Your child studies English, and although he knows it well, he finds difficulties in speaking. If this problem is familiar to you, you have to know that not only your child experiences such difficulties.
Unfortunately, the conventional teaching methods in school are not effective with every child. Some children learn the language quickly and others need additional lessons to consolidate their knowledge. With some children, however, even additional lessons do not help to begin to communicate fluently in English.
A similar situation requires that we should adopt a more creative strategy in the English language teaching. A good way to help your child to learn English more easily and quickly is to get him involved in the extracurricular activities which contain an educational element and implement the English into the child’s everyday life. This leads to a much quicker and efficient memorization of the language.
It is important not to scold him and not to blame him for the low success because this is a very wrong approach and will further discourage the child. Children do not learn at the same speed, and your child may need more time to begin to speak. There is not one single method of teaching that can help every child.
Here are a few practices which help to learn the foreign language more easily
Constant communication in the language
The continuous communication recreates an English-speaking environment, which invariably leads to an easy and successful language learning. It also helps in the solid learning of any language.
The first step is to start speaking English with your child more often. In this case, it is important that you should know the language at a decent level and to be careful how you pronounce the words so that the child does not learn the wrong pronunciation.
Interactive tutorials
The use of modern methods like interactive board and tablets, as well as solving rebus and puzzles, and educational online games in English, help the children to understand English through audio and visual methods.
All young pupils (and even adults) learn better through audio-visual aids. Apart from the language learning, through the use of interactive tutorials, young students are also aware of how important the role of the technologies is and how to use them in a proper and beneficial manner.
The game element
One of the best ways to encourage the children to remember something is to present it in a fun and interesting way. This way, for the children, the English language learning does not feel like studying, but like a fun activity, which in fact is that.
Through the introduction of English in the extra-curricular activities of the camp, the English language learning continues outside the classroom, unlike the traditional training in school.
Music and movies
Undoubtedly, the listening and singing in another language, as well as watching movies, help in the better study of music. Through this method, the child’s listening ability is practised and he learns the correct pronunciation.
Enrolling in a summer language camp and its advantages
This practice proves to be very effective when nothing else works with the child. The linguistic camps, such as the International Children’s linguistic camp Lucky Kids, include much more communication between the teachers and the students than the English lessons in school.
In the curriculum of the summer language camp Lucky Kids, in the classes are included innovative methods. The English language teaching in the camp is based on the latest global trends in the Pedagogy of the language teaching.
It also follows the principle of project training. During their stay there, the children are divided into groups, and each group has the task to work on the specific project. The project training is a part of the advanced pedagogical practices. The development of projects helps the children to develop their ability to work in a team.
In the camp, during the lessons, the children use computers and interactive boards, which help in the more successful familiarization with the language and the memorization of the grammar rules in a visual manner. Also, that way, they learn to use the new technologies.
Modern methods in the foreign language teaching like Montessori, Solar pedagogy, Suggestopedia, etc., have been proved to be effective in the successful English language learning. They are used in the Lucky Kids. They have been widely used in a number of schools abroad in the past ten years.
The period of stay in the camp is from 7 to 14 days. Although it is not very long, the stay in the language camp gives positive results with the children and helps them to build a good basis for the subsequent study of the language.
Why do the children learn a foreign language quickly in the linguistic camps?
As the camp program includes singing songs in English, dances, role play, different competitions, the children manage to learn the language in a fun way, different from the one in school.
Lucky Kids, for example, organizes different pleasant activities for the children, which are both fun and educational. During the games in the camp, children learn to speak English unaware and improve their communication skills in English in a quiet and informal environment other than the school one.
The camp organizes excursions to the mountain and to interesting landmarks as well, mountain hiking, bike excursions, picnics, competitions, resolving riddles and puzzles, role play, culinary school, Yoga, paint ball, horse riding. During all activities, in the free time, it is spoken only in English, which extends the children’s vocabulary significantly.
The children participating in the Lucky Kids program, not only improve their level of English but also broaden their horizons, enrich their general culture, learn different facts of the world which will help them in their study in other subjects. The educational games in the camp prompt the children’s curiosity about the world and make them eager to learn.
The children in the camp also learn different virtues like patience, respect, tolerance towards the others, friendship, perseverance in the achievement of goals.
The teachers in the camp pay individual attention to every child, and when they find that a child is experiencing difficulties in the study, and in speaking English, they work extra with him.
In the camp, there are no marks and there is no control work as a punishment. The children’s success is encouraged.
Conversation with people whose language is native
One of the main advantages of the summer language camp is that the child has the opportunity to have teachers, whose English language is a mother tongue, and to learn the colloquial language. This way the child will learn the best English pronunciation and colloquial forms that could be rarely learned in school.
