How to help your child with English skills at home: a parent’s guide

Streaming services

Online streaming services are a fantastic way to learn a new language or to consolidate your skills in English. Most allow you to toggle between different audio options and also different subtitle options, meaning you can easily do the following:

• Listen to English audio with subtitles from your child’s first language
• Listen to first language audio with English subtitles
• Have both audio and subtitles set to English so you have a completely immersive experience

Watching a tv show or film together in this way will allow you to learn not only new vocabulary and sentence structures, but also pick up idiomatic expressions, which English speakers love to use in conversation. In order to make the most of this, I would recommend setting up a profile on your chosen streaming service just for English language learning, as the service will then start ‘suggestions’ based on your watched programmes, and won’t require you to constantly toggle between audio and subtitle settings as it will remember them for that profile.

Choose a short tv show to start with that is 20-30 minutes long. Comedies are good because they have easily recognisable characters and simple plots – the emphasis on conversational English is also useful, and you may even pick up some jokes!

Reading with your child

Reading together is something that can be a joy at any age. If you think back to your own childhood, you probably remember being read to, at school or at home, and how peaceful that time felt. If your child is older, I suggest family reading time, so everyone reads in the same room at the same time, with no distractions.

To make the most of this time together:

• Leave your mobile phones in another room, on silent. If you are expecting an important call, choose a different time. Make this a ‘phone-free’ moment for your family.
• Choose a day when you and your child are relaxed and ready to spend time with a book – maybe a weekend, or another time when you are not working and not distracted by household chores.
• Demonstrate to your child how much you love reading too – take time to choose a book for yourself and for them – perhaps visiting a local library together, or buying a book as a gift for both of you.
• Create a cosy environment – blankets, hot chocolate, classical music – and switch off, and into the book. Either read to them, alongside them (taking turns) or simply read independently in blissful silence.
• Even twenty minutes a day of reading is fantastic for you and your child, allowing you to fully immerse yourselves in the English language.

A Simple Language Game

Younger children love games, and games that allow them to learn at the same time as having fun are sure to be a winner. There are plenty of website listing games you can play, but one of my favourites is in the supermarket when you’re doing your daily or weekly shop together. If you can’t make it to the shops, use the internet to find the information together.

• Start at the doors to the shop. Can you find the opening hours? On which day does the shop open for the longest number of hours? How long is it open for today?
• Move into the shop. What signs can you see? Are there signs for toilets? A cafe? Customer Services?
• Walk round and ask your child to read the signs at the top or front of each aisle. If you’re using the internet, you can often find a drop down menu of different sections in the shop. A more able child could put these in alphabetical order.
• As you are shopping, ask your child to put the items you want into the basket or trolley for you. More able children can be asked to look at the packets and the ingredients in detail. Can you find the crunchy peanut butter? Can you find the smooth orange juice?
• If you want to practise your child’s maths as well, this is a perfect opportunity for estimating. Can your child estimate the final bill, often by using rounding? The final test will come when they get to the till.
• When you get home, there are plenty more activities to be done with packets and containers, including putting them in order of size and reading the ingredients – this can also form the basis for a useful healthy eating discussion for the whole family!

I hope that these three activities allow you to make the most of family time with your child, in ways which you will all enjoy. Supporting your child on their journey to English fluency can be much easier than you think, and does not require you to step into the role of tutor, but rather to spend time with them, engaging in fun and relaxing family times.

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