SECTION 6: Top 5 things you can do to help your French language learner!

1. Be Positive!

There are many things you do as a parent to encourage your children on a daily basis. Being positive and encouraging your child to learn and experience a second language will have a lasting effect. Get to know your child’s French teachers through open houses, parent-teacher interviews and on-going communication. Having a positive attitude and being engaged will show your child that you are interested in the language which can lead to better student learning.

2. Support Your Child’s Progress

During your child’s progress within a French-language program, you may find that their French skills will exceed your own. Even if you had previously studied French, you may soon find him/her correcting your accent, sentence structure, pronunciation and grammar. This is ok! Allow them these opportunities so that they continue to build their confidence. Accepting your child’s knowledge will support them in becoming confident and capable French speaking members of the community.

3. Know Your Child’s Learning Style

In today’s classrooms, there are a multitude of learning styles. Teachers recognize the various learning styles and are able to adapt their teaching to your child’s needs. Your child may be a tactile/kinesthetic, auditory or visual learner. The way your child learns may be different from your own preference which can be frustrating but there is a significant amount of information available to support both of you. Understanding the unique learning style will give you valuable insight on how to help them.

Want to know about your child’s learning style?

Take the quick quiz on the scholastic website: https://www.scholastic.com/parents/family-life/parent-child/quiz-whats-your-childs-learning-style.html

4. Know Your Cognates (friendly words)

What are cognates? Cognates are words that are spelled the same or close to the same and have the same meaning in French and in English.

Did you know? Approximately 30% of English words come from the French language? Because of this, it is easier for students to make transfers from English to French and vice versa. For example: photo; brave; conclusion, cousin

Other cognates are not identical but are spelled very similarly: analytique (analytic), tomate (tomato), créatif (creative) and banque (bank).

5. Resources to Help You

In today’s modern world, there is no shortage of information online. You will need to consider home materials to get you started. It is also recommended that you speak to your child’s teacher so that they may advise you of other options you may have to support your child’s learning needs.

Some things to consider:

Online Dictionaries:

Picture/word dictionaries are a great way to start in Kindergarten and Grade 1 as they develop vocabulary and word recognition. Books should be illustrated and have a print that is easy to use. Samples with words found inside simple sentences will work best.

For older students, you would look for a dictionary or website which contains a phonetic guide for pronunciation, the identification of parts of speech and noun gender, 2 common expressions using the word and examples of how it is used in sentences.

Tools for verifying spelling and grammar

There is a big difference between translators if you choose to use an online tool. They often do not take into account some nuances and students frequently only translate one word at a time which can skew the meaning of the translation.

We recommend: