Tag Archives: Children and language

5 Fun Ways to Learn the Alphabet

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Finding ways to engage your child in learning the alphabet can be challenging at times. Their attention can easily turn to something more fun and interesting, especially if they are finding the task a little bit too much like hard work. If your child is feeling bored, the chances are you will be too. Studies have proved time and time again that a human’s ability to learn something is greatly improved if they are having fun. So we have put together five ways for you and your child to have fun while they learn the alphabet. Continue reading →

The New Beginner ESL App from GITCS

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Beginner ESL App from GITCSAmerican software company GITCS has developed a brand new learning app focused on helping students of English as a second language. The Beginner ESL app provides engaging content using a range of innovative features to help students with their reading comprehension. With beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of ESL lessons, this app can be used by all students to improve their learning experience. Continue reading →

Forgotten First Languages Leave Imprint On Brain, Study Shows

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Forgotten first languages - baby wearing headphones

You never forget your first language – even if you have never spoken it, scientists have discovered. Babies develop knowledge of the language they hear in their first few months of life and will always retain that knowledge on an abstract level. It has been discovered that your brain retains the hidden ability to recall forgotten first languages decades on. The findings indicate not only that you never truly forget your birth language but also that language acquisition as a baby is abstract in nature and not dependent on experience. Continue reading →

Robot Teachers Take Over Language Lessons

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British academics have programmed a child-sized robot to teach languages to children. The design has been piloted in the UK and is now being tried out across Europe. The Nao robot teachers are designed to look friendly and approachable and react to children’s moods and facial expressions.

Originally designed to teach History and Maths, the dwarf robots are currently being used in Germany to teach language skills to refugee children as part of the L2TOR language project.

Experts believe that robot teachers will soon become a regular part of the general school education system. Read more to find out about the robot teachers currently being used in Europe’s language classrooms – and how robots could revolutionise education and language learning. Continue reading →

Music Training Improves Language Learning, Studies Show

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Researchers have found that children who learn an instrument find learning languages much easier, even as adults. It has been proven that music training improves language learning, however, it is not only the ability to learn foreign languages that is boosted. Children who study music before the age of seven also develop better linguistic abilities in their mother tongue. Musicians have bigger vocabularies, better pronunciation and a stronger awareness of grammar than their non-musical friends. Read on to find out more about how music is linked with language learning. Continue reading →

Learning a Second Language to be Compulsory in Junior School

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Learning a second language will be compulsory in junior schools from September 2014. The education secretary, Michael Gove has announced that changes to the curriculum means that all children will begin learning a second language from the age of seven. Languages on offer will include French, German, Spanish, Italian, Mandarin, Latin and Greek. But should second language learning start even earlier?  Continue reading →

Teach EFL Using Nursery Rhymes

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Teach EFL Using Nursery Rhymes - owl and pussycatNursery rhymes are ideal tools for the English language classroom. Teaching English as a foreign language to young children calls for a different approach. Regular textbooks might not cut it when it comes to stimulating little minds. EFL teachers need to use short, lively, fun exercises to make the words memorable and grammar points particularly easy to grasp.

Young children always respond well to music and song so what better learning method than to incorporate catchy rhymes and songs into an EFL lesson? Nursery rhymes can often be learned with accompanying actions to make them even enjoyable for children to sing along to – which will of course help to make them memorable!

Old King Cole and his fiddlers three might be just what your EFL class needs! Continue reading →