subject: Teaching French to Learn French [print this page] Any teacher will tell you that they learn a lot from their students. Oftentimes, the most successful lessons that teachers convey are those when they're learning the subject matter at the same time that they're teaching it. Teaching French to learn French is a fine way to introduce yourself to the language and to help your students learn a new skill. If you homeschool your own children, you shouldn't let a lack of prior experience prevent you from exploring another language with them. In fact, you should take that as a good reason to try.
When you teach French, you learn French because of having to become an expert. Sometimes, this requirement will drive people to learn more quickly and to take a deeper interest in what they're learning. This inspiration, like a good cabaret song, is contagious. There are other ways to make learning a language more effective, as well. One of the most effective ways involves employing music and storytelling as ways of making lessons stick better and, more importantly, as ways of generating enthusiasm for the task at hand.
Simple, somewhat repetitive songs are excellent tools for teaching French. To learn from these materials all you need to do is listen. Listening to and remembering songs is natural for human beings. It's also harder to forget a catchy tune than it is to remember it. Our brains naturally lock onto melodies and melody can serve as a great way to stimulate our minds into remembering words and phrases. If you think about it, there have probably been times in your life when you remembered the words to a song by humming or singing the memory. The idea with language instruction in this way is the same: The song provides the cue to the memory.
Teaching French to learn French may be just the way to make your French homeschool a bit more effective. While children can absorb a lot of information, there is the caveat that you'd better make it interesting for them if you want it to be something they retain. Songs and stories are great ways to make learning French seem like a diversion rather than drudgery. It also tends to foster better retention of what's learned and better understanding of what's heard, due to the fact that the language is heard in actual use with an actual context that makes it engaging.
