hi i'm vanessa from
speakenglishwithvanessa.com
would you like to learn english like a
native speaker
of course let's talk about it
[Music]
would you like to see how my son a
native english speaker is learning his
native language
today we're going to talk about three
things that happen
naturally during conversations with him
that are helping him to learn to speak
english and i'm curious as you watch
this video
think about mothers and fathers in your
country do they do these things as well
i have a son who just turned one year
old you're going to meet him in this
lesson
and he already knows how to say a couple
things like mama
dada kitty fish even though it sounds
like
ish and ants even though it sounds like
but he's learning a lot he can even
understand more
words than he can say maybe that's
similar to you can you
understand more than you can say he can
understand words like
milk food let's go give it to me
hooray you know all of those important
words
over the next year he's going to learn a
lot more words he's going to learn how
to say them
he's going to learn how to understand
them but how is he actually going to
learn them
well at the moment we read a lot of
books with him i tell him stories as we
walk through the neighborhood
and he hears my husband and i talking
together a lot
but these are things that a lot of you
do maybe you read stories
you listen to stories so what are some
things that are unique to babies
let's talk about three of those things
today we're gonna watch a short clip
where
i'm going for a walk around our lawn and
i'm just talking to
my son about things that are happening
we do this every morning and
in the video it was 7 am he had just
woken up
but we were still having an interaction
a conversation together
let's watch this clip and then we're
gonna break it down into those three
elements
do you see the ant steel
yeah they're on that tree they're
climbing up
where do you think they're going
yeah maybe their little home
what happens when you pull on that tree
theo
oh lily fell on the ground
the whole branch moves huh
that looks like fun yeah yeah
you wanna tell me about it
okay oh i can't let you eat that leaf
i know it looks tasty probably won't
feel too good inside of you
yeah that one too oh
it's on the ground maybe we can go eat
some breakfast
that's something you can eat would you
like some breakfast
yeah oh let's go look over here there's
so many things to explore outside
you want to touch this one wow
you got some leaves off of that branch
and then
the gate what do you see
oh you hear that air conditioning over
there
i know i hear it too
the first thing that people do when
they're interacting with babies and
speaking with them
is they ask a lot of questions i found
myself doing this
and i've also noticed other people i
know when they interact with my baby
if they're a parent if they're not a
parent they ask
questions and i wonder why we do this i
think it's maybe because
he is curious and he is engaging with
the world around him
and we want to be part of that we want
to engage
and be curious with him what do you see
do you see that
what's that what are you doing we're
engaging with him
and we're using his natural curiosity
in order to learn more language so i
think that you can use this as well as
an english learner
spark your curiosity about the things
around you
look at the room around you look outside
if you're outside at the moment
and try to ask questions about things
what's that noise
oh is that the air conditioning and
maybe you don't know the word for air
conditioning in english
or you can't pronounce it well this is a
good time to
use that word to practice and to engage
yourself
in the world around you by asking
questions about things that are
just natural in your world the second
thing that adults often do when they
talk with babies is use
baby talk and this means that your
vowels are elongated
and your pitch usually goes up sometimes
your emotions are just really
obvious they're even exaggerated and we
use this for babies almost
universally i think a lot of countries
use baby talk when talking with babies
let's take a look at a quick clip so
that you can hear this in action and
then we'll talk about it
do you see the ants theo
yeah they're on that tree they're
climbing up
i said yeah they're on that tree
they're climbing up but i didn't say it
like that i said it in a little bit
higher pitch and i elongated some vowels
naturally i wasn't thinking i should
elongate these vowels so that my son can
understand me clearly
no this is just something that naturally
happens there on
that tree those vowels are elongated to
help him
understand more clearly and there was
actually a study that showed
people who talked to babies in baby talk
those babies
understood their native language faster
because they were speak
spoken too clearly and they could hear
those vows which are often the most
tricky parts of language
so for you how can this help you as an
english learner
should you listen to mothers speaking in
baby talk
no not necessarily but what this
translates to for you
is that it's best to start off with
something that you can understand so for
example
this english lesson i hope that you can
understand the majority of what i'm
saying
my speech just naturally is pretty clear
and
straightforward this means it's easier
to understand
so start with this kind of speech don't
jump right into an english tv show and
then feel overwhelmed and bored
instead start with something that you
can understand babies start with
baby talk and then they work up to more
mature
adult-like speech so don't feel bad
starting with something a little bit
lower level
and then working your way to eventually
watching english movies
the third thing that adults often do
when they're speaking with babies is
they
interact with them by talking back to
them when they're babbling
babbling means when they're just saying
nonsense it's just sounds
it means nothing but adults are
interacting with them and saying
oh yeah what are you saying or they're
giving a toy or they're showing that
they're listening and this is something
that's really valuable to babies because
it's encouraging them to speak
even though it's it's nothingness it
doesn't mean anything
they're learning step by step to speak
now let me just say it was
really hard to capture any of my son's
sounds on camera because the moment he
sees something new
like my phone he wants to grab it and
then he stops babbling
so what we have in this clip is about as
good as it gets
but let's take a look at it really quick
just to see that kind of
sounds more like the sounds that he's
making
and how i'm interacting with him that
looks like fun yeah
tell me about it
okay having someone to talk to is so
much more fun than just speaking by
yourself
so i'd like to help you use this
technique as well even if you're just
saying sounds like my baby it doesn't
mean anything
i recommend checking out this video i
recently did about how to learn to speak
english
in your home country without moving to
another place
you can do it check out that link so
that you can get a bunch of tips to help
you start speaking today
and now i have a question for you do
mothers and fathers in your country
use these techniques when they're
speaking with babies maybe your parents
used this when you're a baby as well
you can use them now be curious learn
with information you can understand
and speak have that joyful confidence
that
innocence like a child and use the
language that you know
thanks so much for learning with me and
i'll see you again next friday for a new
lesson
here on my youtube channel bye
the next step is to download my free
ebook
five steps to becoming a confident
english speaker
you'll learn what you need to do to
speak confidently and fluently
don't forget to subscribe to my youtube
channel for more free lessons
thanks so much bye