Having a good command of the English language is one of the most valuable skills a person can have in their professional and personal life. But as an adult, it’s an ability that you will certainly take for granted! After all, not many adults will remember when they first learned to pronounce difficult words and became confident in communicating in their mother tongue with their parents and friends.

Now that you have a young child yourself, it’s important that you help them develop their own English skills in any way you can. Although they will learn these skills at school with their teachers, gaining enough practice to become fluent in English will mostly happen within the family home.

However, many parents aren’t sure of the best ways to boost their English skills from home. If you can relate to this, then we’re here to help!

First up, why is it so key that you teach your child English skills from home?

Why is it important to teach your child English skills at home?

As mentioned, your child will learn a significant majority of their English skills from their teachers and peers while at school. However, it’s just as important that the time they do spend at home is filled with opportunities to reinforce and practise these skills. There are so many benefits of teaching your child English skills from an early age within the home, for example:

It helps expose your child to the language.

It helps your child develop a habit of communicating confidently in the language.

It offers cognitive benefits such as problem-solving skills, increased creativity, flexibility of mind, and network critical thinking.

It opens your child up to a cultural environment.

It gives your child better access to information on the internet.

It gives your child a better chance of achieving academically in life.

Now that we’ve talked about the reasons why helping your child’s English skills at home is important, let’s explore some simple, effective ways that you can go about this!

How can you support your child’s English skills at home?

Many parents feel a little unconfident or unqualified to be teaching their children English from home. However, it’s important you remember that you don’t have to have an English degree or be perfect at communicating grammar to teach your kids. The main thing is that you encourage your child, give them opportunities to practice, and be as patient and persistent as possible. Remember that they will pick things up in their own time, so don’t be disheartened if it takes them longer than another one of their peers.

Here are some tips on how to teach your child English skills at home:

Establish a routine. Creating a structured time for learning English within the family home will be effective, as the child will understand that they only have to commit to learning intensively in that short space of time. Fifteen minutes a day is more than enough time to teach your child a lesson. However, as they get older, you may want to extend the session to a little longer. Try to keep the activities short and varied, as this is likely to hold their attention for longer.

Practice playing games. Children love games and will be much more inclined to want to learn if the learning is intertwined with a game of some sort. For example, using flashcards is a fun, engaging way to teach your child vocabulary, and there are games you can also integrate into this activity. For example, Happy Families, Snap, or Memory. Other examples of games you can use to help your child learn English include board games like Snakes and ladders, word games like Hangman, and Action games like What’s the time Mr Wolf?

Use everyday situations. Being at home with your child creates a perfect opportunity to practice English in an everyday situation. You can do this in several ways; talking to your child about the clothes you are washing when doing laundry, teaching your child vocabulary for furniture and toys when tidying, and teaching your child food vocabulary when at the grocery store.

Use stories. We can’t think of one child that doesn’t love stories and storybooks. Children’s books usually come with attractive illustrations and bright, bold colours. Therefore, using stories to your advantage is a fantastic way to help them pronounce and learn words, and become more familiar with the rhythms and sounds of the English language. So, while you read to them, point to the pictures together and ask your child to pronounce words while identifying the pictures.

Use songs. Songs are a very effective way for a child to learn new words and pronunciations, plus, they can sing along even if they don’t fully understand the meaning of the song yet. Encourage them to use hand gestures while singing, as this will help to demonstrate the meaning of the words within the song.

Teach grammar. It may sound terribly technical to teach your child grammar. However, you don’t have to teach grammar rules in an explicit sense. Instead, give them the opportunity to hear and use grammatical structures in different contexts. For example using ‘must or mustn’t’ when talking about school or home rules. Exposing your child to grammatical structures while still at home will give them a headstart in applying these correctly and naturally as they grow into adults.

How to help your child's English skills at home (Part 1)

Improving your child's capacity for language can be joyful.