5 tips to teach French to kids

Every parent knows that learning a foreign language is always more effective when you start at an early age.

But how to teach French to children?

At alpha.b we have been offering French courses for families several times a year for over 10 years.

The next dates for 2021 are: from 25 May to 4 June and from 28 June to 23 August. Click here to book your course. 

The parents are in a continuous course or in a 30+ course and during this time the children are in a mini-group (maximum 6).

For the rest of the year, we continue to teach your children French through individual lessons in Nice or online.

To enrol your child in our one-to-one online courses, contact us at: office@alpha-b.fr

Today we are going to give you 5 tips to help your children learn French while having fun and progressing quickly!

Our teacher Maria specialises in teaching French to children and in tip 4 she explains the tools she uses to work with them at different ages.

Tip 1: Learn French with games

All children love to play and learning will be much easier and more natural if you use games to teach them French.

What type of game should I choose?

Any game can be used to learn French:

• Who is it? a board game ideal for learning to describe faces, hair and eye colours
• The hat game: to learn to ask and answer questions
• Draw and win: to learn about shapes, colours, animals, objects and to retain vocabulary
• The 7 families game: ideal for learning family vocabulary and remembering it to win.
• Memory: also ideal for remembering the vocabulary learned during the week, for example about animals, the house, the family
• Lotto: to learn numbers

Tip 2: Learn French in song

As Maria tells you in the video with the younger children, she uses songs!

Who doesn’t remember their first songs learned in a foreign language?

It’s a great way to learn how to pronounce correctly, pick up vocabulary, the alphabet and even whole sentences.

Where to start?

• The alphabet song for learning letters
• Frère Jacques, one of the most famous songs in the world
• A green mouse (une souris verte)
• Let’s walk in the woods (Promenons-nous dans les bois)

And you can find lots of songs for kids on Youtube with French subtitles.

Tip 3: Alternate between group and individual lessons

Group classes to teach French to children are really interesting because it allows them to meet new people, make friends and learn together.

Take advantage of our Spring session from 25 May to 4 June or our Summer session from 28 June to 23 August to register your children for our immersion courses!

But each child has a different rhythm, different needs and using a private teacher is ideal for him/her to adapt well to the child, his/her pedagogy and to allow him/her to progress faster, without effort!

Whether face-to-face or virtual, one-to-one lessons are perfect for building the child’s confidence.

Tip 4: Vary the learning materials.

As Maria explains in her video below, it is important to vary all types of material so that the child does not get bored and progresses on different aspects at the same time.

Tip 5: Never set the child up for failure

For a child to like a language, it must be fun to learn, speak and discover.

If the child immediately feels like a failure, he will block the language.

This is why when we teach French to our students we always opt for a positive and encouraging approach.

We have to congratulate the children as soon as they succeed in an activity, a game, a sentence.

And if they make mistakes, they should be corrected, but always in a positive and encouraging way.

I hope that these 5 tips will help you to learn French for your children and if you wish to enrol your children in our group French courses or our online courses, please contact us for a quote on office@alpha-b.fr