Learning a Foreign Language - Part 1

I'm linking up here to the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival, and the topic this time is: Foreign Language. In our homeschool, the kids are learning two foreign languages (there's also a third knocking around in our village, but we're not focussing on that at the moment!)

Russian is a language they've been exposed to since they were about 9 weeks old each. We use it every day to communicate with people around us, although we speak English to each other at home. The second language is French .There are no French speakers about, but it's part of our homeschool curriculum. Our approach to learning each language is quite different, so I'll try to outline what we're doing in each. Here in Part 1 I'll look at how our kids are learning Russian, and in Part 2 I'll outline what I'm doing at the moment in French.

Learning the Local Language Overseas

If you've read Amy's post over at Fisher Academy International, we can totally relate to that! Just because our children hear Russian around them all the time, it doesn't mean that they're fluent in it. If anyone else is in a similar situation, being overseas, then you'll understand. When we were weighing up whether we would homeschool or send our kids to the local Russian school, we realised that perhaps the biggest advantage of local school would be that they would pick up Russian just like that, and be more fluent than their parents in a matter of months! It was tempting, but in the end we decided to homeschool, which we believe was the right decision for our family, but it also means that the children are mostly surrounded by English all day.

I decided to take a relaxed approach to Russian language learning. We noticed that Sophie was getting a bit muddled up with her Russian letters and English letters (since the alphabets are completely different) so I deliberately waited until she had learned to write and identify English letters with reasonable confidence before we tackled the Russian letters. We tried to make sure our children were socialising and hearing the language. We ask our local nannies only to speak Russian to the children, even if they can speak English. The kids go to a Russian speaking church, and a Russian speaking Sunday School. I also feel it's important for them to attend an extra-curricula activity once a week, where the instruction is in Russian (at the moment that's an art class). However, the best way to pick up the language of course is through playing with local friends. We're so blessed in our village to have two great kids living next door who have almost become one of our family (in fact they've stopped knocking now and just walk straight in the door!) In the summer months our kids get their full Charlotte Mason quota of 6-8 hours outside just playing with the neighbourhood kids. We've noticed that, although they might be making lots of grammatical mistakes, they're communicating very well, they're being understood and they're gaining confidence all the time. Sophie is more on the introverted side, so it's taken her a bit longer to start speaking confidently, but she's now made up for lost time.

Our first local-language-speaking nanny with Sophie

Eventually I would like to do a bit more formal language study with them. The best way, I've found, is to employ a local person as a language tutor. We hire a nanny to watch the children for a couple of hours one afternoon a week while I have my invaluable 'Mummy's Time Off' (which usually involves a long stay at a cafe in town, just reading!) In the beginning, of course, the nanny just got the children familiar with the sounds of the local language. Recently I asked our current nanny to do about 20 minutes each week with both Sophie and Charis, just working through books on the Russian alphabet (which I bought in the local market) and reading some Russian children's story books. Later I hope she can move into more focussed one-on-one time improving grammar.

But couldn't you just teach them yourself, I hear you ask? Well, yes, but to be honest, I wouldn't want them picking up my mistakes and faulty accent. If you can get a mother-tongue speaker of the language to tutor for a reasonable price, then I feel that's the best way, and I think Charlotte Mason also advocated that. Another option, some might suggest, is to speak Russian to your children some of the time. We did try this once - we decided we would all speak Russian when we were out and about, partly so that we didn't stand out too much - but it felt rather artificial and was difficult to maintain. It might work for some people, but books I've read suggest that children do better if they can associate certain people with a certain language, and it's better to be consistent in one rather than flitting about between two. Having said that, if we're with local people then I will often speak to the children in Russian so that everyone in the room can understand what I'm saying.

So in summary, here are my tips, based on my own experience so far:

•  Find good local friends for your children to play with on a regular basis.
• Get nannies and house-helps to speak only the local language with the children, no matter how tempting it is for them to try out their English.
• Get your kids involved in activities where they're hearing the local language, like a church Sunday School, a mums and toddlers group or an art/music/sports class
• Find a local language tutor for the children when they're school-aged and start them off with alphabet books and children's story books in the local language. See what the local mothers are using with their own children and look around the local market or bookshops. I also have the Usborne 'My First 1000 Words' book in Russian
• Get a supply, if available, of children's DVDs and songs on CD in the local language and play them regularly
• Focus on learning English letters and sounds first before starting to read in the local language. Hearing and speaking should come first before reading and writing. 
• Avoid the temptation to correct their mistakes too often - it's better for them to gain confidence in communicating and being understood first, even if imperfectly. Don't worry - they'll soon be correcting you!

I hope this was helpful for someone! Come on over to Part 2 where I discuss a more 'normal' homeschool approach to learning a foreign language.

Abide in Him!