"Learning by Doing" is the Best Way for children to learn English
- Aug 30, 2017
- 2 min read
Every person has their own unique way of learning whether that be through audio, vision or doing. This can make it very difficult to use one blanket method when trying to teach, because what will work for one student may not work on another student.
When looking into English learning centres abroad it is very common for the centres to be fully immersive, meaning that once the students enter the school they can only speak English and are not allowed to use their native language to communicate. This can seem quite extreme if a child is very young and knows very little English however it has been found to be an effective method to help children learn English.
As children grow older and develop their cognitive, emotional and physical skills their methods for learning new things change. It is proven that from the age of 3 years old a child will start to imitate and mirror other people’s actions and this is how they begin to develop their cognitive skills. As learning languages is a cognitive skill it is given that using the language in front of children aged 3 and over will encourage the children to imitate and copy what you have said. At this young age the children have the ability to remember the words they are copying but may not understand the meaning of these words. As the children then become older, 4 years old and onwards, they will develop the ability to associate meaning to the words they remember.
Having language centres be fully immersive forces young learners to listen to the language they are to be learning, and they begin to mimic the sounds they are hearing. Eventually this skill will develop further into understanding these sounds and associating meaning. Therefore learning by doing is the best way for children to learn English.
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