It gets their children using the language quickly and naturally

“As parents, we know that engaging pre-schoolers in any activity, particularly new activities, is a big challenge but I have found the Spanish group teacher has all the right tricks through song, dance and group activities to bring even the shyest toddler along and engaged in learning. My three year old takes a while to open up but wow with only two lessons she has become mad keen to sing along in Spanish after each lesson, she sings in the car, at home and can’t wait for Friday to come along and use her new skills. Not only is she picking up words in Spanish at the speed of lightning but it also doing wonders for her confidence in a group setting.’ Thank you. (Susie, Adelaide)

“Since joining the French for Kids Club, Alexandra is exciting about anything to do about Paris, Eiffel Tower, French etc. She likes to learn more about French at home and me and my wife just can’t believe how she pronounce the words with the French accent.” (French for Kids club, Newcastle, NSW)

An experience of France, Spain or Italy without the travelling!

Most parents dream of travelling internationally with their kids one day, and introducing them to the many varied and wonderful cultures of the world.  But the family budget, whether one of time or money, is not always on the same page as your dreams!  

The world is changing and technology has connected continents like never before. Within seconds, we hear about triumphs or tragedies happening in far off places. This is the world in which our children live and we have the privilege, and the responsibility, of introducing them to its beauties, its cultures, and even its challenges.

We can help give children an opportunity to discover and learn about another culture, its language and its traditions. 

LCF Fun Languages are pleased to be offering schools the chance to have a complimentary culture session.  Games, food, songs, activities and local culture for children to enjoy.

Our one hour sessions are aimed at introducing children to the culture and a little bit of language, the main aim is to engage children’s imagination so they want to know more.

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire” – William Butler Yeats

With most parents already recognising the many benefits that learning a second language can give their children, they are also now realising that second language skills are becoming increasingly important in a progressively global and homogenised world. The benefits of learning a foreign language are not confined to only the cognitive, social and behavioural benefits either, but extend to a child’s future prospects as well, the most obvious of which is their career opportunities.

There are many great advantages to being proficient in more than one language, and increased employability is definitely one of them. Not only does a multi-lingual person have a lot of choice when it comes to which countries in the world they can work, but they also have a larger variety of employment opportunities to choose from.

This graphic, courtesy of the Aussie government, gives a great representation of some fantastic career opportunities that are open to those of us with more than one language, as well as showing the necessary skill levels required for the job.  You can view the full size image and download it for future reference here

During childhood, the brain is more receptive to language learning than at any other time in a person’s life and starting foreign or second language learning early sets the stage for a child to develop advanced levels of proficiency in more than one language. Bilingualism is also increasingly being seen as a necessary 21st century skill set. Apart from the extensively researched and recognised cognitive benefits from learning more than one language, doing so as a young child dramatically improves the development of a near-native pronunciation and language intonation in the second language.

More and more parents are accepting that knowledge of a language other than English (LOTE) can also enrich their child’s understanding and acceptance of other cultures, and the attendant future job opportunities it can bring in a world being brought ever closer together by increasing globalisation. So it’s no surprise that they are choosing to raise their child/ren as bilingual and/or give them the opportunity to learn a foreign language.

However, as we all know, young children can sometimes be notoriously difficult to “read” and so – to ensure the best chance of success to achieve their bilingual goals for their child – it’s helpful for the parents of these ‘little linguists’ to understand their child’s language learning progression and the stages associated with second language acquisition. 

The current theories of second language acquisition are based on research in a variety of language related fields such as linguistics and neurolinguistics, psychology, sociology and anthropology and language researchers have developed a GENERAL outline that helps to explain the process that second language learners go through.  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Krashen)

Anyone who has been around children who are learning to talk knows that the process happens in stages—first understanding, then one-word utterances, then two-word phrases, and so on. Similarly, children learning a second language move through a number of predictable stages:

… AND your first lesson is FREE!

But don’t just take our word for it … check out these videos of our language clubs in action … they speak for themselves!

1

Lessons make use of FUN games, crafts and activites