What if children need to speak some everyday words in Chinese? For children living in the United States, it may be too demanding to force them to use Chinese completely at home for their parents. However, parents, of course, hope that children can communicate in Chinese, only recite some poetry is useless. A good way is to use Chinese sentences for children. That is to translate English sentences spoken by children into Chinese, say them to them, and then let them imitate you. Of course, it is impossible to translate every sentence. You can choose some words that you think are useful and tell them to your children so that they can learn to imitate. Although the child may not fully understand the meaning of each word in the sentence, he can say it out to express what he wants to express. If a child is taught a sentence a day, for a long time, he will accumulate many useful sentences and use sentence patterns to transform them into new meanings. For example, "I want to eat apples." When children learn the names of other fruits, they can turn apples into other foods.
I recommend another teaching method for lazy people. Because sometimes parents are too busy, or forgetful, it is not easy to insist on making sentences for their children every day, and so on. If you are as forgetful as I am, consider giving your children online lessons. My children spend 25 minutes twice a week. Chinese teachers in China communicate with their children in standard Chinese and appropriate textbooks. A good helper like this will compensate some parents for their lack of time and introduce new learning materials and teaching styles to their children. Of course, many parents let their children go to Chinese schools, which is also very good. I think 1-1 teaching is more efficient for children to learn, and also reduces the time of driving back and forth. Of course, the advantage of Chinese language schools is to give children friends and groups, so each has its advantages and disadvantages. For children who do not like Chinese schools, or families without Chinese schools nearby, the choice of online classes can be considered. Online teachers can provide more opportunities for children to communicate in Chinese. Although teachers also allow children to listen, read, and write, I think for children, the opportunity to talk to teachers is the most valuable.
Parent-child reading is also an opportunity for children to practice reading aloud. If a child can read, parents can read part of it and children can read part of it. If the child is not very good at reading, books or stories are relatively short, parents can read them once, and the child can read them again.
When children have more confidence and courage to recite and communicate with their families in Chinese, they can encourage their children to use Chinese more in society. You can get together with other children of
learning to speak Chinese (not necessarily all Chinese) to hold Chinese-speaking clubs. Children can also teach their friends Chinese, or do some Chinese-related projects or performances at school. Poetry recitation can also be regarded as a talent show. If a child can feel the recognition of his Chinese ability in society, he will have more motivation and confidence to continue learning.
