I was just wondering if you used a certain colour and attached it to a language you were learning do you think it would help in retaining the language more?
If colour helps you learn perfect pitch do just wondering if colour eould do he same for a language?
Hmmm… I’ve never thought about that. I have always color-coded my Montessori materials by printing out French in blue and Spanish in red, but it was more for my own convenience (easier to sort and organize) than for it to aid her learning experience. We have a ton of other French and Spanish resources like LR files, bits, homemade books, CD books, and DVDs and they are not color-coded. I have also not used color for Chinese, Filipino, or Latin. English and Chinese are her strongest languages, follwed by Spanish, French, and Filipino (in that order). I have no idea if the color helped at all (probably not)…
I have been teacher a girl I tutor some Japanese as a bonus if she does her mandatory tutoring. I write out a phase for her to learn each day in english, romaji and katakana, and I color code it. Not in a single color but I use a set color for each part of the sentence so that she can see the parts of the sentence in the corresponding texts.
I usually print reading flashcards on colored paper just to help my LO make a difference between the different languages he’s learning. We use white for English, green for Arabic, Blue for French, yellow for Spanish, orange for German, red for Chinese and purple for Japanese. I think it helps a bit at least by creating a “mood” for each language. I still don’t know if this has a direct impact on learning, but I know for sure my toddler likes all those fun colors!
I think it is is a good idea, especially if you are talking about teaching many languages. I think the more organized it is the easier it is for the brain to process. Color coding the parts of the sentence sounds like an excellent idea too.
I write in red ink for English, black for German, and green for Spanish. I use different color cards for masc., fem., and neut. nouns. For example, for German a masculine noun is in black ink on a blue card. It sounds complicated, but it’s really not. It has really helped me to keep things straight. I don’t know if she notices, though.
Now that I think about it, I think I will change the colors in Little Reader depending on language, either the background color or the font color using the playback settings tab on each category.Thanks for a great idea!
Since starting Boca Beth we have tried to always use BLUE for English and RED for Spanish.
I recommend always placing the languages in the same location on your tools. For example, when I take visual learning aids purchased at a store and cut them apart, I laminate the English word on the left side and the Spanish word on the right side every time. Children thrive on knowing what to expect when it comes to their routines.