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Does anyone have any ideas for a foreign language program/approach that really works?
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OK. I am having a really terrible time trying to integrate foreign language study in our home. We have young children (oldest is 6), and we are working on learning French. Need some help/ideas on what we should be doing.
Here’s our situation: I realize that the best way to learn is with native speakers or immersion. Our family will be living in France next year so that dh and I can attend language school in preparation for a missionary assignment in West Africa. So I know that they will hear French and we will probably get to know French speakers and that will help. But what I’m wondering is what should I be doing NOW to prepare them and what should I continue to do with them at home to supplement the “immersion experience.” We will probably continue to homeschool during this year, so I am concerned that they will not get as much exposure to French speakers as they otherwise would. (This is based on the experience of other missionary families in our situation – those who have homeschooled during their time in France have found their children don’t pick up as much French as those who have gone ahead and sent their children to French school. We have considered the possibility of sending our 6 year old to school IF we can get a place for her at the Christian school in our town, but there is no guarentee that we will be able to do this, and if we can it will likely not be until the fall and over halfway through our time there. Homeschooling is legal in France but not popular, so I’m not banking on being able to connect with other homeschoolers other than other English-speaking expats.) So I know we will need to be doing something intentional with them at home.
That’s where my dilemma is. What to do? I have The Easy French Jr, and as much as I wanted to like it, I just don’t. There isn’t enough to it and it doesn’t really seem to stick, so it feels like a waste of time. Dh and I have been using Rosetta Stone for ourselves, and while the kids like to look over our shoulders while we do it, it moves too quickly and requires too much intuition to be of much use to very young children like ours. I prefer not to use something video based just because I don’t like to sit the kids down in front of the TV all the time. And unless it is easy to implement, I know I won’t follow through. I don’t mind doing it WITH them, I just don’t have time to do a lot of prep work. So, I’m feeling pretty stuck here. Any ideas from those of you who have successfully taught foreign languages (or French in particular) in your homeschool?
Thanks,
Jen
I’m no expert, but the best thing I have done is hire a college student who is majoring in French. We have been doing this for two years now, and my kids love it. They play games and she does review along with adding new.
I realize some of us don’t live close to a college, but if you do, I highly encourage you to call their language department and inquire of any students who are qualified and interested in teaching. Who knows, you might even find a native student!
Just a thought! Blessings!
Hm. Your children are very young. This is a GREAT time to pick up a language by immersion, and a comparatively lousy time to pick one up by program or curriculum. What I’d look for is something oral to play for them, over and over, for now, and pick up good grammars and dictionaries for use as reference later. Then, when you get to France, I’d look for friends in your church to converse regularly with your kids. I understand not being able to connect with other homeschoolers, but find SOMEONE–a grandmotherly type, anyone, and ask them just to talk to your kids. Your kids are really too young to “study” a language the way most typical programs do–but they can pick up an amazing amount from what they hear and experience.
I first learned French from an elderly war bride in my hometown. She came to my school three times a week and talked to me only in French. It was marvelous! One catch–will you be in an area with many West African speakers? The French dialect/accent I learned was Parisian, and the first time I tried to speak with a West African French speaker, I couldn’t understand a word. I felt so dumb! I really had to work at it. Imagine learning Southern English and then being dropped into the Australian Outback. LOL The accent was quite markedly different and it took me some serious getting used to before I could understand much.
I’m not a big fan of The Easy series. I actually would look at something like a Pimsleur series or something, and play them over and over, and then get spoken exposure as quickly as possible. As YOU learn French, also, speak to them. Even if it is very short, simple sentences. I know Rosetta Stone can make that difficult (there are only so many conversational opportunities to discuss whether you are UNDER or ON the airplane with your children, lol) but for kids 6 and under, language is ALL about hearing. You may be surprised about what they can do. If you and your six year old were both dropped into Algiers, I guarantee she’d be chatting away inside of three months like an old pro while you are still stumbling around with a dictionary making horrible subjunctive mistakes. Their brains are PRIMED for this.
Hmm, with little ones I think I would focus on vocabulary. It’s something you should be able to teach yourself if you’re already working through Rosetta Stone.
I would choose words they’ll want to use in daily conversation as a beginning point and just work on 3-7 words per week.
Here are some sites online I found where you can listen to words spoken in French:
http://www.lsfrench.com/beginners2.html
http://www.hello-world.com/French/index.php?prf=EN – this one has step by step lessons, I can’t tell but it looks like you’ll have to get a membership for most of it, here is the membership options: https://www.hello-world.com/login/subscribe.php
The BBC Schools website has this learn to speak french section: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryfrench/index_flash.shtml
And here is another one from them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/french
French as a Second Language site for teaching your kids: http://fslactivities.ca/
To be honest, with the ages of your kids, investing in something like Little Pim’s French dvds could be priceless. I know you didn’t want dvds, but just because a dvd is 30 minutes does not mean you have to watch it all in one sitting. I would use them just in small segments (5-10 minutes), showing the kids one segment with a few vecabulary words and working on that all week(or until mastered), with a daily watching of that specific segment. The next week watch a new segment and have oral practice of the new words and the last week’s words.
I know you said you don’t want them to sit in front of the tv for long periods of time, but you still might want to check out Little Pim if you are interested in the Pimsleur method. Here is a link to their website with more info: http://www.littlepim.com/what-is-little-pim/the-entertainment-immersion-method/. Our local library carries some of the dvds, so you could see if that’s available to you.
I did missionary work in The Netherlands. I attempted to learn Duch via program before going but picked up little. Once we lived there I was pretty fluent within a few months to the point that I could read books and teach a Sunday School class. I also figured out French from the African refugees we worked with every week and could understand it fairly well. From six weeks in Russia I picked up enough to get by. The power of immersion is wonderful and way more fun than tapes. I did not have children then but I did not attend school either. I simply had to do my shopping, get around, and be involved with the church. Getting them together with other children would be a bonus. I actually learned a lot from the children. They would bring me a storybook after church and we would all pile in the corner and I would read aloud in my halting Dutch and they would correct my pronunciation with giggles. They thougt it was great fun! And they were right! We are learning Spanish right now and I wish I could do the same. I am learning the language as quickly as I can so that I can speak with my kids to help them. I generally do well with accents and was told my Duch had very little accent – I sounded like a native because I learned it through immersion.
What a great opportunity for you! The kids will pick it up easily if you just get them out and about. It’s like a game to children!
Tara
Thanks for the great ideas all. I suppose I need to relax and trust the process more…and not let myself feel quite as pressured that my kids won’t learn French if we don’t send them to a French school! I may look for some audio or video resources to use for now (we move mid-Janaury, so will be pretty busy between now and then), and then see what opportunities present themselves when we get there.
Y’all are brilliant, that’s why I love this forum!
Jen
Thanks for the great ideas all. I suppose I need to relax and trust the process more…and not let myself feel quite as pressured that my kids won’t learn French if we don’t send them to a French school! I may look for some audio or video resources to use for now (we move mid-Janaury, so will be pretty busy between now and then), and then see what opportunities present themselves when we get there.
Y’all are brilliant, that’s why I love this forum!
Jen
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