Here are 6 ways to make World Languages fun in your homeschool!
6 Ways to Make World Languages Fun in Your Homeschool!
Are you teaching Spanish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Latin…or any other World Language to your homeschooler? Want to know how to make it fun? Good for you!
Making language learning fun is a big part of success for both teacher(s) and student(s). Think back to when you were learning any subject. Didn’t you want to spend more time practicing the things that were fun to you?
Whether you’re teaching an elementary, middle or high school student, read on for a few of my favorite tips on teaching world languages in a one on one situation:
1. Incorporate vocabulary that is meaningful to the student.
If I learn all the words for the people, places and things around me, I will think of them each time I see them. Are the words for computers and other technology-related items more relevant to you and your student or the words for farm animals? One of my favorite ways to do this with high schoolers is to have them pull words from their texts and Facebook messages.
2. Use your target language in other fun activities that your student enjoys.
Sing songs in Spanish. Make and serve a homemade Japanese meal together. Connect with someone like my French friends that I met in the Grand Canyon, Christine and Alan, and become Facebook friends. Go to a Chinese church service. One of my students’ favorites is to watch a TV show of movie, with which they are very familiar, using the target language with English subtitles or vice versa.
3. Play games!
Some of my favorites are Veo, Veo, Algo… (like I spy something…) hangman, crosswords and word searches. You can be the “leader” then reverse roles and have your student be the “leader”.
4. Write
One of my favorite applications of this one is having the kids write and present their own “material”. Anything goes! Younger and earlier level homeschoolerss may start with a short conversation, poem or skit.
5. Use your target language in other fun activities that your student enjoys.
What do your students do together in English? As they gain more vocabulary and confidence, they can write or do their translations of some of their favorite songs or learn dances. I even had a class write, perform and film a “school” newscast. They still remember those lines!
6. Play games!
We love to play games (you’ll be able to get most of them in my upcoming release from 7Sisters). While scrabble and hangman are obvious favorites for the youngers/newbies, we had a blast playing Pictionary, Smash Mouth and Manzanas con Manzanas in my advanced class.
7. BONUS!
Check out these Homeschool Highschool Podcast interviews:
- How to Teach World Languages with Language expert Anne Guarnera
- Spanish for Homeschool High School with our friend, Karim Morato
- World Language Credits (we explain the how-tos and whats about teaching languages for homeschool high schoolers)
- More on homeschool high school World Language credits information in this post
- And in this episode we share more details on How to Teach a World Language
Whether you use Rosetta Stone, Learnables, Flip Flop Learning with my amiga Senora Gose, the high school curriculum I’m developing or something you’ve created yourself, remember to laugh together. Fun is one of the keys to successfully mastering any world language!
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6 Ways to Make World Languages Fun in Your Homeschool!
Travel abroad just for fun!
Visit a church where there is a preaching in English with translation into your target language, or vice versa, It is interesting how much you can comprehend when you have immediate feedback from a translator. While doing this very thing, I learned an interesting tidbit – “grace” and “mercy” are often translated into the same German word “Gnade. I had a very interesting conversation about the difference in meaning.
Cool thought, Maureen. That reminds me: Missions trips make good world languages study, too!