Variety is the spice of life and this is equally true when learning, and will help your child put the language into context. One of the difficulties for children who are being taught a language is that it is hard for them to see the point of what they are doing. I remember feeling like that as a child. I lived in a completely monolingual culture and being young I really couldn’t understand the need to learn French.

You can provide variety and stimulate interest by using resources outside of the normal syllabus. It is worth bearing in mind, that when learning a language you need to hear it used in different situations, and when learning vocabulary (as children so often have to do) it helps to see and learn the words in different ways.

Two possible ways of adding interest are through television and computer software. These are not substitutes for activities which encourage participation (such as say a French club) but are easy to fit in at odd moments. Children like watching television . Foreign language television or foreign language versions of films can be extremely helpful. Equally children enjoy using computers and don‘t always associate them with learning. There is a wide range of language learning software available, and this is important as everyone has different styles of learning.