Stay well informed

Dear Parent,

Today we are presenting you with another effective method to learn a foreign language. It is a method you can profit from in two ways: You can get to know both the language itself and the countries in which this language is spoken.

Visit English news portals on the internet and keep up-to-date. Whether you want to find out about current political events or read about cultural news – news articles are an authentic and true to life learning resource. This method is also perfect for practising together with your children, as there are also informative websites for children on the internet.

It doesn’t have to be news: why not visit a well-known online encyclopaedia and select links in the language list “English”? This will provide you with a huge archive of topics, whether you are interested in areas such as science or music.

• Our tip: choose one article a day and print it out in order to go through it on your own or with your child. Research the specialist terms that you don’t know and make a note of them in the margin of the article so that you always have them ready to hand. In this way you can slowly create a considerable vocabulary of specialist terms. Perhaps one day you would like to take the next step and exchange views with like-minded people on your specialist topic. 

When using this method of learning, you have the best chance of optimally internalising what you have learned.  

Some examples for news sites which cater for children:

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround (England)
• http://teachingkidsnews.com/ (Canada)
• https://www.childfriendlynews.com/ (India)

These websites provide articles about local events as well as general articles about topics such as nature and technology.