Methods For Teaching Thai Children English?

[nomadic]

My step-daughter is 3 years old and is still in the phase of her brain's development where languages seem to be soaked up by osmosis. I work at home and I would like to take the opportunity to give her a head start with english, but at this point in time she is not speaking any (I have only been in the family for a few months). Does anyone here have any experience teaching very young thai children english alphabet/vocabulary? I am thinking I will have to bribe her with candy to get her to sit still long enough to study.

(no longer) Nomadic

EDIT: Just realized this might be more appropriate for the Teaching in Thailand forum. Sorry.

Edited October 15, 2010 by nomadic

[DavidHouston]

This forum featured an excellent discussion regarding educating bilingual children at http://www.thaivisa...._1#entry2959545

[nomadic]

This forum featured an excellent discussion regarding educating bilingual children at http://www.thaivisa...._1#entry2959545

Thanks!

[Rikker]

Speak, speak, speak. If you are the only native English speaker she has regular contact with, speak only English to her. Speak like you normally would. You want to expose her to native speech. And if she is allowed to watch TV, try to make them English programs (Disney movies, Barney, what have you.)

At this age the main ingredient she needs is plentiful input. Formal study is unnecessary at this age, and whether it's even helpful is dubious. A child at this age needs mainly sustained natural exposure.

There are two sides to the matter: comprehension and production. From what I understand it is normal if comprehension develops more quickly than production, so even if she isn't speaking, if you can tell that she understands what you say, you're making progress. (So even if you ask an English question and she responds in Thai, it demonstrates comprehension.)

It will be helpful to keep a constant English dialogue going if you can, by explaining the everyday things you do with her as you do them, even to the point of over-explaining. ("Okay, now it's time to brush your teeth. Here is the toothbrush. Okay, open your mouth wide. Wow, you have so many teeth! Let's take the brush and brush up and down, up and down, side to side. Now take a drink and rinse out the toothpaste." I think you get the idea.)

Also to some extent production seems to be conditioned by necessity, so by speaking only English to her eventually she will intuitively grasp that she has to use these 'other words' to speak with you, even if she isn't consciously aware of the concept of two separate languages yet. (From what I've read it's unclear exactly when a child develops this abstract idea of multiple languages, but it is clear that they actually become multilingual before they grasp it--multilingualism is an innate ability.)

[SoftWater]

I second Rikker's points from my own experience of bringing up two young kids (5 and 3) in Thailand. Production is not that important in the early years. You need to provide plenty of input. Games like 'where is' are good for kids.

'Where is... the sofa?' (kid runs to or points to the object)

'Where is...the floor?'

'Where is...my nose' and so on.

Once she gets good at all the household objects, places and people, you can change it to relational and descriptive questions like

'Where is...mummy's daughter (kid points to herself)

'Where is...something pink with two wheels' (kid points to her bicycle)

'Where is...something that tells the time (kid points to the clock)

and so on.

The game's only limited by your imagination and your step-daughter's willingness to play/your ability to make it fun.

On a longer term note, if possible, try to get her into a bi-lingual school. They're generally not that much more expensive than Thai schools and far cheaper than international ones. My son's English production has come on in leaps and bounds since moving to a bi-lingual school where he has English-speaking classes (games, songs, conversation) every day, and also many of the extra-curricular activities (music, sports) are taught in English too.

I've heard people rubbish the bi-lingual schools because they are mostly populated with Phillippino's, but if the one's at my kid's school are anything to go by, they are far better than most of the farang teachers I know at teaching kids and providing a really fun and stimulating environment. Their English pronunciation is also far more natural than Thai English teachers at some of the more presitgious Thai 'demonstration' schools.

Edited October 16, 2010 by SoftWater

[nomadic]

Thanks a lot for the insight and very thoughtful replies. I have put your advice into practice and I am now verbalizing everything I do. After only 24 hours she is already repeating most of what I say, which is pretty amazing as far as I'm concerned. I figure she will begin making the connection between the words and objects in short order. A side benefit is that my fiance is starting to understand gerunds and tenses.

The Settling Nomad