Ideas for supporting foreign language learning over the summer

[Anonymous]

My early elementary kids have been learning Spanish and French through in school immersion and from their nanny and grandmother. Prior summers, we also supplemented with travel and language camps. Given that none of that is an option for the foreseeable future, we are trying to figure out how best to keep up their language acquisition. We speak Spanish, but they won’t speak it to us. We don’t speak French. For any others who are trying to support second language learning, what are you doing during this time? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Concordia Language Villages online

[Anonymous]

Can your kids express themselves in Spanish? We have a rule that you have to respond in the language in which you are addressed.

Netflix and hulu, even disney + have a ton of animated shows where they can watch in Spanish. Many at least on netflix in French too. Pick a show they have not seen before so they get used to it being in one of the languages and it will feel normal to them to watch in that language.

Also if you need more books you can order e-books in the target language from amazon, if your kids have an e-reader.

Can they do facetime calls with their grandmother.

[Anonymous]

Youtube has some great things in Foreign languages. I like these children's songs in Spanish. You can probably find similar things in French if you search.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyY3Wd5x85o8AKXjYSoxFAQ

[Anonymous]

Books and screens.

[Anonymous]

We like duolingo. I also ordered some grammer books off Amazon for them to work on. We've been watching some movies I recorded off HBO Latino, but I am having trouble finding things that are rated PG or G. The TV-14 is okay for my 14 year old I guess, but even that is slim pickings. I find the animated stuff really hard to follow because you can't watch the lips and the voices are often really odd (high, squeeky, etc...so just harder to listen to).
As PP pointed out, there are some good children's music CDs in Spanish. But if you're kids are older ES, they might not be into that. We sometimes listen to the Spanish-language radio stations, but it's often hard to understand the lyrics in the music (although the broadcasters and ads are easy to understand!).

If your kids are older, Univision or Telemundo news is great. I'd love to find some fun game shows that we could watch together in Spanish. This thread just motivated me to search, and I found out that my favorite old Spanish-language show -- 100 Mexicanos Dijeron -- has been revived! And there's even a board game!!!
I am really psyched for this -- hope I can find it on something that we actually get.

[Anonymous]

Alliance Francaise virtual camps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Youtube has some great things in Foreign languages. I like these children's songs in Spanish. You can probably find similar things in French if you search.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyY3Wd5x85o8AKXjYSoxFAQ

Cute. Too slow though. We love Pocoyo y Peppa En Espanol. We ask Siri if there are words we don't understand.
We had plans for Spanish camp this summer and then this happened.

[Anonymous]

French/ English household here- we insist that cartoons are in French. Our kids love Tchoupi and Peppa Pig on YouTube, PJ Masks in French on Netflix, etc.

[Anonymous]

I am finding some good resources through Canadian educational websites for French learning.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all! We do try to insist on Spanish with their grandmother, but they know grandma speaks English too, so it is hard to enforce, and we didn’t want grandma to have to be stressed about enforcing it. I was debating whether I could find a tutor to practice speaking over zoom or something. It would be expensive, but has anyone tried that?

[dccheng510]

I tutor Chinese and here is what I make my students do, besides the routine lessons:

1. Watch peppa pig in Chinese on YouTube( super easy on their own)
2. 15 mins of morning reading with me every day. nothing complicated but just reading out loud to get used to the rhythm of the language, which is important for any language learning.
3. Learn one character every day. Kids surprise you how much they can remember and one word a day doesn't sound a lot but it helps build up the vocabulary fast
4. Set up a small group of kids together and make them talk to each other in Chinese. this makes them feel it's cool to learn anther language and they are not alone. Also surprisingly it makes the kids more competitive.
5. Make it fun!! This is very important. Make sure you don't just ask the kids to read after you and repeat. This kills everything. Give it some varieties. There are many tools/games that can help, and what I can get top off my head right now are: quizlet, bingo baker, Gimkit, Lingt

All above can be online via zoom with their teachers and it works quite well with my students. In your situation, substitute "Chinese" with "French"/"Spanish", and it's all the same method- keep it fun, and feed the kids' curiosity.

When you go get a tutor, don't just get a random one. Ask how they teach and what's their approaches. If they sound fun and productive, I'd consider it a good one.

I hope this is helpful to you! Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My French Classes, the native speaker weekend school, is offering virtual camp this summer. It might be a good option for you.

Since we speak French, we don't do the camps. Our kids don't always answer us in French, and most of what we like to watch and listen to is in English, unfortunately, however, they do read and speak with their grandparents in French.

[Anonymous]

Depending on their ages and (shared) interests, I would look for documentaries or cartoons on youtube or netflix.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Depending on their ages and (shared) interests, I would look for documentaries or cartoons on youtube or netflix.

This!
My kids watched "how it's made" in spanish on netflix. They really have a ton of stuff.