definitely worked for me. Here is what you do:
Hop on a train/tram/bus and before taking a seat, eye out the people in it. If there is someone sitting alone and you are a chatty person, go sit next to him/her and start a conversation even if you are not very accurate or fluent in that language. If you see that there is a group of people (at least two people) talking to each other, try to sit somewhere close by to them and listen. I know it doesn't morally sound good but hey, you are only trying to do this as a part of your language studies, not to really listen to what they are talking or gossiping about. Especially if you are a shy person or don't have enough confidence to talk to people at this stage, this may work better for you. You can't necessarily practice your speaking but you can improve your listening skills by doing that.
Another point I would like to make even if it may not sound right is that try to sit beside/around people that look like native speakers of your target language. For instance, if you are in Japan, trying to improve your Japanese, then try to sit close to 'Japanese looking' people rather than Middle Eastern or Western looking ones. You can always be surprised at who speaks a language better than who but if you need to take a guess, then this is the safest.
I also highly recommend you to take notes especially if you sit on the seat behind the people that you are trying to listen to without making it too obvious. If you hear a word that you are unfamiliar with, just try to remember it and jot it down as soon as you can. You may not be able to write it correctly but then you can ask for help from a friend/teacher etc later on for correction. Additionally, pay attention to the way they pronounce the words that you are familiar with as well. You may see that they may be pronounced differently than you think they do.
I need to remind you once again that the intentions here are not to interfere with anyone's privacy or disturb anyone. Nor is it to discriminate. The idea here is that you use the time you are on public transport as an opportunity to practice your language skills by trying to catch some words/sayings/idioms/cultural aspects that are associated with that language that native speakers of that language have, pronunciation, intonation and so forth.
Have a day when you learn something useful today!
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
A LANGUAGE ACTIVITY: WORD JAR
Even though my title states that I am writing about a 'language activity' today, this activity is not only about language improvement. This is one easy and fun activity that helps with language, confidence, imagination skills and more. This game suits kids that are preschool aged and above the most.
What you need for this activity is;
This is an activity that a friend of mine used to play with her two daughters when they were much younger. I am looking forward to playing this game with Mr. Junior sometime soon but I may add some pictures associated with words as he is not able to read words yet even though he has recently started to recognise a few simple words.
Note: This activity can be used by adults learners of languages. All you need to do is that you put some written words in a language that you are trying to learn into the jar and take them out one by one whenever you get a chance and try to remember the meaning of the word. You can also go a bit further and make sentences or stories with them if you are at that stage. This activity will enhance your vocabulary as well as your comprehension and grammar skills orally and/or written.
Please take the time to share your variation, experience or tips of games and activities that can be used for language learning here with us. Alternatively, you can e-mail me (contactmrslucky@gmail.com). You may even be able to feature here with your activity/game idea.
Enjoy learning something new today!
What you need for this activity is;
- a jar
- words cut out of magazines, newspapers, flyers etc (or hand written)
This is an activity that a friend of mine used to play with her two daughters when they were much younger. I am looking forward to playing this game with Mr. Junior sometime soon but I may add some pictures associated with words as he is not able to read words yet even though he has recently started to recognise a few simple words.
Note: This activity can be used by adults learners of languages. All you need to do is that you put some written words in a language that you are trying to learn into the jar and take them out one by one whenever you get a chance and try to remember the meaning of the word. You can also go a bit further and make sentences or stories with them if you are at that stage. This activity will enhance your vocabulary as well as your comprehension and grammar skills orally and/or written.
Please take the time to share your variation, experience or tips of games and activities that can be used for language learning here with us. Alternatively, you can e-mail me (contactmrslucky@gmail.com). You may even be able to feature here with your activity/game idea.
Enjoy learning something new today!
Monday, 2 January 2012
TONGUE TWISTERS
The benefits of tongue twisters:
Regardless of the language that you are using or in the process of learning, I highly recommend the use of tongue twisters (in that particular language) for better articulation. In other words, it is beneficial for language learners as well as native speakers. It is also an activity that drama students use too to improve on their articulation skills.
You can use them any time of the day. However, I particularly recommend this articulation improving exercise in the mornings so that you can speak clearly during the day.
In addition, I strongly recommend tongue twisters if you are trying to learn to touch type (typing with your ten fingers without using the sense of sight to find the keys). Just type up some tongue twisters until competent.
Regardless of the language that you are using or in the process of learning, I highly recommend the use of tongue twisters (in that particular language) for better articulation. In other words, it is beneficial for language learners as well as native speakers. It is also an activity that drama students use too to improve on their articulation skills.
You can use them any time of the day. However, I particularly recommend this articulation improving exercise in the mornings so that you can speak clearly during the day.
In addition, I strongly recommend tongue twisters if you are trying to learn to touch type (typing with your ten fingers without using the sense of sight to find the keys). Just type up some tongue twisters until competent.
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