Learning Spanish: 3 Approaches to Teach Spanish to Kids by Barbara Mascareno
Hola
Ever wonder how easy or difficult is to teach children a foreign language such as Spanish?
Ever wonder how to even approach teaching children about Spanish?
Well, there are many methods to educate children in learning Spanish: formal language classes, immersion classes, and tutorials. The concern is that some of these classes can be expensive and time consuming and many parents may not have the funds or budget for them.
Here are 3 simple approaches how parents or caregivers can teach their children about Spanish.
The first approach would be to use a picture dictionary for preschoolers.
These easy-to-read reference books are great to teach children very simple words and syllable formation. For beginner readers in Spanish, picture dictionaries are a wonderful example to initiate pronunciation and bilingual word identification. Dictionaries are an excellent source of phonetics and pronunciation.
The second approach to educate children in Spanish is playing with picture and crossword puzzles.
These educational tools are a magnificent way to teach children about cognitive skills in vocabulary and spelling. Puzzles provide an extensive array of language learning skills. Children can learn about new words. And the pictures in a puzzle can clearly help them identify the proper word with the picture.
Crossword puzzles are an excellent tool to teach and increment vocabulary by figuring out the correct words in each pattern. Puzzles are fun and educational tools to teach Spanish.
The last approach to teach children about Spanish is reading together.
Parents or caregivers and children should share books, whether picture books or easy to read stories, and talk about those stories. Many books are available as audio books where the parent and child can read the books together while a narrator on the CD or cassette tells the story. It is a wonderful experience to see the children interact with parents about the characters in the story by just simply listening to the narrator.
This is a great method for bilingual parents who are beginning to teach their children about Spanish. Also, many books are now bilingual in English and Spanish, which make it easier for parents to read these types of books. Audio and bilingual books are great beginner tools to teach Spanish.
Whether parents or caregivers want to teach their children a few words or phrases in Spanish, there are many approaches to start learning Spanish. Picture dictionaries, word puzzles, and audio bilingual books are just a few of the approaches to teach Spanish. Providing a world of learning Spanish to children is a skill that can last a lifetime.
Barbara has science degrees in Biochemistry and Chemistry. She has tutored under the NCLB program and she is currently an educator in Spanish, Science, and Math. You can learn more by visiting her blog at www.spanish4kiddos.com to get free worksheets, lesson plans, and book suggestions or connecting on Twitter @spanish4kiddos.
March 28, 2012 @ 8:12 am
Spanish is really a nice language to learn and it might be kinda hard at first but you will learn and be familiar with it as you go on…
March 28, 2012 @ 12:36 pm
@AizzaMarie, thanks for your comment. Spanish is a wonderful language to learn and I love to teach to my daughter.
@Dominique, thanks for inviting me over to your blog. It’s great to contribute here.