Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese...Making World Languages Fun in a Group!
By Kym on 11 August 2011 / Curricula, Foreign Languages, Homeschool Information, Teaching / 6 Comments
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Are you teaching Spanish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Latin...or any 
other World Language to a group of homeschoolers? Want to know how to benefit from your numbers and make it fun? Good for you!
If you read Part 1 of this series last Tuesday, you know FUN is a key to language learning. You may also notice recurring themes with different applications for groups. Today's tips can work for elementary, middle, high school and mixed groups.
-Incorporate vocabulary that is meaningful to the student.
Talk about whatever is going on in your life and in theirs. It can be as simple as learning a few words or phrases. With the more experienced students, we share the "Altos" (highs) and "Bajos" (lows) of our lives in class, in Spanish.
Senora Kym with James
- Senora Kym with James - Who do you think is the winner?
-Use your target language in other fun activities that your student enjoys.
What do your students do together in English? One of my favorite applications of this one is having the students write and present their own "material". Anything goes! Younger and earlier level students may start with a short conversation, poem or skit. As they gain more vocabulary and confidence, they can write or do their translations of some of their favorite songs or learn dances. I even had a class write, perform and film a "school" newscast. They still remember those lines!
-Play games!
We love to play games (you'll be able to get most of them in my upcoming release from 7Sisters). While scrabble and hangman are obvious favorites for the youngers/newbies, we had a blast playing Pictionary, Smash Mouth and Manzanas con Manzanas in my advanced class.
Whether you use Rosetta Stone, Holt McDougal, Learnables, Flip Flop Learning with my amiga Senora Gose, the high school curriculum I'm developing or something you've created yourself, remember to laugh together. Fun is one of the keys to successfully mastering any world language!
Why do your children learn World Languages in a group setting?
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6 Comments
Brigid
August 11, 2011 11:48 amMy french students love "le pendu"(hangman), scrabble with Fr. II & II (actually it's a lot harder than you think!), and last year I tried relay races with verbs. It's amazing how competitive they are and it also gets them off their feet & moving. They also write their own conversations and present them to the class - the more outrageous the better! And we laugh a lot, good point, Kym! One of my favorite things is to let them know early on that learning a language doesn't have to be scary or boring, so I incorporate a lot of FUN!
Vicki
August 11, 2011 8:12 amMy kids loved to play Hangman in French. In our group classes, we would do tag team races to translate quotes, Bible verses, and nursery rhymes.
kym
August 11, 2011 8:13 amOh yeah! Races were very popular in my classes this year. It even made filling out verb charts fun for some of them!
Marilyn Groop
August 11, 2011 6:00 amMy children have always learned world languages in a group setting because the point is to speak - and I don't have the fluency to help them do that effectively.
kym
August 11, 2011 8:12 amGreat point, Marilyn! It's pretty hard to learn to converse without anyone to speak with!
Brian
August 11, 2011 11:00 amGood suggestions - hangman is always popular with my German students. And while students often grumble about creating a dialogue, they usually end up having a blast. I'm always looking out for more ways to break down the "embarrassment barrier" most adolescents have about speaking up - which seems to be especially amplified when they're not confident about their pronunciation & trying to force their mouth to learn foreign sounds. I'll often share funny stories of faux-pas I've made during my travels, hoping that if the students see that their teacher has made mistakes & can laugh about them, then it's ok for them to do so, too. Always on the lookout, too, for podcasts or YouTubes where they can listen to native speakers for free.