Thursday, March 31, 2011

WHY ENGLISH?

Learning English is almost a must for many people around the world. We wanted to give you some reasons why learning English is so important!

1-English is the most spoken language around the world. 1 out 5 persons understands it!

2-Many of the most famous movies or songs are written in English! You’ll be able to understand them!
3-If you learn English, you’ll be able to visit most websites!
4-Speaking English is a tremendous asset for your professional career!
5-English is not hard to learn, compared to many other foreign languages!
6-Nowadays, we are surrounded by English (in non English speaking countries of course…). Understanding this language becomes more and more important!
7-If you are a student, or just eager to learn, to understand English is almost mandatory since many publications are in English!
8-You will be able to visit the 45 countries where English is the official language!
9-But you will also be able to travel around the entire world! Even if you’re not going to an English speaking country, it is very likely that locals will understand you if you speak in English!
10-For the pleasure! Learning a language, especially English, is rewarding when you see you’re improving!

www.nacel.org/study-languages-abroad/2009-05-10-reasons-to-learn-english.php

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

WHAT IS IMMERSIVE LEARNING?

The only way to learn a foreign language the way you learn your mother tongue.

"Immersion" means "diving in". The entire environment in which children play is immersed in the foreign language. Children encounter the foreign language in a natural way - literally taking a bath in the language, soaking it up. This method is most successful and thoroughly researched learning and teaching method for foreign languages in the world. It is scientifically proven that a child learns more and acquires skills faster in the first three years of life than at any point thereafter. The brain grows quickly. It receives new signals from the environment through all its sense organs, which must be correctly orientated. The learning process is constantly in motion. The more frequently stimuli are encountered, the ber their influence on the child’s mind. The more they’re accompanied by positive experiences, the more successful the learning process is. Parents cannot influence the physical development of a child’s brain, but they can stimulate and promote mental development. Parents must be careful in this period to offer the right things at the right time, and not to overwhelm the child with distractions. The sooner one exposes a child to a foreign language, the better. They absorb the melody and accent of the foreign language. Children will soak up the foreign language like a sponge. If they already know a few English words by the time they enter pre-school or kindergarten, their self-confidence will be strengthened. They will have connected a great experience of success with the English language and will more easily begin to build up their vocabulary.

How can I provide an immersive English environment for my child?

Since birth, your child has been surrounded by your native language. He or she already knows how to speak and understand it just by being exposed to it by family and friends, in and out of the home, through radio and television and through teachers during this early stage of mental development. He or she learned without even trying. Imagine trying to teach your child English in the same way - you might try to raise your child in an English-speaking community. You spend weeks or months in England or America so that your child will see and hear only English and begin to pick it up. You might try to provide days of exposure to English with special teacher. But these options are not all realistic, and they require you to thrust your child out of his or her home environment and force it to learn. "Discover English with Ben and Bella" provides you with a better model: hours a day of immersion in English for your child at play.

How does "Discover English with Ben & Bella" provide an immersive environment?
“Discover English with Ben & Bella” is an integrated program of DVDs, CDs, books and activities providing animated cartoons, live-action song and dance videos, sing-a-longs, stories and games. It follows the saying: One builds a tower with bricks; a language with words. In their first years children learn their mother tongue by connecting the things they see with words their mother say. Mothers instinctively repeat the names of things several times. If, for example, a mother gives her child a ball to play with, she says, “Look, a ball! Here is a ball!” If the mother doesn’t want the child to forget what she says, then she says it loudly and repeatedly. She says it with emphasis: “Be careful, hot! The oven is hot!”

The animated videos of “Discover English with Ben & Bella” follow this principle exactly. The English words spoken when the associated objects are shown, and then repeated. For example, Bella says “Look Ben, A Cow! A Cow!” At that moment you see a brown cartoon of a cow on the screen. The same principle applies in the scenes in which the children dance. The lyrics match the actions, making meaningful connections with the new language. And so after a while the children automatically sing the English words and understand their meaning. In addition, the children are immersed in a completely new world, in which everything takes place in English. They take a language bath, and have a lot of fun, which only increases their success learning the language. This is what immersive learning is all about.

