Jak najlepiej uczyć swoje dzieci języka angielskiego?

"How can my young child learn English, and what`s the best way to teach it?" That`s what a young mother, who came to see me at the school in the Spring, asked me. At first, my answer surprised her. I told her that in my opinion, being a linguistic tutor for ten years and a father of two children who are bilingual, the best way for young children to pick up a new language is NOT to ‘teach` it to them at all, but to let the process happen ‘naturally`.

"What does that mean?" she asked me.

So I told her. Firstly, learning anything should seem like a new ‘challenge` and not a difficult choice that has to be made. I then told her the story of how my children, who were born in England but have lived in Poland for the past ten years, can speak English fluently.

I became a father in 2001. It was a big challenge for me and my Polish wife to get used to our new responsibilities, and a big decision for us then was to decide in which language we were going to speak to our children. You might think this is an easy decision for a mixed marriage couple, but it isn`t. It`s easy to ‘mix` the languages up (:for my wife to sometimes use English and for me to use Polish) but we learned that this is a very bad idea, because it confuses the child, who can end up using a mish-mash of English and Polish (which we teachers call ‘Ponglish`) and not developing clear English OR Polish accents either (I`ll talk a little more about Ponglish later on). So, it turned out that my wife had to speak Polish all the time and I had to speak English. This was the only way that we could guarantee that our children would have the important ‘50/50 division` of language which is essential for bilingual kids. This is a strategy which we used from the moment they were born.

When my daughter was born I hadn`t started teaching yet, so I had no real idea then how to get her to use my language! However, with time and a lot of effort from me, it just happened! I still don`t understand exactly how, all I know is that it is most effective, if kids start to learn as early as possible. Kids really want to pick up new knowledge and life skills all the time, and as a parent it`s vital to give them that chance as soon as can be done. The big question is, how?

As my kids came to live in Poland when they were very young, I decided to give them every oppertunity to have contact with English that I could. I bought books from England for them, went around book shops in Poland looking for new and used English books they could read, and I would often read bedtime stories to my kids at night. I bought them films and let them watch English and American TV shows, and whatever people say about TV being addictive, it has definitely helped my kids to have real English accents!

Also, I taught my children to read and write when they were very young; between two and three years old. I taught them the phonetic alphabet first, NOT the silly ‘ABCDEFG..` which is sung in schools (because that is only the SPELLING alphabet, and it DOES NOT help young kids to UNDERSTAND how to first make letters into words).Writing also started from this phonetic alphabet, one and two syllable words which were easy to put together, and then on to the more diffuclt things like dipthongs and ‘th`, ‘ph` and ‘ch` - sounding words.

When my kids were younger I knew it was important for them that they understood me, so I would never use too many difficult grown-up words, and always adjusted my vocabulary to make it is easier for them to understand me. Also, I jealously avoid using Ponglish with my children to this day. If they don`t understand a word in English then I paraphrase it in English and never in Polish. This not only works, it also demonstrates the importance for them of describing things in English.

To summarise what I have said here, learning a language is a lifelong process and that is why it has to be interesting. As for my kids, I`m very happy with their knowledge and use of English, and I`m very happy with the doors that I have opened for them with it!

Oh, and for the nice young mum who came to see me at The British School in Legionowo, I told her that if she really wanted her child to learn English, and enjoy the experience, that our qualified and professional team of tutors at The British School would be happy to help. And we did. :-)

/Lee Robert Cross/