Today I will be focusing on how you can encourage kids to SPEAK Greek! Quite often, children learn how to read and comprehend the Greek language with relative ease, but lack confidence when it comes to speaking. I will often speak to my children in Greek and although they understand what I am saying, they will usually respond in English. The same thing happens in class at Greek school. So, below I outline a few ways that I encourage children to speak Greek:
SHOW & TELL
At Greek school, children bring a different item each week for show and tell. It is always related to the theme we are learning about. For example, in the beginning of the year, when we are learning the alphabet, students bring in items beginning with particular letters e.g. for the letter μ they may bring in a μήλο and for the letter α an αγελάδα. Later in the year when we are learning about foods, they bring in a toy or drawing of a particular food. Students who are not very confident with speaking will just name the item in Greek. More confident children may respond with a sentence, for example, “Σήμερα έφερα ένα λεμόνι”.
“I SPY”
Children love to play games. Most are familiar with the popular “I spy with my little eye…”. Modifying this for the Greek language, we can say Εγώ βλέπω με το μικρό μου ματάκι κάτι που αρχίζει με… Whether you play this at home or in class, children will love it!
ROLE PLAYS
At first, I was reluctant to use role plays in my classroom, as I thought that students would be too shy or scared to give it a go. Well, I was wrong! They loved it! However, the role plays were structured and kept VERY simple. Why? Mainly because I wanted my students to experience success! When they experience success and feel proud of their achievements, their confidence will grow and they will take more risks in the future with their learning. Below is a link to the role plays I used in class. At the time, we were learning about family and body parts. Please feel free to use these role plays and adapt them according to what your children are learning.
Above all, have fun with your kids and enjoy the learning opportunities you have with them. As cliché as this may be, they do grow up too fast! 🙂
Thanks for reading,
Maria x
Follow me in social media:
