[Upbeat instrumental music]
Hello and welcome to Little Learners. In today's video I'm going to be talking to
you about how you can support your child with their education if their first language isn't
English. Before we get started though I'd like to tell you about today's video sponsor ELSA. ELSA
is an English pronunciation app it helps you learn your English and also perfect your English so that
you're pronouncing words in the correct way. I do just want to make it clear though that this is
in an American accent, not that that's a problem of course, it's still English but just wanted
to highlight that. The app uses state-of-the-art speech recognition technology to help you on your
journey to learning English and becoming a more confident English speaker. ELSA has over 7 million
users in 101 countries with 90 percent of people saying that they now pronounce English words more
clearly. When you're using the ELSA app you get instant feedback in order to improve your English
from your personal virtual pronunciation coach so use the link in the description box down below
to find out more about ELSA. You can actually take a quiz on their website to find out what
your current level of English is and where you can start when you download the app. Thank you
again to ELSA speak for sponsoring this segment of today's video. Okay so if you're watching this
video and your child's first language isn't English but they are in an English-speaking
school, these are some tips to help you help them. My very first tip is to continue speaking your
home language or your mother tongue at home. It's a really big misconception that bilingual children
suffer just because they're speaking a different language at home and at school. Being bilingual is
fantastic and it gives children an amazing skill so it's really important to still keep talking
in your own language at home. Above all else it's important to you and your family so don't feel
like you have to only speak English from now on. Your language is something important to you and
it's something that should be celebrated. Number two, practice your English. If your child's first
language isn't English and it isn't yours either then in order to help them with their English you
need to help yourself first, so make sure that if you aren't fluent in English or if you feel
like you need a little bit of help, you look for that help. You might use a language app like ELSA,
you might go and ask a friend for some help but, it will help you feel more confident when you're
helping your child with their English. Number three, set aside some English time. So if you're
speaking your mother tongue at home make sure you've got some time in which your child can speak
English with you. If they know more English than you that's fine, that means that they can share
with you what they've learnt. Don't be afraid to learn from your child. It can be fantastic
for children to teach their parents when usually it's adults teaching the children. So this English
time might be looking at a book that is written in English that might have come home from school,
it might just be having a conversation. Think about where it might fit within your day and in
your home. It doesn't have to be long, like I said speaking your mother tongue is really important,
but if you really want to help your child with their English it's also important that you spend
some time with them speaking English. Number four is ask for help. Now I know this can be very
difficult at times because often we don't want to let people know that we are struggling or we're
finding something difficult, but this will help you and your child in the long run. So whether
it's asking a friend to help with interpretation when you are going into a school meeting,
or asking a family member who's more fluent in English to help teach you English, you might
ask that same family member to work with your child because they speak English more fluently,
you might even ask your child's school for some support, but if you feel like you do need the
help then ask for it. Number five: be involved. It can feel quite isolating when you don't speak the
same language as your child's school, your child's teacher, your child's school community. t's still
really important for you to be involved in your child's education and understand what's going on
at school. So if you don't speak fluent English or you feel you don't speak English to a high enough
level to understand everything that the school is telling you, maybe you're getting letters home
or the teacher is trying to explain to you something about what's going on in the classroom,
then you can ask for help. Maybe you can ask if the school is able to provide letters in your home
language or maybe you can ask if someone within the school community speaks your language and
can help you with translating some of the things that are coming home or something that a teacher
is saying until you feel more confident in your own English. I hope this video has been helpful
and I really hope that even if you don't speak fluent English you feel that you are still able
to give your child everything they need. You are their parent and you are extremely
important. Please don't feel that the language barrier is going to isolate you from the school
community because that should not be the case. You should be able to ask for help from the school
and use help from around you improve your own skills and really bond with your child over this
learning experience. Of course if you are at the beginning of your English learning journey
then you can take a look at some of my phonics videos which explain how to pronounce English
letter sounds and also explain how to sound out words and pronounce them in an English accent,
mainly my English accent, there are a lot of English accents! Thank you again to ELSA
Speak for sponsoring the beginning of this video and thank you to you for watching. If you liked
this video and found it helpful please give it a thumbs up as it really helps out the channel
and if you want to see more videos like this, click the subscribe button to join the Little
Learners family. You can find more Little Learners content at LittleLearners.education
and on my social media pages. Thank you for watching and I will see you next time.
[Upbeat instrumental music]