How do you teach your kids to speak proper english?
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Ykiasu:
That's true! And I find it very hard to correct the bad English as my kids will say that is how their friends speak. I also do not want to send my child to the more \"English-speaking\" schools like MGS or ACS as their Chinese is also bad so I want them to go to the more chinese kind-Ai tong to work on their chinese, but then they come back with English like that. Esp my older one, younger one still in preschool so seems to be not as bad.Sad to say but my DS's spoken Eng gets bad everytime he returns to school after the long holiday breaks.
All my effort down the drain
I think our kids r just too busy n stressed that they do not have the energy, time and mood to put in extra effort to speak properly.
Worse still, he comes back saying that classmates get punished even if they whisper in class, how will our next generation ever learn to communicate. They r just trained to churn out exam papers after exam papers :?:
I heard of friends sending their kids to Julia Gabriel to correct this, don't know if it will help and they are quite ex!! -
To have your kids speak proper English, you would need to speak proper English to them from a young age. At the stage when they are still grappling with grammar in nursery or kindy, you have to say what they are trying to say in the proper way. Try to cut the baby talk.
Kid: Open door
You: You want me to open the door?
Kid: On lights
You: Switch on the lights
There is no need to reprimand or say "no, incorrect" to the kid. Just reinforce what’s correct by saying it after them. They will soon get it.
My son does very well in his grammar as he has constantly listened to us speak. He usually chooses the correct answer even if not taught. -
cherrygal:
:goodpost:To have your kids speak proper English, you would need to speak proper English to them from a young age. At the stage when they are still grappling with grammar in nursery or kindy, you have to say what they are trying to say in the proper way. Try to cut the baby talk.
Kid: Open door
You: You want me to open the door?
Kid: On lights
You: Switch on the lights
There is no need to reprimand or say \"no, incorrect\" to the kid. Just reinforce what's correct by saying it after them. They will soon get it.
My son does very well in his grammar as he has constantly listened to us speak. He usually chooses the correct answer even if not taught. -
cherrygal:
There is almost no way of stopping children speaking in broken English since most of us parents do it ourselves. As cherrygal suggested, the first people we need to correct are ourselves. The kids will follow suit.To have your kids speak proper English, you would need to speak proper English to them from a young age. At the stage when they are still grappling with grammar in nursery or kindy, you have to say what they are trying to say in the proper way. Try to cut the baby talk.
Kid: Open door
You: You want me to open the door?
Kid: On lights
You: Switch on the lights
There is no need to reprimand or say \"no, incorrect\" to the kid. Just reinforce what's correct by saying it after them. They will soon get it.
My son does very well in his grammar as he has constantly listened to us speak. He usually chooses the correct answer even if not taught.
I correct them (when I remember to) by asking:
\"What did you just say?\"
\"Will you rephrase that in proper English please?\"
It is often very tough even after thinking to say it the right way because we have been speaking English using Chinese sentence structures. -
cherrygal:
Definitely. Always correct them by asking them to re-phase again if your kids are not speaking proper english.To have your kids speak proper English, you would need to speak proper English to them from a young age. At the stage when they are still grappling with grammar in nursery or kindy, you have to say what they are trying to say in the proper way. Try to cut the baby talk.
Kid: Open door
You: You want me to open the door?
Kid: On lights
You: Switch on the lights
There is no need to reprimand or say \"no, incorrect\" to the kid. Just reinforce what's correct by saying it after them. They will soon get it.
My son does very well in his grammar as he has constantly listened to us speak. He usually chooses the correct answer even if not taught. -
cherrygal:
:hi5: Sounds like me.. :please:To have your kids speak proper English, you would need to speak proper English to them from a young age. At the stage when they are still grappling with grammar in nursery or kindy, you have to say what they are trying to say in the proper way. Try to cut the baby talk.
Kid: Open door
You: You want me to open the door?
Kid: On lights
You: Switch on the lights
There is no need to reprimand or say \"no, incorrect\" to the kid. Just reinforce what's correct by saying it after them. They will soon get it.
My son does very well in his grammar as he has constantly listened to us speak. He usually chooses the correct answer even if not taught.
There is also no need to make emphasis what they're saying is wrong..
and then get them to repeat after you kinda thing... unconsciously when
i just rephrase, \"I'm sorry, can you say that again...?\" They will automaticly
rephrase their sentence or question. :lol: They'll begin with... errr...
\"I'm sorry, i meant....\"
I agree! No baby talk puhleezz! :dowan: -
ZacK:
My wife and I are very conscious about speaking properly to our kids... I find that with my friends, I let out more ahs and lahs etc... but with my boys I tend to be more conscious...
I know watcha mean, bro! :hi5:
With our mates, we so call... let loose those aaahs, aye? :lol:ZacK:
When i used to get people asking how my children could speak like thatTo the extent that sometimes DS1 speaks with an accent to make his point :roll:
ie. accented... i just reply... it's not an accent... it's just proper English.
Reminds me of a joke from this stand-up comedian who said, \"No, it's not
an accent. I do not speak with an English accent. This is how people in
England speak English!\" :rotflmao:ZacK:
Yaah.. better read something they like better than read nothing, aye bro?We know for a fact that it helped that we started reading regularly to our elder boy when he was very young. We do not push him now other than to do the necessary school related work... When he has idle time, he either reads his own books or doodles on the magnetic board.
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Hi,
Reading is a good way to improve your child's language skills. As a child is reading, their mind are forming sentences which will lead to speaking proper English. Hence it is important to buy good books (not singlish comics)
Personally i think the environment plays a vital role. If you want to master a foreign language, you go to that country and stay with natives. i.e learn japanese, stay at japan for a few months. Not only will you pick up faster, you will soon self-correct as the people around you don't understand what you are saying.
It is difficult to speak proper English here as Singlish is so common here and we use it to tone down and appear more friendly to others. The media also uses it to speak to us in order to bring our guard down.
So its hard when our children's friends in school speak singlish and somehow influence them. It has to be a constant self-teaching, self-correcting and self-improving journey for our little ones. For now, here's a link which i find useful and interesting.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/parents-help-speaking-english-at-home.htm -
My children are 12 and 9 years of age now. It is a challenge here to teach children to speak proper English when people generally don’t bother with grammar structure or they mish mash everything in Singlish.
As my husband are not very strong Mandarin speakers, we decided that at the very least we should ensure that our children speak proper English. I agree with all of you about starting young. To speak in complete sentences. Encouraging your child to enunciate the words properly and speak in proper grammatical structure.
We also encourage our children to read, expose them to alot reading materials and also educational softwares. We correct them as we speak on a day to day basis. It comes very naturally. We also encourage them to tell stories or describe places , emotions etc which enhance their vocabulary and confidence in public speaking. They write journals about their travels, daily experiences and fictional essays for fun.
Today we are reaping the rewards of our efforts, both of them are very eloquent speakers and are very competent in their command of the English language. They are adaptable in that they can switch mode from Singlish to proper English when situation calls for it. Most importantly, they know what proper English really means and are able to use it accordingly. -
Powerpuff Mum wrote:
We also encourage our children to read, expose them to alot reading materials and also educational softwares. We correct them as we speak on a day to day basis. It comes very naturally. We also encourage them to tell stories or describe places , emotions etc which enhance their vocabulary and confidence in public speaking. They write journals about their travels, daily experiences and fictional essays for fun.
Very good idea and stamina mummy, ICHIBAN! yes it has to be a constant effort put together by the parent and child.
Mamalicious Alicia
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