{"id":23194,"date":"2024-09-03T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/?p=23194"},"modified":"2024-07-22T12:24:01","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T10:24:01","slug":"bilingual-learning-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/bilingual-learning-for-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Bilingual Learning for Children"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Become Bilingual at School and at Home with Tips from Smile and Learn!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The benefits of learning a second language are numerous and applicable outside school. Some teachers and parents may worry that learning multiple languages will slow or deviate a child\u2019s development, but evidence supports the opposite. Many academic papers have demonstrated that bilingualism actually improves child cognition and social sensitivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brigham Young University has found bilingual children are more perceptive of nonverbal communication, develop concrete understanding of the world more quickly, and have higher self-esteem. Clearly, bilingual learning has a place in all classrooms. Below are tips to teach Spanish and English side by side both in the classroom and at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Hold Spanish Group Discussions with Bilingual Parents:<\/strong> Parents may have a specific dialect or accent for the Spanish they want their children to learn. By inviting them to come to class, parents can teach those specifications themselves and expose other students to it. Even if there\u2019s a Spanish teacher who\u2019s a native speaker, having other perspectives and teaching techniques is always a good idea.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Speak Spanish at Home:<\/strong> Heritage speakers may feel pressured to give up Spanish by peers who only speak English or make fun of Spanish speaking children. Parents must persist in speaking Spanish or their children will lose it. Fears that hispanic children may not learn English are unwarranted, as social pressures will make acquiring the host language easy. For example, only speaking Spanish during mealtimes, pointing out the Spanish names of favorite items, and rewarding children with treats or free time for using Spanish for an extended period  are all great ways to keep Spanish alive at home.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Teach Spanish Independently of English:<\/strong> For example, don\u2019t tell children that \u201cwatermelon\u201d is \u201csand\u00eda” in Spanish. Instead, bring a watermelon and point to it while saying, \u201csand\u00eda.\u201d This way you teach children to understand Spanish on its own, rather than through the lens of English. Encourage parents to do the same at home.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Partner Up Heritage Speakers and In-Class Learners:<\/strong> Organize the children to complete activities together while only speaking Spanish. Have the group write a paragraph in Spanish if they\u2019re struggling to remember or stay consistent speaking it. Use the group activities as an opportunity for the children to form friendships within the group. Encourage parents to organize play dates outside of school where the group plays together in Spanish. If you\u2019re looking for more ideas, CLICK HERE (link: blogs) to see our other blogs! <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Use Hispanic Cultural Products to Generate Interest in Learning Spanish: <\/strong>Have students listen to popular Spanish songs, read simple Spanish articles, and view famous paintings by hispanic painters. This is a fun way to get students pumped to learn Spanish, and they\u2019ll learn about hispanic cultures, too. Have parents mirror at home what you\u2019re doing in the classroom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  6. Use Digital Resources to Learn Spanish:<\/strong> Online videos, games, and activities in Spanish are a great way to keep students engaged in learning Spanish. They also remove the hassle of physical materials and planners. Smile and Learn has a catalog of thousands of activities students can experience in Spanish or English!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Being able to speak a foreign language is a superpower. It\u2019s telepathy, the ability to read minds and hearts. As Nelson Mandela once said, \u201cIf you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head, if you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart,\u201d meaning speaking someone\u2019s native language promotes intimate relationships. Fluency in a language as common as Spanish opens up the ability to speak, help, and work with a billion people, literally. Raising the next generation to be bilingual is a teacher\u2019s most important task, and we can\u2019t wait to see you put these tips into action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Looking for more Spanish group activities or ways to teach Spanish? Smile and Learn has exactly what you\u2019re looking for! Spanish group trivia and family challenges, interactive videos and activities, the Smile and Learn app has it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    CLICK HERE<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Become Bilingual at School and at Home with Tips from Smile and Learn! The benefits of learning a second language are numerous and applicable outside school. Some teachers and parents may worry that learning multiple languages will slow or deviate a child\u2019s development, but evidence supports the opposite. Many academic papers have demonstrated that bilingualism […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sin-categorizar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smileandlearn.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}