If you have an opportunity to travel with the children, it is always a great way to boost their language skills as they discover new cultures and quickly progress by watching public TV, listening to foreign music, or even playing soccer with the local children. The kids are like that – they do not really think about grammar and spelling as they tend to copy what they hear and have no mental restrictions that many adults encounter.
Learning a foreign language with your children must start with the exploration and creation of as much foreign entertainment and media as it is possible. Of course, you must always supervise them and control their learning environment because there will still be times when kids won’t be able to establish mental connections with foreigners. The trick is to make a new language the environment in which children live because it is exactly how they always learn regardless if they are somewhere abroad or at home.
5 Helpful Practices That Boost Your Child’s Language Skills As You Travel
1. Explore Local Traditions & Culture.
Even before you travel, remember to explore various local traditions in relation to the country you are planning to visit. The children will always ask a plethora of questions, which is a good way to teach them some foreign words. You must use simple examples like “water”, “bread”, “how much does it cost?”, “Where are you from?” and phrases like that. Make sure that your children feel inspired to learn these new words by creating a small list of phrases together. Practice them with each other and make competitions regarding how much you have learned and how much your child has progressed. You can implement various role-playing games in a foreign language for better language learning outcomes.
2. Apply Passive Learning Methods.
It means that you must listen to the local songs and let children dive into foreign speech basically everywhere. When you take the bus to the beach and play with the local children by kicking the ball or splashing in the sea or as you are dining at the restaurant. It may only seem challenging to you, yet the children will quickly adapt to the foreign culture as they become exposed. It works the same way as they learn more about your job responsibilities or approach you with some mature subjects that they seem to learn even without leaving the house, doing research summary writing, or browsing the net. Even if you take a week-long trip, children will become adjusted to foreign speech phonetics and will learn to distinguish certain phrases as they connect them to particular actions.
3. Plan Travel Destinations Together.
You should do your best to plan your travel trips together by actually asking your youngsters about what they would like to see. If you have the funds and an opportunity to travel anywhere, let your child explore all the benefits that they would like to see. It often appears that your child may have some information wrong regarding the Maya people or dinos living somewhere in Africa. It is a good reason to let them speak their minds and ask questions so they do not feel disappointed in the future. Try to not spend all your time in the hotel and learn about those places that you can visit.
4. Challenge Your Youngsters.
The younger children may learn a foreign language without much effort, yet even the little ones need some confidence and adult approval. Show your kids that you trust them and ask for their thoughts and advice all the time. Do not let your child feel helpless and always do your best to assist them. At the same time, you should challenge them all the time by taking them to the restaurant and sharing the menu concerns as you look for the familiar words that you both may know. Even if they have a menu in English, give your children some hints and ask for their help as you try to remember how to ask if they have some noodles or fish. When your children will see that you can communicate with foreigners, they will want to practice their skills as well and will come to rescue you! The younger ones will also enjoy the word guessing games that you can play to help the children enjoy every minute of the foreign trip.
5. Make Friends With The Locals.
Even though this part may not always seem possible, you should not forget that even when you are staying at some fancy hotel abroad, your children will quickly make friends with other children. Regardless if someone is from Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, or Sweden, children will quickly communicate the way they can, especially if they are young. The older ones may switch to English or another language that they might learn at school, yet they will always learn something new. If you also get to know the locals, keep your kids engaged and let them be a part of your social circle regardless of the age difference.
It’s All In The Attitude
In simple terms, children are learning foreign languages immersively as they travel, which means that they are not worried about saying or writing things wrong. They do not have any negativity that adult people encounter, which is why you should only softly correct your child if you know the foreign language by asking if you have understood them right. You only have to repeat the phrase correctly and let your child hear it.
The children do not have any negative feedback as they travel and learn, which is why their learning process is always playful and natural. They only require some exposure to language in a situation where they can be themselves and feel fueled by their desire to communicate. The children also use neural shortcuts by adjusting their attitudes accordingly as they are impressed or want to get their message across in a genuine way.
If you have an opportunity to travel with the children, it is always a great way to boost their language skills as they discover new cultures and quickly progress by watching public TV, listening to foreign music, or even playing soccer with the local children. That’s why exposing children to all kinds of information is beneficial to their development. One of the ways to do that is by reading to them summaries on different topics. Services like customessaymeister can provide you with essays on various topics, written in a way children can comprehend. The kids are like that – they do not really think about grammar and spelling as they tend to copy what they hear and have no mental restrictions that many adults encounter.
