How to support young English learners at home?

In a place as transient as Dubai, we often have very high numbers of children move through our school whose native language is not English. One of the most impactful ways to develop their English speaking and writing skills is to engage not only the learner, but also their family. In fact, research points to parents and caretakers as invaluable stakeholders in students’ academic achievement. These language learners vary in their levels of confidence and competence of using English. What is great about Regent, is that this need is catered to so brilliantly in how we plan, resource and deliver our curriculum. The immersive experience that children encounter in the class room, accelerates the development of English language skills faster than many people expect.

Having such a fantastic programme in place in school is wonderful, but this only 25% of the day. The other 75% of the time, children often return home and speak their native language, which in the earlier stages of language development, sometimes stunts acquisition and understanding quite dramatically. Extensive research suggests that parental involvement at home is one of the most important components of developing language and increasing their children’s skill set to help them interact with new learning or new friends.

Now that we find ourselves interacting with the outside world less and spending more time at home, it is more important than ever that we continue to boost the level of English used at home to ensure that our children do not lose this skill. One of the greatest ways for parents to help their children develop their English is by attempting to model English themselves. When parents are able to use English at home, more opportunities will arise for children to practice speaking and listening. This shared experiences of parents and children practicing their new skills together can be a great motivator.

In this Mindful Monday session, we will look at top tips to support English Language Learners at home, across a variety of ages groups, providing you with ways to feel more confident in supporting the development of this skill. We will explore the different ways in which the family can develop proficiency with English language whilst at home, through a selection of different games both on and offline and ways in which we can question our children.

If you want to learn more about how to support your children in developing English language skills at home, you should tune into our Mindful Monday session on Monday the 8^th of March 2021.