Language as a game. How to help your child speak a foreign language and never stop

Mothers of bilingual children and English teachers share their experiences on how to turn learning a foreign language into an exciting game. Under the cover are explanations of bilingualism from a scientific point of view, action plans for parents, and answers to the most popular questions.

A foreign language opens up new opportunities and expands boundaries: we can communicate with people from other countries, watch films in the original, read articles, and learn a lot of interesting things about the world around us. In addition, knowledge of a language, primarily English, is a competitive advantage: it is a chance to enter a prestigious university, get a good job, perhaps even in an international company.

Parents take their children to language clubs at almost one year of age, send them to a school with in-depth study of English (German, French, Chinese), and do not spare money on tutors. However, for learning to be truly effective, the child must enjoy the process. Language should not become a "must," but an interesting hobby and a natural way of learning about the world. This is quite possible to achieve, even if both parents are Russian-speaking and do not speak a foreign language at an advanced level.

Authors Anastasia Ivanova and Svetlana Lashuk, mothers of bilingual children and English teachers, explain in detail how to create an environment conducive to learning a foreign language. In the first part of the book, they explain the benefits of learning a language at an early age and why “it’s not too late after three.” They also dispel myths about bilingualism (for example, that learning a foreign language at an early age can lead to problems with learning the native language, that you need to wait until school, that a child can easily speak a foreign language only if one of the parents is a foreigner, and so on).

In the second part of the book, the authors provide language learning action plans for parents of children of different ages - up to one year, from 1 to 3 years, from 3 to 5, from 5 to 8, from 8 to 14 years. In the third part, the authors answer the most common questions about learning foreign languages.

Author: Anastasia Ivanova, Svetlana Lashuk
Year of release: 2020
Publisher: Mann, Ivanov and Ferber
Pages: 288
Cover type: Hardcover
Dimensions: 214x147x20 mm
ISBN: 978-5-00146-869-1