“Guerilla teaching tactics" to help children learn a 2nd language



From several conversations with parents that are raising their children with two or more languages, I realized several are using what I call “guerilla language teaching tactics".

Here is a definition of what it is: Indirect strategies to teach a language to children, involving, but not limited to, laughs, play and songs.

Why “guerilla language teaching”?
-       It is unstructured
-       It combines language teaching with daily activities
-       It often involves 5- to 10-minute action spurts
-       It implies that parents want their children to learn a new language, whatever it takes

Here are some of the tactics parents shared. Usually, the amount of time spent on the second language children are learning is limited: the parent teaching the language is at work, and most of day is spent at school or pre-school with the main language.

These parents then use “guerilla language teaching” tactics whenever they are around the children. A few examples:
-      Describing the clothes to the children when getting them dressed as babies (“Here I take your left foot and put a red sock on it”, “Have you seen the beautiful blue T-shirt you are wearing?)
-      Singing songs in the language taught when giving the bottle
-      Describing what is around when going on a walk with the stroller (“Have you seen this big white car driving by?”, “Can you see the little squirrel right there?)
-      Doing play-by-plays in play sports together on the lawn (“And I pass you the ball. Kick it!)
-      Reading a 10-minute story while having breakfast
-      Listening to a 10-minute story in on CD while driving the car
-      Using the iPad to have the kids listen to a story while paying the bills
-      Making a salad for lunch and going over the names of the vegetables

“Guerilla language teaching” just means that having children learn a language is a daily commitment. It does not have to be hours spent on a specific subject. It means that you commit to do one or two things a day using the language you want to teach.