Teach Kids English – Your ESL Starter Kit

Do you want to teach kids English? Well you have found the right place. Bilingual Kidspot is full or resources and materials for teaching kids languages including English as a second language, (ESL).

This English for Kids starter kit will provide you with materials, and resources you need to start teaching your kids English at home. The English language series has lots of other resources for teachers to use in class too. Make sure to check out the whole Learn English for Kids series.

Teach Kids English

Below you can find our best tips on  how to teach kids English, along with printable materials including the English alphabet, colours in English, numbers in English and Shapes in English. Print these out and stick them on your walls at home to help your kids learn English.

6 Tips on How to Teach Kids English

Here are my top tips for teaching kids ESL, English as a second language.

1. Decide on your strategy

The first thing you should do if you want to teach English is establish your strategy. Will you speak English for the whole lesson, or will you translate? Although translating might sound like the easier option, keeping to one language can actually speed things up, especially for children.

Using OPOL (one person, one language), is one of the most successful language strategies. Children may resist initially but they will soon get used to it and embrace it quite quickly.

2. Make a Lesson Plan

Decide what you are going to teach. Start with the basics such as the colours, numbers, basic expressions, greetings etc. and move on from there.

3. Sing Nursery Rhymes and Songs in English

Teaching English to any age group is always made fun with singing. For younger children it may be English Nursery Rhymes, for older children it may be music they hear over the radio or listen to online. Make an English playlist and listen to songs together singing along. There are so many benefits to using music in English lessons for kids.

4. Reading English books helps to build vocabulary

Reading has many advantages for children, and reading English books is one of the best ways to enhance your child’s vocabulary. Start with board books, pointing to pictures and saying the names in English. Then read short books with pictures, repeating words, so they can try to guess what is going on in the pictures while banking that vocabulary to use for later.

It is ok to read the same book over and over again, repetition is important. But also choose a variety of books to read with different types of vocabulary.

5. Play English Games together

When you teach kids English it is important that they are enjoying themselves. While having a lesson plan is great, letting them lead is also very effective. Play English games together, whether it is just yourselves, in a group, or in a class. Games make English learning fun.

6. Repeat everything over and over

Repetition is one of the most important things when teaching kids English. Children need to hear words over and over again in different contexts to understand the meaning. So, when you greet each other make sure to say “Hello” and encourage them to repeat it. You should try and encourage kids to repeat everything you say where possible.

English Alphabet

Print the English Alphabet HERE

Colours in English

Teach the colours in English. You can print this image HERE

Numbers 0-10 in English

Learn how to count in English with numbers 1-10. Print the image HERE

Shapes in English

Teach the shapes in English. Print the image HERE.

Make learning English fun for kids

The most important thing when you teach kids English is that they have fun. Make sure your lessons are relevant to the age group you are teaching. Young children don’t always need formal English lessons, they simply need some fun games and activities which can be just as effective.

You can find more English learning resources in our series: Learn English for Kids.

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