Rhymes and repetitions
How to pick the best books for your little ones when they are learning a second language.
Books are fundamental tools when teaching a second language. At Magic-Languages, we love books and we use them a lot in our classes.
While reading in the new language there are two important things to be considered:
- The kind of books we choose.
- The way we read the books.
It is important to know how to pick up the best books, what criteria would help us in order to take advantage of the story time.
The story needs to be simple and intuitive. Sometimes choosing a story that is already familiar for our children helps so they don’t need to focus on the development of the fact and can focus more on the new language.
In this sense, it must be taken into account that sometimes books recommended for a specific age for children who will read it in their native language are not necessarily going to be useful for children who are learning that language as a second language.
Repetition is a crucial element. It is indisputable how repetition and routine make children feel comfortable and secure. The same applies to language learning, when we read a book in a second language, repetition make them feel more invited to participate and express themselves in the new language.
Rhymes helps a lot to easily acquire the new language and familiarize with the new sounds.
We prefer to choose books that are written in their original language rather than translated versions.
If the plot includes cultural element even better as culture is for us a very important aspect of the language.
It is also very important the way we read: putting emphasis on the sounds that are specific to the new language and in a fun way so children feel invited to repeat these sounds in a spontaneous and natural way, making parallelism helps as well, example in order to practice the famous Spanish “R” make them imitate the noise of a motorcycle.
If you are interested in book for your little ones in French or Spanish, please let me know at beatriz@magic-languages.com and I will send you some recommendations.
