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Teaching English to Parents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5876 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 17 of 18 24 March 2009 at 6:26am | IP Logged |
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For me, it seems that you are looking for shortcuts because they are "old, set in their ways", otherwise we would be going straight at a self-study English language program written in Vietnamese just like for every other person who wanders onto this forum.
So realistically, the best thing for them to do if they are unaccustomed or unwilling to do self-study is to go to a language course for immigrants (that will be government subsidised) taught by a professional teacher in a class room of people in exactly the same situation with the same challenges in the evenings for a month or 2 to get started. If both of them don't want to do it, get one or the other to go. That is the formal learning bit that will eventually deliver complete sentences. In the mean time, you want to get immersion learning going. That means that, when they go out into public, let them try to battle with their bad English in the society. Don't do all the speaking for them. Teach them just words that they will use immediately, like to say "please", and "sorry" and "hello", and "How are you? Good thanks" and "how much" and the numbers to 100 and "excuse me" and "thank-you" and "good-bye". That is it ... the above is all you need and you can get around politely and do their shopping and catch busses and whatever they need to do. Travelling, I must have put together this level of language for maybe 10 different languages including Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, Thai, Greek, etc. I have never been to a country where I did not at least learn to say "Hello", and "Thank-you". It takes about a week to get it down including the numbers, and you use it every day, every time you come into contact with society to buy something. So that will have them speaking a little immediately. That combined with the formal lessons will have them slowly start to build language skills. Now, in the supermarkets, etc. the salt does not have "Salt" written on it in Vietnamese, but in English. And even on the outside, "Supermarket" is written on the supermarket. Everything is labelled. English is written in the same script as Vietnamese, so they will pull together vocab of nouns pretty quickly once they are thinking about it. Watch TV in English inside the house. I mean, not complicated stuff, but easy visual stuff (like "Funniest Home Videos"). The picture tells 70% of the story, and the language is simple enough for 6 year-olds to laugh. This immersion is not a replacement for study though. It complements it. Seeing "Pickles" written on the side of the jar in a supermarket, will never teach them to say "I do not like pickles", because what does "do" mean? Why is it not "Me no like pickles"? Once the have "I do not like pickles", they can expand it towards "I did not like pickles" and move the sentence around in time, space, direction (different subjects and objects). This type of manipulation of the language towards fluency only comes with study or extreme immersion (24 hour living). If you can get one of them speaking a little bit of English, and then you / your brothers / sisters speak English at the dinner table with that parent, the other will be both exposed to it, and feel shamed and "Can we speak Vietnamese so I am included?" You need to look around for classes. I am sure they are almost free for immigrants (to allow them to properly participate in society and the economy which is good for America, and good for the immigrant). Edited by SlickAs on 24 March 2009 at 7:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| icing_death Senior Member United States Joined 5860 days ago 296 posts - 302 votes Speaks: English* | Message 18 of 18 29 March 2009 at 7:47am | IP Logged |
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I came here late, but another idea to add to the good advice already given: In Thailand I taught several girls to speak English. Rather, I gave the girls a VCD player, a nice little language program, and told them to do at least 30 min per day. I was aware of what they were studying, and would practice with them in a very casual way later in the evening. Before this they had only used cheap dictionaries and phrase books. They absolutely loved the VCDs, and improved quickly.
My point is, I bet there are similar programs available for Vietnamese speakers. Certainly in Vietnam, and probably here. What I'm talking about is a little package containing a thin workbook and 3-4 vcds. They cover basic grammar and vocabulary in the books, reinforced by simple conversations in the vcds. Actual listening material is crucial for Vietnamese, since they need to work on pronunciation. Programs like this are very common in asia. They usually have 2 or 3 levels, but are quite cheap. (Here is a nice list for you. I was surprised to see that even pimsleur makes an ESL for Vietnamese program) Edited by icing_death on 29 March 2009 at 11:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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