Most of our students have relatives who speak Russian. And the better a child knows Russian, the easier it is for him to communicate with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and brothers. He can read and write letters, messages, and also listen and speak himself. Today we will talk about how children learn language and what is very important in it.
How children learn language
There are 4 aspects of language learning:
- Reading is "seeing."
- Writing is "doing."
- Listening - "hearing."
- Speech is "speaking."
These aspects are like walls in a house - only four will provide complete comfort and confidence. If there are three or fewer walls, confidence can be forgotten. Therefore, if you want your child to know Russian well, you must teach him or her to see, do, hear and speak the language.
Listening and speaking skills are primary. They are formed in children from birth. At first it is just babbling, then - conscious words and understanding of what mom and dad say. If a child is asked: "Where is mom?", he immediately turns and looks for mom with his eyes. It is habitual, natural and necessary for him to listen and speak.
Later, children develop reading and writing skills. Educators call them derivative skills. And it is not by chance that the skills are formed in this order. If a child hears words and can pronounce them, he will recognize them in a book and be able to write them.
Why the skill of "talking" is so important
Speech is the result of muscle work. So, if a child repeats words in Russian several times, he will train his muscle memory. His speech apparatus will get used to pronounce even the most difficult words like "lilac armored personnel carrier". And then there will be no need to monitor the correct pronunciation of words - the brain and muscles will do their job.
When a child says: "Hi, Aunt Anya, how are you doing?", he develops articulation, learns to control his speech apparatus. While speaking, the child notices the peculiarities of sounds, feels the differences between them.
When a child speaks, it helps him or her to listen to text. This means that two skills are improved at the same time, not just one.
So it is essential to develop the skill of speaking. It will help your children to learn Russian better.
