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How to teach a foreign language?


PRTGSw2K
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I am not sure about Portuguese, but won't it help if you just talk to him regularly in the language?

 

Then, once he is able to verbally communicate, you can teach him to read using simple children's books. Is there something like a syllabary for Portuguese? Then use the methods of copywork, narration and dictation as he progresses.

 

Or, can you look at Brazilian Portuguese language books and adapt those to teach the Portuguese that you speak?

 

HTH somewhat. Please post back if you have more questions.

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I am teaching my kids German. I am not fluent, but can speak pretty well. I have found lots of great things on Amazon.de. I have purchased children's books, DVD's (I had to get a DVD player that would play the movies) and I am going to speak to them in German. I am also planning on getting a felt board with some fairy tales felt kits to tell stories in German. If you are fluent, I think the best thing to do is just to speak to your children in Portuguese! BTW, my relatives come from the Azores. My maiden name is Pimentel. :D

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I am teaching my kids German. I am not fluent, but can speak pretty well. I have found lots of great things on Amazon.de. I have purchased children's books, DVD's (I had to get a DVD player that would play the movies) and I am going to speak to them in German. I am also planning on getting a felt board with some fairy tales felt kits to tell stories in German. If you are fluent, I think the best thing to do is just to speak to your children in Portuguese! BTW, my relatives come from the Azores. My maiden name is Pimentel. :D

 

Ah a familiar name :D

 

I do try and speak to them in Portuguese. It is almost impossible though to find Portuguese children's books. I have checked Amazon and done general google searches. We have most of what I have found.

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I'm sorry I can't help with Portuguese, but this is a similar frustration for teaching most languages. How do the people that live in Portugal (or Spain, or Ireland or...) teach their children. OK, a lot of it is the constant hearing and seeing, but they must also have board books, phonics programs early reader books, and what not, no?

 

I am not trying to criticize anyone, just venting that we can be so connected (internet, airplanes, McDonald's) and still not quite able to make this connection. I guess we will just have to go there (wherever) in person and see what we can find.;)

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I don't know if these sites are Brazilian or not since I can't speak either one, but here are a few I found that didn't say Brazilian!

 

http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&keywords=Portuguese&rh=n%3A4%2Ck%3APortuguese&page=1

 

http://www.languagelizard.com/Portuguese-s/2736.htm

 

http://www.worldlanguage.com/Products/Portuguese/ChildrensBooks/Page1.htm

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I have just started teaching my kids French. The way we are doing it is by reading familiar kids' books (such as Frog and Toad, Dr. Seuss, and Goodnight Moon) over and over, listening to the words, figuring out what they mean. Then with my daughter (6) I'll ask her to point to the "tableau" or the "chambre verte" or "la petite souris" after I've read the story several times. She loves to pick out the words she understands and repeats them after me. With my son, I have him do the same thing but take it a step further. We then sit and pick out the vocab., write it on the board, and talk about the meaning, why does "vert" have an "e" on the end here, but not here? What is the feminine article? "la" Right. Feminine nouns are often modified by adding an "e" at the end of the adjective, which follows rather than precedes. He is also reinforcing his English grammar and noticing structure that he didn't before.

 

He is learning words and grammar in a truly classical way this way, and when we run out of children's books I will move to a more grammar and speaking kind of approach, but for now, this is working GREAT, and they love it.

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Thank you so much for this thread. I'm embarrassed to admit that I'm fluent in Spanish (learned from 5th grade through 12th), but I'm having trouble teaching too. I am thrilled with the ideas so far. I will do copywork and dictation in Spanish as well. Later on we can narrations.

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I agree with speaking it a lot. And then reading what you can (maybe write your own readers in Portuguese?) along with copywork then dictation. If you are speaking it regularly (if you are fluent, maybe you can teach his other subjects in Portuguese a day or two a week, like an immersion school?) he should pick up most of the verbal stuff.

 

The copywork/dictation can be used to show/explain various verb conjugations or other grammar things that he might not quite get verbally.

 

Do you have any connections in Portugal? (If not, make some!) And ask them if they have children's books, readers, or the like they can buy and send you. It may be difficult to find for those of us in the US, but I'm sure they have resources. :)

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I agree with speaking it a lot. And then reading what you can (maybe write your own readers in Portuguese?) along with copywork then dictation. If you are speaking it regularly (if you are fluent, maybe you can teach his other subjects in Portuguese a day or two a week, like an immersion school?) he should pick up most of the verbal stuff.

 

The copywork/dictation can be used to show/explain various verb conjugations or other grammar things that he might not quite get verbally.

 

Do you have any connections in Portugal? (If not, make some!) And ask them if they have children's books, readers, or the like they can buy and send you. It may be difficult to find for those of us in the US, but I'm sure they have resources. :)

 

Those are great ideas! Thank you!

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