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Teaching English to Parents | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| tiachopvutru Newbie United States Joined 5524 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Studies: Vietnamese*, English | Message 1 of 18 22 March 2009 at 12:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Although my family is now living in U.S., my parents don't how to speak, read, nor write in English. They want to learn the language for convience and also economic reason, but I don't know how to teach them English, and class is expensive (and might not be very helpful, either).
I can show them Disney cartoons and news to give them exposure to spoken English, but I'm not sure how to teach them vocabulary in a way that stick to their memory. So, I'm asking to see if there are any good (and inexpensive) methods for nonnatives to learn English. Thank you very much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5561 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes  Speaks: English*, French | Message 2 of 18 22 March 2009 at 1:51am | IP Logged | ||
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You didn't say what your parents' native language is?
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| tiachopvutru Newbie United States Joined 5524 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Studies: Vietnamese*, English | Message 3 of 18 22 March 2009 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Oops... totally forgot about that XD
My parents' native language is Vietnamese. Edited by tiachopvutru on 22 March 2009 at 3:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6235 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 4 of 18 22 March 2009 at 9:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Assuming they're literate in Vietnamese, I'd consider using L-R, honestly (read a text in Vietnamese while listening to an English audiobook of it; it's better if they have a parallel text, but not strictly necessary). This is the fastest way to acquire vocabulary (especially passive vocabulary) and comprehension that I know of. Warning: it doesn't lead to immediate active use, so they may find it frustrating.
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| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5807 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 18 22 March 2009 at 1:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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You might want to go to a public library and read a few books on TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), or look at sites like TEFL.com, eslbase.com, eslcafe.com, usingEnglish.com .
You'll find a lot of advice, and the sites in particular have free lesson plans and activities. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5677 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 18 22 March 2009 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, I can't believe you would actually recommend that to someone Volte.
It makes no sense, and if I remember right, the dude even copped to it all being bullcrap in the original thread. Have a look at what you're proposing...native Vietnamese speakers with no knowledge of English are going to start reading a novel in their own language, and at the same time they're gonna hit the play button on a translated English audio of the same book. Not only are those sounds incomprehensible and nothing more than googelygop to their ears, but you can guarantee that they're not reading at the same speed as the recording either so you can throw out the theory of passive learning in some realm of the subconscious. To the original poster...dude, this isn't rocket science. If your parents truly want to learn the language they're in the right place. Start with some basic courses in your library, and work your way up to native materials including books, tv, movies, news, music, etc. If they really want to learn they'll start doing more and more of their everyday activities in English and little by little, just like everyone else that has come over here and learned English, they'll start to get it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tiachopvutru Newbie United States Joined 5524 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Studies: Vietnamese*, English | Message 7 of 18 22 March 2009 at 7:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Volte: Sorry, but the points that hypersport address are valid, so personally I can't follow it. I have tried searching "L-R method" on google but couldn't find any information on it.
@Cainntear: Thanks for the informations. I am in great need of advice and resource. @hypersport: Even so, I still need to make a rough plan on how I will proceed. As mentioned, I still have problem with the vocabulary part. My dad has been getting rather inattentive ever since my grandmother died, and my mom has been using a rather ineffective method of looking at and memorizing word list, so gradually they even begin to BELIEVE that their memory fail them. Since long-term memory is impossible without review, I will try using SRS once I know how to, but I am also looking for resource with some mnemonic aids to ease their memorization. Since their friends are Vietnamese and relatives Chinese-Vietnamese like us, the only way I can expose them to English is movies, news, and Disney cartoon daily (we don't have TV channel at home, btw). I will also try to convince them to listen to English music. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6235 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 8 of 18 22 March 2009 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||
The "copping to it being bullcrap" was a sarcastic joke. It's perfectly usable for unrelated languages. It's not difficult to read at the same speed as the recording, unless you're a very slow reader. There's nothing passive or subconscious about it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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