MyLanguage - Hold on to your home language

Resources

DVD

TDSB (Toronto Disctrict School Board)
English as a Second Language Department

Your Home Language: Foundation for Success

Research shows that children who have a strong foundation in their home language achieve greater success at school. This film suggests some of the many home language activities that parents, family members, and caretakers can enjoy together with children to encourage children's language development and success at school.

This DVD contains the following language versions:

Bengali
Punjabi
English
Russian
English (with captions)
Somali
Farsi
Spanish
Gujarati
Tamil
Korean
Urdu
Mandarin
Vietnamese

The accompanying booklet includes suggestions in the above 13 languages for supporting young children's learning and success in school.

HELPING YOUR CHILD LEARN

Talking and reading with your child are important ways to support learning. When you read and talk with children, they learn that reading is important and enjoyable. They also learn new ways to express their ideas and thoughts, as well as skills that will help them learn to read, like getting clues from the pictures,
where we start reading on the page, and how to follow print on a page. Here are some suggestions to support your child?s learning:

• Talk with your child in the language that is most comfortable. Encourage different ways to use language, for example, to tell what happened, to explore
  something he or she did, to describe things, and to ask questions.
  
  
• Show your child that listening to others is important by taking time to listen and respond to him or her.
  
  
• Visit places in the community such as the park, the grocery store, the library, or gardens. Talk about what you see together. This will provide knowledge and
  experiences that help your child understand what is happening in books.
  
  
• Give your child experiences with books ? holding books, turning pages, looking at the pictures, telling the story, looking for words he or she knows, taking turns reading pages, and choosing books from the library.
  
  
• Read and talk about the books together ? what is happening in the story, what your child thinks will happen next, what your child notices in the pictures, and
  what experiences your child is reminded of from the book.
  
  
• Choose and talk about appropriate television programs together ? programs that are about things your child likes or what your child is learning at school.
  
  
• Tell stories or listen to books on tape or CD.
  
  
• Invite your child to draw or write ? make cards, help with a shopping list, write letters or messages, and write his or her own name.