EAL- How to help at home

 

Learning English Children who are bilingual need to continue to use and develop their home language.

Parents sometimes feel that they should encourage their children to speak only in English, and minimise the use of their first or home language, so that their English develops as fast as possible. This is a mistaken belief, as it is vital for educational as well as family and cultural reasons, that children and young people maintain and develop their first or home language whilst their English is developing.

We believe that all languages need to be valued and celebrated!

Parents should therefore be encouraged to promote the use of first/or home languages, for example in:  

  • everyday family conversations  
  • discussing homework, such as stories in reading books  
  • phoning/corresponding with relatives.  
  • reading dual language books with younger children at home
  • providing books, newspapers etc in the first/home language for older children.