How do you teach foreign languages?

[crunchy_mommy]

My 3yo DS wants to learn Spanish. I do know some, took it in high school & traveled to Spanish-speaking countries, but my pronunciation & accent are horrendous. I feel like it would be so much better to learn it from a native speaker, and almost detrimental to learn it from me! We do have some Spanish-speaking friends but they are not quite ready to teach it to my DS right now (though perhaps eventually). And the larger issue is, I suspect he will want to learn other languages too, he is very auditory, and completely fascinated by words.

This is one of the only things I feel I am not equipped to teach him, and at the same time I feel a rush to provide him with something, both because he is asking for it & because I believe languages are learned more readily at very young ages than in the teenage/adult years.

[ancoda]

I have some friends that love muzzy, though I have never used it.  http://www.early-advantage.com/

My 10 year old is learning with the free programs at bbc. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
 

[spirit1ness]

Hi try the World Word Exchange to learn Spanish, Mandarin or Thai its cheap and you can try it free. It is also like no other method I have tried. Learn the 100 most common words first from playing a word memory game. I have been learning 20 words a day from it.There is a timeline that records when and how long you study. Its great for motivation. You even get free credits from the site for being a good student.Give it a try and let me know what you think thanks L.G.

[crunchy_mommy]

THANK YOU for that free BBC site, that might be just right for now!! Didn't even know it existed!

[ancoda]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

THANK YOU for that free BBC site, that might be just right for now!! Didn't even know it existed!

You are very welcome.  I love finding the little hidden treasures that make homeschooling that much easier.

[Hopefulmama]

Our library offers a link to Mango Language for fee. I don't know if it's free on the web or not.

[itsybistyspider]

my dh is from Lithuania, so we do one parent one language, but dd1 also goes to a sat. school where they have a half day in lithuanian (like preschool but with dad) 

otherwise she is unschooled with me in english- so i dont do any language with her.

I think a language school or other place where she can hear people speaking what ever language (IE spanish) might be really useful. :) good luck :) 

[Augusto]

Hola, Crunchy_Mummy

Soy Colombiano y resido en Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Soy profesor de Español desde hace 7 años y me llamó mucho la atención tu artículo en el que hablas de tu acento y pronunciación en Español.

Hace poco leí en Google un post que puede ayudarte. Dime si puedo ayudarte en algo mas. El post es el siguiente:

How To Lose The Accent and Sound Like An Authentic Spanish Speaker

Many times when I speak Spanish to a native speaker, I get

a compliment. Usually it’s “hablas bien” or “hablas muy

bien”. I think for native Spanish speakers it’s rare to hear a

non-native speak perfect Spanish with no gringo accent. So

the compliment is often more of a statement of surprise

rather than an actual compliment. But I say “gracias”

anyway.

So what are some ways to lose the gringo accent? First off, it may be harder if you have a strong accent to begin with, like if you have a southern (or hick, no offense) accent, (which really isn’t relegated to the south) as many Americans do. I have a very boring plain voice so I didn’t have to work hard at losing an accent. My advice for those with a strong accent would be to really focus on the sounds of the individual vowels and consonants in Spanish. They are much shorter than the typical American accent.

In my book I call this micro-pronunciation. It is pretty easy to master and should only take a few weeks. After you’ve mastered the micro-pronunciation, you have created the foundation to build upon. Now to really sound like a natural Spanish speaker, you must master what I call macro-pronunciation. This refers to how words are grouped and slurred together. This takes more time and practice to master.

The best way that I have found to master this is by reading out loud. Reading out loud has a much different effect than reading silently. By doing so you are training the muscles in the face and mouth (including the tongue) to produce sounds and combinations of movement that they are not used to.

A method that works wonders is to read a short article several times. The first time you will be working on comprehension of what you are reading. After you have the comprehension of the text, you will be re-reading the article to practice the flow of the language and the resulting facial and tongue movements that are unique to Spanish. This is much more effective than just reading something once, like a newspaper, because you aren’t focusing on comprehension as much.

I prefer to do this very systematically. I read an article twice, on 5 different days. So in total I read the article 10 times. I have been doing this method with the reading material that is included in the Foreign Service Institute Basic Spanish set. The benefit of using these is they are free. But there are many problems. There are quite a few spelling errors. The documents they come in are clunky pdf files of photocopies and they are hard to read from. And the material is irrelevant and outdated.


[edwardsmom]

My kids take a homeschooler's French class at our local YMCA.  They had French class for schoolers in the late afternoon, but we requested an early afternoon time slot.  It's only once a week, though, so I try to follow up with French videos and books on tape at home.

[rumi]

I came here to post on how much dd and I are enjoying Mango Languages, which we get through the public library.  

Saw this thread and decided to post here.  

We just LOVE this program, especially the voice comparison, which provides encouragement to speak aloud, even though you are doing it solo. 

[featherstory]

I'm not bad at Spanish and I have a good accent so I speak to my kids in Spanish but that is not enough.  I also have a really good book that has a lot of games, stories, poems, songs, etc. in Spanish.  It also comes with audio tracks.  The pictures are great for kids too.

We also listen to Spanish music and sing Spanish songs.  I let them watch a few Spanish speaking programs (el perro y el gato and pocoyo) and read a lot of bilingual books.  In the early days I had a spanish picture dictionary to help learn lots of words and read lots of stories in spanish or bilingual stories.  We also would go to restaurants and speak Spanish or go to parks, events, etc. in Spanish-speaking neighborhoods.  

There also are games on the internet you can find(I don't use them, but have in the past, so you'll have to search)

I also got this book Lightning Fast Spanish for Kids which has lots of role playing games great for young ages to help learn the language.  It doesn't teach you much language, but it gives you great activities to build on in the language.  

I have downloaded Sesame Street podcasts in Spanish too.  I think having a wide range of experiences with the language is key.  Also just making sure to consistently play with the language daily and in a way he enjoys.  Lots of libraries also have free Spanish or bilingual storytimes, maybe they have that where you are. 

[SuperMama]

subbing so I can keep track of this thread...  I want to start doing some Spanish with DS8 and DS6.