Helping Your Child Learn a New Language

You don’t have to be multilingual yourself to be able to help your child learn a new language. There are many ways you can support their learning, as explored below by a private school in Cambridge. Research has actually shown that the more involved parents are in their child’s education, the more likely the child is to succeed academically. With that in mind, you may want to make use of the following advice.

Children are lucky to be exposed to a second language at school and, as parents, you should try to support them at home and encourage them to get involved with lots of multilingual activities. You could watch a movie in that particular language with subtitles, or listen to foreign music. If your child doesn’t know what a certain word or phrase means, you can write it down and look it up together later.


You could practice flash cards together; hold up a card with a picture on the front and its name on the back. Ask your child to recite what the picture is and see if they get it right. At first, use the same flashcards repeatedly and then slowly introduce some more. You could also label items around the house, like the fridge, the TV, the table. Eventually your child will become competent with basic vocabulary.


Another option is to invest in resources; textbooks, foreign novels or even apps will help your child become more and more used to reading and writing words and phrases. You could ask your child’s teacher for a list of appropriate resources if you’re unsure what the best options are.


Encourage your child to practice their new language little and often, as practice makes perfect. One hour per week will be far less productive than ten minutes each day.


*Collaborative Post