| I. Website usage tips for Parents and Teachers Keys to success with the Language and Geography Sleuths web site 1. Encourage your kids to have fun with language and geography. Think of it more as “exploring” and less as “learning.” 2. Don’t expect fluency or native-like pronunciation right off the bat or even at the end of the program. This takes years to develop. However, we intend to stimulate your child’s interest in learning languages and help him or her develop early skills needed for later success and good pronunciation. 3. Don’t hover over your children as they practice their pronunciation. This site offers complete anonymity to the child; there is no stress of a teacher to make corrections or other students to hear mistakes. An anxiety-free environment is a key to effective learning. Do, though, learn along with your child and interact as they access various materials from the site. 4. Language learning is done best in small, manageable amounts of frequent exposure. Encourage your kids to spend short amounts of time as many times as possible during the week accessing our site. Unlike a classroom where your child may have only 1 minute of isolated speaking time 3 times per week, on our site, s/he is the center of attention. 5. Your child should access the video materials over and over again to aid in learning and retention. Just as a small child memorizes a favorite book after repeatedly listening, the same is true of a language. The culture modules can be repeated very often as well. Activities and information are updated frequently. 6. Do not expect exact comprehension. Kids should be able to get the gist of the ideas and then, after further viewing and use of the tools, understand more in-depth. Background noises such as cars tooting and buses flying by are included in the video on purpose; no real language situation takes place completely free of these noises. Editing them out would be unrealistic and unauthentic. 7. Children should not only listen repeatedly but also look. Gestures and facial movements vary from culture to culture and much can be learned while viewing even with no sound. Lip movements greatly aid in understanding pronunciation. Background information not only facilitates comprehension but also provides riches of cultural resources. All of our video was shot on location by our native TV crews. No stock footage has been used in our children’s video interviews. Read signs together, guess at their meaning and then later, look up any words you would like to know. Encourage guessing and prediction. 8. Enjoy the view! Talk about what you see in the background. Use vocabulary from previous units (such as colors and adjectives) to describe scenes. Even if you child points things out to you in English (such as the colors of the taxi cabs), this indicates s/he is soaking up cultural information. 9. Don’t be disappointed if your child wanders the sites from language to language. This is great! Children should be exposed to as many languages as possible while they are young and their brains are quite plastic. This helps them to be better learners when they are older. Sounds they hear and imitate as a child will not go forgotten. 10. Provide your child with plenty of reading materials in which characters travel to foreign lands or live in multi-lingual neighborhoods in the U.S. This will help them see language as a living tool, not a task. Rent movies shot in foreign locations. Reading and seeing language in action will stimulate their learning as well as give them a frame of reference. Get them their own bookshelf or their own space on your shelves. This makes them feel special. See our reading recommendations. Also be sure to check out our new book series the Suitcase Sleuths. Each book takes place in one of the corresponding countries covered on our language sites. Experiencing language in action, even while reading, helps learners understand the process. For you adult learners, we highly recommend John Grisham’s The Broker, set in Italy. Even if you have no interest in Italian language, it gives a great insight into the language-learner’s mind and, as usual for Grisham, it is a great and fun reading experience. 11. Spend some time on our site, too. You will learn as much as your children. We use native speaking children (rather than adults or cartoons) to insure proper models for your child. None of our materials are dubbed into various languages or even narrated by adults. Everything is authentic and age and gender appropriate. However, you can learn from them just as well. 12. We want children to see our site as a tool to learn for a future experience abroad but we also hope they will understand the importance of being multi-lingual in a country like the U.S. This site is as much about travel to fun places as well as stimulating curiosity about our own society.
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