Transcript ESF Educational Services Parent Workshops for parents with
ESF Educational Services Parent Workshops
7:00 to 8:30 pm Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
• • • • • •
Agenda
Meet and greet Welcome and introductions Overview of workshop for this evening Guided group discussion Tips and advice for supporting English at home Question and answer session
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
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Presenters
Lisa Byrne, Acting Head of Languages Emma Dorrell, Senior Teacher for Primary
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
• • • •
An Overview
Early Years Child Development The Importance of Play Reading Readiness and beyond Computers @ Home
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
Guided Discussion… In groups discuss the following questions:
1. How often do you speak English at home with your child?
2. What can parents do as learning partners to support their children at home?
3. What are your concerns regarding supporting English at home?
Child Development & Language Acquisition
• • • • Four main stages of language development: Understanding Expression Speech Social
Child Development & Language Acquisition
• Stage I: Pre-production (e.g. gestures and mimes) • Stage II: Early production (e.g. 1 or 2 word phrases) • Stage III: Speech emergence (e.g. simple sentences) • Stage IV: Intermediate fluency (e.g. complex sentences) • Stage V: Advanced Fluency (e.g. near native ability)
Theory + Reality
• How can you use the theory to support children in learning a language at home?
Some questions to think about?
1. When is it best to introduce a new language?
2. How can you introduce a new language at home?
Introducing Parentese…
• Parentese’ is a form of talking that tunes into and adjusts to a young child’s language, providing dialogue with the child and bringing them to their next level of competence.
Parentese
• • Parentese helps babies learn a first language. How?
The elongated vowels, high pitch, exaggerated facial expressions and short, simple sentences help infants learn language.
“Who’s my li-i-ttle baybee? Are you my littlee baybee? Yes, yoo are!”
• Babies brains are “mapping” the sounds they hear and talking in this way gets their attention.
• This same repetition of short simple sentences, spoken slowly whilst pitched for older children can help them learn a second language.
Parentese in action…
• • • • • • Repetition of target vocabulary (colours) Providing example sentence structures Correction of pronunciation Moving from ‘I’ to ‘We’ Praise and encouragement Extension – using opportunities to develop the dialogue
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners
Play and Your child… In groups discuss the following questions:
1. How old is your child?
2. What types of play does your child engage in?
3. How often does your child play?
4. Who does your child play with?
5. Does your child have a favourite ‘play’ activity.
The Importance of Play
• • • • • Play can be
an ideal vehicle for language acquisition
for a number of reasons (Sachs, 1984): We know that
children learn through play
Play is an integral part of a
child’s development
We know that play involves
social interaction
and that through interaction children learn Through play, children learn to
explore
the world around them, develop and
practice skills
they will use throughout their lives.
Social Play
Different Types of Play
Discovery Play Physical Play There are lots of different types of play that children can explore Manipulative Play Creative Play Imaginative Play
How does play relate to learning a language?
• • Learning a language does not have to be approached in isolation.
Whenever we are learning we need to be motivated and stimulated – play allows us to achieve this
The role of the parent in facilitating play & language development • • • Create meaningful and interesting contexts for your children: Join in during play time and talk through your child’s play Encourage social interaction with others
How can adults support play?
It is useful to consider the question: • • • •
‘What do children need in order to play?’
A welcoming play environment where choices can be made A choice and variety of activities A variety of play materials Play companions - both children & adults
Play at Work
Let’s look at the language you can facilitate from playing with blocks.
e.g. building a tower • • • • •
Speech opportunities:
Adjectives – big, tall, small, blue etc..
Comparatives – bigger, smaller, higher etc..
Numbers – 1,2,3 or 1 st tower, 2 nd tower etc..
Verbs – fall down, build up, stack, Prepositions – on-top, below, next to, beside, under etc.
•
Social Skills:
Turn taking, sharing, listening & observing
• • • • • •
Practical Tips
Use key prompts “Do you want to play?” “Let’s play” Set aside regular short 1 to 1 English moments when you use only English Use language children can 'recycle' through their own spontaneous play Count down to English time, e.g. Let’s have English
time in 5 minutes!
Use Parentese (Simple Baby Language) Let children choose what they would like to play with
Activities to try….
Toys to construct & build Music & Songs Imaginative Play with puppets of dress up materials Play Dates Activities Arts & Crafts Cooking Planting seeds Story time Exploring the Environment Physical Play Hide & Seek Tag
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners • • •
Preparing your child for reading readiness:
Reading readiness is preparation done in order to support the journey of reading It includes pre-reading, emergent literacy and early literacy Reading readiness is the point where children are ready to learn how to read
Reading Readiness Some practical tips
1. Read his or her name 2. Recite/ Sing the alphabet 3. Recognize some or all of the letters in the alphabet 4. Match letters with their correct sound 5. Make rhymes 6. Hold a book right side up with the spine on the left, front cover showing 7. Recognize the text is left to right, top to bottom 8. Encourage children to echo a simple text 9. Recognize that text holds meaning 10. Re-tell a favorite story
Reading Readiness at Home…
• • • • Use learn-through-play to promote reading readiness.
Get the most out of reading a book out loud with your child. Point to the words and pictures.
Integrate early literacy activities throughout your day without stress, fuss, or pushing your child. Prepare your child to read any time, anywhere – the supermarket, restaurants, on your way to school etc..
Supporting English at Home
Parents as Learning Partners •
Computers @ Home
Research suggests that out of school access to computers can contribute to the improvement of children’s education. In particular, a study conducted by Kidsmart and IBM found: “Non-English speaking children have increased their vocabulary and learnt to speak English better.” • Two notable findings from a 2012 study by Intel found: 1) Students are more engaged and able to develop 21 st skills century 2) Family interaction and parental involvement may increase.
Computers @ Home
• • Why is it good for children?
It has been widely documented that play is at the centre of young children’s learning – computers can offer such opportunities.
Computers can enhance a child’s motivation, allowing him/her to reach own level of learning by exploring different levels at own pace.
Computers @ Home
• • • How can parents help?
Communicate: Ask children what they are doing and look for opportunities away from the computer to consolidate their learning. (e.g. shape of real objects) Mastery: Don’t worry if your child is repeating levels but if they seem bored or not challenged enough, then suggest a new game or level.
Ownership: Allow students to be the decision makers during the games as they will be more motivated to succeed.
Computers @ Home
• • • • Useful websites: www.kidsmartearlylearning.org
everything you need to use computers at home http://www.sparkisland.com/web/open/login.
aspx www.bbc.co.uk/learning/subjects/childrens_l earning.shtml
http://www.sillybooks.net/
Applications
• • • http://iphone.appstorm.net/roundups/50 learning-apps-for-kids/ This site has a list of 50 super apps to help aid your child’s learning in many school subjects.
https://itunes.apple.com/hk/genre/ios education/id6017?mt=8 Look at the education section of I-tunes In google, there is an ‘application’ option
To sum up….
• • There are many different ways to support language learning at home As parents your goal is to: – nurture language learning – motivate and inspire your child – create an environment for your child to flourish!