Teach Your Child New Vocabulary
Use real objects, images or toys, and follow these three steps.
A puppy is an object. A picture of a puppy is an image, and you must have a puppy doll! Any of these three is fine, although real puppies are always more fun! Point to the puppy and say the word “Puppy.”
Now follow these three steps:
- You say a word and your child repeats the word.
- You and your child say the word together.
- Your child says the word alone and points to the puppy.
Don’t be frustrated if your child needs to repeat the word together with you many, many times before they can say the word by themselves. English isn’t easy! Keep smiling, and tell your child how happy you are to be learning English with them.
Fun English by Studycat has hundreds of vocabulary words, together with pictures to help you teach your child.
Play games with the images or objects
Keeping a child’s attention is a teacher’s hardest job; that’s why we turn every lesson into a game. Here is a very basic game:
Call out a word, and ask your child to touch the object or image.
When your child touches the object, he or she should say the word three times.
Mother: Window!
Daughter: [touches window] Window window window!
This game is much more fun if your child has to run back and forth through the house over and over again!
More advanced students play games that put vocabulary together with different commands:
Mother: “Touch the puppy!”
Daughter: [touches puppy] “Puppy puppy puppy!”
Mother:“Put the puppy on the sofa.”
Daughter: [puts the puppy on the sofa] “The puppy is on the sofa.”
The teachers at Studycat have developed games that teach vocabulary words in a wide variety of engaging ways.
Pronunciation is hard
Your child will naturally mimic the sounds you make as you pronounce English words together, and that means your child will speak with your accent. So, how will you be able to teach your child standard, unaccented English?
You can encourage your child to watch English language tv, movies and videos. You can encourage your child to sing English songs along with recordings of native English speakers. All of these are fun and engaging ways to expose your child to a standard English accent.
Use technology
There are websites available that provide audio recordings of English words. You and your child could visit a dictionary site or translation app, type in the word “Puppy,” and listen to a native-speaker pronounce that word. You and your child can learn to pronounce the word together. Find funny words and make this a game!
There is another, faster way that you can help with pronunciation. Fun English puts the word, the image, and the correct pronunciation together into one big, fun beautiful package that your child and you will enjoy.
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