If your kids are learning Spanish, a great way to help them practice is by asking questions in that language. This way, you’ll be encouraging them to answer in Spanish. Here at TruFluency Kids, we are the first ones to encourage this method. But, oh my god, how difficult it can be to make them answer in Spanish and not in their mother tongue! Right?
Well, children will find it easier to respond in their native language, because they’re more fluent in it. So, we get them, but we also understand your frustration. Because you only want your kids to practice and improve their Spanish skills.
If this is something you’re struggling with, you must watch our Tik Tok Spanish lesson series about how to make your kid respond in Spanish. Because, believe us, it’s not impossible.
Tips to Make Your Kid Respond in Spanish
Our polyglot founder and CEO, Micah Bellieu, will give you the best tips in this Tik Tok Spanish lesson series. Oh, and by the way, she’s also a mom, so she totally understands your struggles! See? There’s nobody better to share these tips and tricks with you than her!
1. Pausing and Prompting
If you ask your kids a question and want them to answer in Spanish just like that, chances are they won’t. And, honestly, it’s understandable. They feel more comfortable in their target language, because it’s what they know best. And they know you’ll understand them.
So, when they answer in English (or whatever their mother tongue is) just look at them and make a pause. Like you’re waiting for them to answer in the right language. Maybe at first they’ll be confused. But soon, after doing it every time they don’t respond in Spanish, they’ll get it: that face means you want them to speak Spanish. And so they will.
But for this to truly work, you can’t succumb and let them answer in any other language. It’ll also take patience from you. Because you’ll have to wait for them to understand the meaning of your pause and answer in Spanish and at first it might take a while.
Then, do some prompting. This is especially useful for when children can fully untangle their ideas and express them fluently. You could help them by saying a word in Spanish with which they can start or keep answering.
2. Kids need to hear others speaking Spanish
Why do children learn their mother tongue so well? It’s not just that they take classes to learn their native language. No, no, it’s more than that: they’re surrounded by it the whole time.
When they go to school and talk to friends and teachers, when they accompany you to the supermarket, during family reunions… They’re constantly hearing their native language! All the time in all kinds of pf situations. So, they acquire it very casually.
So, naturally, this works with their second language as well. Make sure your kids are in a Spanish environment, so they can start picking up the language. Surround them with family and friends that speak in Spanish. Enroll them in Spanish immersion schools, like TruFluency Kids. Maybe get a Hispanic babysitter?
And you can be there too! You’ll also learn and participate in the activities. But make sure they hear other people speak the language as well, especially from native Spanish speakers, not just from you.
3. Put everything in Spanish that can be in Spanish
You know how we just told you to surround your kids in a Spanish environment? Well, that not only goes for people, but also for other things in their daily lives. Think about listening to the radio in Spanish or watching cartoons and movies in Spanish with them. Fill your house with books in their target language. This can go as far as playing or singing nursery rhymes in Spanish for them.
Above everything, make sure that when your children are doing any of these activities, they are engaged and there’s repetition. For example: read the same book or tale every night, so they pick vocabulary through repetition. And make faces when reading the book, so they get immersed in the story and truly understand everything by watching your expressions.
You can even ask them questions about what they just read. Another example would be to listen to the same Spanish songs over and over again for more repetition.
Oh, and we highly recommend the things you incorporate in Spanish are originally in that language and not translated or dubbed. Of course, only if this is possible to get for you.
Kids also absorb language from anything they do, watch or listen to. So what better than deliberately adding Spanish to all those things.
If you want more details about these tips and tricks watch our Tik Tok lessons 1, 2 and 3 on how to make your kid respond in Spanish.
But WAIT, there’s MORE! Yes, Micah has one more tip for you. You want to know which one is it? You’ll have to watch our fourth Tik Tok lesson on this topic! ¡No te arrepentirás!
Have you checked our different videos on our trufluencykidsspanish Tik Tok? We bet you’ve learned a lot! Well, there’s more from when that came from! Just enroll your kids in our TruFluency Kids Spanish immersion classes.
As you could see through this blog, we have useful tips and tools to make your kids speak in Spanish and become fluent. We also have the best teachers, as we make sure they’re qualified for it. Plus, they’re native Spanish speakers!
And because we know kids learn better through fun, they’ll get to sing, dance, play and even cook with us. All in Spanish!
Take a trial class now for only $9 and see for yourself how we work.
