Learning a language without speaking it is like buying a car, filling it with gas and driving it only to the nearest store. The more children speak Russian, the better they will learn it.
Here are 6 reasons for kids to talk, talk, and talk:
- Better reinforce the theory. Pronunciation or sentence construction rules seem clear until we start doing it. Reading words is not quite the same as pronouncing them. So speaking in Russian helps you learn the language better.
- Becoming bolder and more confident in their abilities. When a child speaks a new language and understands the words of others, it is encouraging. Over time, even the shyest begin to say simple words.
- Passive vocabulary becomes active vocabulary. Passive vocabulary is those words that the child knows but does not use in his/her speech, and active vocabulary is those that he/she does use. The more often a child speaks Russian, the more he/she increases the active vocabulary.
- They use a lively language. Spoken language and speech from books are not the same thing. Children can say the formal phrase, "Hello, my dear grandmother!" or emotionally exclaim, "Oh, Grandma, hello" - and these are different shades of language. When children practice speaking, they do not use academic language.
- Learning to speak in a way that they can be understood. Even if a child knows grammar, but speaks like a robot, it is difficult to understand him. He may misplace intonation accents, which will drastically change the meaning of the sentence. Conversation practice helps children convey the right intonation, emphasize the right words, and put them in the right order. For example, "I'm going home" and "I'm going home" are sentences with different accents.
- Learning to understand the interlocutor. This is also a very important skill. When reading, you can stop and re-read an obscure word, and when speaking, it is not very convenient to constantly ask again. Children learn to perceive Russian words by ear and to do it quickly, to recognize familiar words.
We rejoice with the whole team when parents tell us how their child communicates with Russian relatives. It is an incredible emotion and an amazing closeness, even when separated by oceans.
