Ten Ways to Help Your Child Learn Russian in Immigration
'05.03.2021'
Source: Zagran.me
It is no secret that bilingual (multilingual) children have a very large vocabulary - in all languages they know combined. However, if you take each language separately, especially a minority one, it turns out that a bilingual child does not understand many words that are understandable to a monolingual peer, and uses them even less in speech.
Where to get a new vocabulary - a simple question, writes Zagran.me... You can make dictionaries with new words from books you read or watched films / cartoons, purposefully take a new topic and vocabulary on it with your child for a week (one week we talk about television, the other - about space), watch educational children's programs, listen new songs, learn poems and more.
The question is more complicated - how not only to acquaint the child with new vocabulary (explaining the meanings of words), but literally "saturate" him with new words and word forms. How to make him fall in love with the learning process, enter new words into the child's active vocabulary every day and now make his speech richer. Here are ten fun and creative ways to enrich your bilingual child's vocabulary. Hopefully they help you introduce new vocabulary in an easy and playful way every day.
Method number 1: "Oil painting". It would seem, what could be more trivial - to draw a new word. Here you, please, "avocado" or "ferocious" - take it and draw! Anyone can do it, because to such words it is easy to stick any image. But I propose to go on a non-standard path and use this method only for abstract words and concepts. So for the child will be more fun and more useful. Draw me, for example, "justice." Or "cool." Or "closeness." The left hemisphere of the brain is responsible for memorizing, and by drawing a new, abstract word, we activate the right hemisphere. Thus, firstly, we use the two-hemisphere approach in mastering complex vocabulary, which makes the whole process much more efficient, and secondly, the difficult task of depicting an abstract concept using a drawing will contribute to the development of creative thinking in a child.
Method number 2: "We dance and grimace." This method is essentially very similar to the first one, only the word must be depicted not with “paints on canvas”, but with the body in space. Don't forget to choose the right music for your dance. What can “justice” sound like? Solemnly? Happy? Which mode is major or minor? Depending on the age of the child, this method may require your participation (selection of musical accompaniment, although, of course, you can do without music). But for children in love with dancing, memorizing new words will turn into a very joyful process. If your child has difficulty expressing what is required through dance, start with a pantomime. This method, among other things, will include both hemispheres of the brain in the work and thus form a three-dimensional vision of a new concept.
Method number 3: "Making a movie." We direct a scene from a movie in which a new word may sound, write or verbally invent a script, dialogue (monologue), shoot the scene on camera. We do a few takes, until you like the final version. In the frame may be the children themselves (you can use brothers / sisters / friends) or dolls. During such work, new words will immediately enter the child’s active vocabulary and will most likely remain there forever.
Method number 4: "Storytelling". Coming up with an exciting / dramatic / comedic story using a new word, around a new word. If it is difficult for the child himself, the mother will come to the rescue: one sentence is the mother, one sentence is the child, until the story is finished. In this way, we also actively develop speech.
On the subject: 'Girl's conversation': Anna Kournikova showed how she communicates in Russian with her one-year-old daughter
Method number 5: "Advertising break". What product / service can be advertised using our word in the slogan? We create a product, write an advertising slogan, and, if we are strongly inspired by the process, we shoot / draw an advertising video.
Method number 6: "Coded word". If this or that lexeme means something specific, but at the same time itself is difficult to memorize, you can break it down into syllables or even scatter it into letters and rearrange them, but so that you get another funny word, and not difficult a pronounced set of letters. An example from the book "Zubak": "sperm whale" can be turned into "horse", and "chameleon" - into "elemon". First, the activity itself is fun. Secondly, such manipulations with letters-syllables will help the child to grab the "phonemic image" of the word. Remember how sometimes we cannot remember a name, but we are sure that it starts with the letter "X". Then it turns out that it was "Chihuahua", it does not start with "X", but this letter sticks out right out of this word, so the first one comes to mind. Also here: after manipulating letters / syllables, the child will have some kind of conditionally "hook", for which you can hook the whole word and pull it to the surface.
Method number 7: "On the couch." We come up with associations for a new word and due to this, we again include the right hemisphere in the work. We develop speech and imagination. Since associations come from the personal experience of the child, the word that needs to be remembered comes to life and moves from the “outsider circle” to the “circle of good acquaintances”.
Method number 8: "Pushkin". For beginners in the poetic field, it’s enough just to come up with a rhyme for a new word (and preferably not one), for the advanced ones - to write a short rhyme. I think the benefits are obvious, remembering 100%.
Method number 9: “Relatives are wanted”. Look into the etymology of the word - if he has a lot of "relatives", it is imperative to introduce them to the child. First, it will teach him to use language more flexibly and stimulate word-creation, and, in the end, for him, perhaps, the word “cozy” will be easier and more understandable than “huddle”. In this case, two words will be added to the piggy bank at once, and in the active dictionary one of the “relatives” is enough for the first time.
On the subject: Angelina Jolie said that one of her sons knows Russian
Method number 10: "Master of Metaphors". Play a metaphor game: one from your mother, one from your child. If you need to memorize the verb "bristle", for example, something bristles, like the antennae of an ant. Like rabbit ears. Like a skyscraper in the middle of the desert. Like a parrot's crest (a rooster's comb). Like a hedgehog's needles. Like a lonely palm tree on the beach. And so on - whoever has enough imagination. I can say one thing for sure: fantasy, just like the speech of a child, with each such game will grow rich and be painted in the brightest colors.
Of course, you can do many more other manipulations with new words that will help enter them into the child's active vocabulary: make a word from scrap materials, come up with how it might sound if played on the piano (violin, drum, etc.), draw a comic about a new word and much, much more. The main task of a parent is to turn on imagination and come up with games that will appeal to your child and turn vocabulary acquisition into a fun adventure.
