Hey everyone,
I recently just got a part time job where I will be teaching English to a 3 year old girl. Obviously, this will not be a standard by textbook or conversational lesson, so I’m somewhat shooting blanks on what are some of the best ways to help her get better at the language. If anyone has any advice, it would be very much appreciated!!
17 comments
Singing, dancing, telling stories, and focus on vocabulary. Watch stuff like Peppa Pig, and The Wiggles on Youtube to get an idea about who your target audience is.
You shouldnt be trying to teach them anything in the traditional sense, you just throw a bunch of stuff at them, and they will learn whatever their brain decides to absorb..
I like to think that if this kid was your kid, how would you teach them to like your language in a foreign country. Try reading books and make funny ways to say words.
They like using their hands, so flash cards from Daiso, whiteboard, coloring books… and just talk to them and get them used to repeating what you say.
Focus on vocabulary. Use cards and physical objects to build vocabulary skills. Search for the Total Physical Response method and use that to teach a bit of grammar/conversation.
I like the suggestion to sing, dance, and tell stories. I also suggest playing games together, doing simple activities with worksheets (coloring, tracing, etc). I wouldn’t worry as much about teaching as interacting together and using English with the child but letting them talk however it makes them feel comfortable. I wouldn’t focus on vocabulary as young children learn more in chunks than individual words. And because of the young age don’t stay on activities too long. Good luck!
Find out what they like and try and teach through that. I have one 2 yo girl who loves singing, dancing and reading picture books. Anything else bores her. Whereas another 4yo boy I teach loves using flashcards, playing games and drawing/writing.
Don’t think of it as a “lesson” think of it as play time where **you** only use English (note: never force her to use English, the one rule is that you use English with her. With other people you are free to speak any language, but to her only English).
1. Allow her to become comfortable with your presence. Some kids are averse to anyone who is not family. That’s totally fine, but the more at ease she is with seeing/hearing/playing with you, the less scary English lessons will be later on.
2. Do what she wants to do in your own way. If she wants to color, color with her. If she wants to play with dolls, find some toys to play with next to her. If she likes Anpanman, try to find an English version you can watch together (preferably with subtitles). As others have said, dance, sing, move, act like animals – but always use English.
3. Narrate everything you do in English while sometimes talking to her directly. As others have mentioned, a 3 year old is basically a sponge. There is something magical about telling them “I think I am going to color this house red. Can you hand me that red marker? No, not that one the red one there” or “Hey, let’s go over to this table and sit down!” and watching them puzzle it out (this doesn’t take long).
4. Use a lot of short exclamations. “Oh no!” “Wow!” “No way!” “Nice one!” “Whaaaaat?!” Kids really like to copy these because they are a lot of fun to say and it is a great way to convince the school/parents that she is actually learning English when she starts walking around going “No no no!” or “Run away!”
5. Never sit her down for a lesson. Other people (teachers/parents) may try to push this on you but it will only serve to make English scary and boring, i.e., the exact opposite of what you are trying to accomplish. The closest I would ever get to this would be an ABC puzzle (I believe some Daiso’s sell them) if she enjoys them.
6. Books. Lots of pictures. Tons of English. Even if she isn’t saying anything, having you say “Ohhhhoohoo look at this giraffe! Its neck is soooo looooong” is extremely beneficial.
As time goes on, the funny sounds you make start to naturally become a way for her to communicate with you. However, the overall goal should be kept very simple: make English less scary and distant through play.
​
Edit: To clarify 4. — she will actually be learning English but parents/teachers can sometimes become apprehensive if English isn’t taught in a “lesson” format. Once they see their child using authentic English it provides evidence that these methods are demonstrably effective.
Start with things they can touch, feel, and/or see. Model simple sentences around those things. Ball. Orange ball. Blue ball. Fuzzy. Smooth. Fuzzy ball. Smooth ball. This ball is orange. This ball is blue. What color is this ball?
That kinda thing might work well. Start with simple vocab statements. Ball. Paper. Cup. Then model some simple sentences like “This is a ball.” Start leaving out words and let them fill the blanks. Introduce a simple question to answer with a sentence they already learned. “What is this?” “Ball” “This is a ball!”.
They will understand more than they can speak, so asking a question like “What is this?” and getting the answer “Ball” is great. You start start adding articles when they answer with just the noun to get them used to hearing, just remember that you need to give a lot of positive reinforcement. They likely don’t have as much interest in English as they do in receiving praise.
I play karuta with my kids using big flash cards. It’s amazing how they seem to know when it feels like what your saying is going through their left ear and out the other.
just talk to them. it’s what I do with my 3 year old.
if they hear the same thing repeatedly, they’re bound to pick it up.
3 year olds love tea parties and cooking, kitchens, playing doctor etc. Role playing is a great way to learn for anyone, and since their favorite play style is role playing, it would be easy to incorporate that. I think you can just use a lot of simple English, enjoy playing, and create scenarios where you use English, for example, Let’s cook, what do we need….I need a tomatoe, i need an onion, I need a …. Let’s cut the onion, can you cut the tomato? Props will definitely help.
Be ready to change activities several times, for example, Do a roleplay, read a book, sing a song, color in something.
Card games. Letter sounds. Vocab.
I’ll assume she has zero base.
start with songs with actions like wheels on the bus, dances (the freeze song or floor is lava song is popular).
Basic vocabulary will be weather, days of the week, feelings along with verbs.
Introduce the alphabet slowly, maybe one or two a week.
Use sensory activities to keep interest and make it more play than study.
Throw in some popular songs from Disney like let it go and let her try to sing it, don’t stop to correct her, just sing it clearly along.
Source: I’m a preschool teacher with 3-4 year olds
The approach depends on how often the lessons will be. There’s a vast difference between once every week or two and three times a week. Add on to that, how long are the individual lessons?
You haven’t said anything about the duration of the class! And or frequency.
Hat you need are a number of diverse activities and intersperse short focused activities with down time sessions of structured play. A typical session might look like this: (anyone else feel free to chew me out) but you’d do best to adjust the order to what works best. Then just change the content, themes, vocab etc.
Some kind of circle time. 5 minutes. Do the weather, a song (hello) and the day/date.
Structured play time to settle her in. Blocks, toys, puppets, colour fabric/costumes, balls, games, toy food/toy shop, dolls etc…. 10/15 minutes
Segway out of this with drink time/cookie time. 10 mins?
Segway out of that with a video. 5 mins?
Then do some P.E / TPR. A physical activity. Just a few minutes.
Main activity. Flash cards activity in some kind of game /structured play 15 min.
Coordination/motor skills – puzzles/craft activity/art activity/ maybe a colouring worksheet that’s super super basic?
Story time to wind down and end the class. Segway out of that with a closing song.
So you are just talking her through everything. You are modeling everything. She’s 3 so it might be months before you get any English words from her. Just narrate everything. Standardize the way you talk about certain things (anything given, taken or exchanged for example is going to be: “I have a X, here is a/an/some X for you. Here you are, it’s a X for you.” Etc. segways might always be “Look at the clock, it’s 10 o clock, time for p.e! Let’s do some p.e!”
Use chatgpt for content ideas. That madness will give you a year curriculum in seconds!
Be expressive and energetic. Their attention will typically be drawn to the most interesting thing around them.
Speak loudly and clearly and repeat several times.
Be prepared to do what they want to do as well if that’s their personality. Some jumping with them hanging onto your thumbs is a safe and fun thing to do.
Genki English