To see, hear and sing the English language, as well as to play, paint and dance – so that all senses are engaged and children have fun. Each child can discover English like its mother tongue with this multi-facetted product. They learn through play with the product, by repeating the words, singing and dancing. This learning environment is enhanced by the accompanying activity and sticker books. The additional activities and puzzles keep children involved in Ben & Bella’s world even when they aren’t watching or singing along, and you will be able to play along, quizzing your child on the English names of the characters and objects depicted.  It doesn’t matter if parents do not know English themselves, they can just point to something on the page or in the puzzle and ask their children to name it. By playing along (or watching, or even singing along) with their children, they can dramatically deepen the immersive experience and make the program even more effective. And they might learn English, too.

http://benandbella.com/

STIMULATING CHILD DEVELOPMENT

The development of your child is a complex and involved process, spanning a number of different physical and mental elements. Encouraging the mental development of your child, in terms of sociality, intellect and emotion is crucial in raising a well-rounded child to progress to adulthood, although it can often be quite difficult to think of creative and effective ways to stimulate this kind of development in your child. Given its importance, this kind of child development should be conducted both in and out of the classroom environment, to provide a consistent, efficient approach to growth and mental strength. In this article, we will look at some of the ways you as a parent can help stimulate your child's development.

Stimulating child development is a crucial part of raising a child, and requires creativity as much as consideration and thought for the requirements of mature thought and intellect. As a parent, it can often be hard to understand how best to stimulate your child intellectually, and of course there are no rulebooks telling you how it must be done. A great deal of the process comes down to exercising common sense, and understanding the needs and requirements of your child. Through constant interaction with your child, you can help gain a better understanding of the emotional and physical needs which you should then cater to whilst pushing for intellectual development and challenge.

As a parent, you should actively look to immerse your child in reading and writing suitable for their stage of development, whilst also prompting basic numeracy and problem solving capabilities. This combined with the opportunity for creative expression should be a great way to encourage your child and build confidence, as well as creating and strengthening the social bond between parent and child. This kind of interaction and stimulation will ultimately improve your child's social skills, and help emphasise the importance of emotional intelligence, as a supplement to social and academic intelligence.

By providing a range of activities for your child to accomplish, and providing praise and reward for successful completion, you can make learning and development fun for your child, and install a sense of passion as regards learning and self improvement. Through providing constant stimulation for your child, in balance with an emphasis on self dependence, you can create a suitable environment for personal and social development as your child ages and matures.

Child development is not set in stone, and it can be quite difficult to get it perfect every time. Similarly it takes a bit of getting to know your child and interaction on a parental basis, which again will differ from family to family. What is important, however, is that you present a consistent approach to parenting, providing the levels of intellectual and emotional stimulation required by your child at the various stages of development to raise your child to its full potential. By working in-sync with your local school and the educational development of your child, you can give him or her the best chance of success later down the line.

- Rebecca Walker -

Monday, March 28, 2011

THE IMPORTANCE OF PRE-SCHOOL LEARNING

Preschool education is a hot topic among parents and early childhood educators today. If you are the parent of a preschooler (or younger child) you need to ask yourself why you should care about preschool learning. There are three key reasons why you should not only concern yourself with your child's preschool education but become actively involved in it as well.

First, you must remember that preschool education is the foundation for your child's education. The skills and knowledge (not to mention aptitude and attitude) that your child develops in the preschool years will have a dramatic impact on your child's success when formal schooling begins as well as life success. Today we expect children to know more by the time they start kindergarten. While previous generations learned basics like color identification and the alphabet in school, today's children are expected to possess these basic skills by the time they start kindergarten.

Another reason to care about your child's preschool education is that by actively promoting and encouraging your child's preschool learning you will promote his or her self esteem as well. Help your child gain confidence by making learning fun and easy at this age and you will help make your child an eager lifelong learner.

Finally, preschool education is important because it can give your child the edge in a competitive world and education climate. While children who do not receive the fundamentals during their preschool years will be taught the alphabet, counting, shapes and colors when they begin their formal education they will be behind the children who already possess that knowledge and skill set. Do you want your child to be at the head of the class or lagging behind?

Concerning yourself with your child's preschool learning does not mean you have to enroll your child in a formal preschool program. You can work with your child at home if you prefer. The important thing is that you make sure your child is working to learning the skills they will need to prepare for kindergarten and learning to read.

You should care about your young child's preschool education because preschool learning is the foundation for formal education, it can boost your child's self esteem, and it can give your child the edge they need for lifelong success.