I have bought some books with CD’s for my daughter to help her and me with english pronunciation and the first time I played it for her she looked at me with an expresion in her face “what was that?” :mellow:
I realized she could not catch the words as the narrator spoke quite fast. Well it was the Hairy Maclairy book and the narrator’s accent was a bit different that she is used to from me :wacko: or US dvds.
I had to reread the book for her.
Is the book too difficult for a non English native child?
I am thinking of letting her watch some programmes on Tiny pop TV to introduce her somehow to reall fast English :ohmy:
What do you think? Could that help?
We do not watch tv very often, if then edu dvds but those are also very slow - now when I think about it.
Hairy Mcleary is definately one of the harder/ hardest of the children’s books. I wouldn’t give up yet thouh, it is quaily literature after all. I would suggest reading her the story a few times, once she is familiar with the plot and flow of the words she will be able to follow along less daunted.
I am not sure about the cartoon idea. Letting kids watch those cartoons really ruins them for quality TV viewing. If you want her to be happy and excited to watch the educational DVDs ( which do usually travel at a slower pace) I would restrict her regular TV viewing for many more years. This has worked well for my kids. Kids who watch Ben Ten and whatever else is on don’t happily watch the other wonderful resources we have with the same enthusiasm. Now having said all that, you have two choices. Find something a bit faster but still educational ( I am thinking the frozen planet, Davis attenbourough style or Bindi the Jungle girl) or just pick one quality cartoon and limit the viewing.
Also do try getting other audio books, some are much less complicated than Hairy Mcleary.
Are their any audio recordings from native English speakers in the share file section? I could add something with an Aussie twang lol
Lelask-
We bought a perfect set of more ‘beginner’ Tales, a 20 story set that is extremely popular in UK called ‘Farmyard Tales’ by Heather Amery and Stephen Cartwright. They are adorable, and all begin the same way: “This is AppleTree Farm. This is Mrs. Boot, the farmer. She has two children called Poppy and Sam, and a dog called Rusty…” all the characters in the stories are adorable, and are great for learning to follow along and read. An audio CD comes with it, nice British accent, very clear. Plus, Alex loves the ‘Spot the Duck’ feature on each page. She has read these over and over for about a year, and still loves them! She actually listens to the books on her IPod as it ‘sounds like daddy’.
Here is the collection from The Book Depository in UK as they will ship to you!
There are other collections by the same authors with different subject matter, like princess stories, fairy tales, etc., all with same cute style and spot the duck activities on each page, but FarmYard Tales is our favorite by far!
Thank you for your replies , I thought you won ´t like my tv idea :laugh:
I have actually let her watch some for 2 days and I quite liked Beep and his friends cartoon lol
She would sit there but she gets bored very quickly and needs interaction.
Today she wanted to watch her MonkiSee dvd so I am glad I have ´t ruin her for life!
I will buy those Farmyard tales, thank you for a tip.
It looks like I will need to work on my pronunciation and speed lol
Hehe I just re read my post. I was quite opinionated lol. So I am thinking… I actually let my kids watch cartoons on utube in other languages. The girls have watched Barbie movies in German and french, with no ill effects. They have actually watched these movies in English too. Jaykob watches utube clips in Spanish. I am thinking that while they are learning the pace of the clips/videos wouldn’t appear to be as fast as they only catch a few words in each sentence. Anyway food for thaught. Just be careful not to ruin their interest in the educational DVDs.
Also since it’s English you want enhanced I would hunt around for a new ( fluently English speaking ) friend that’s bound to be easier than most other options!
I have been trying hard to find a English speaking friends with children but there are non here. Well there are but they are usually men who speak the language and I have no intention to see someone else’s husband lol
The only fluent friends I have are here on the forum replying to my thoughts :clown:
I could look for some amazing mums/parents here on the forum who would narrate the stories for us in slower tempo.
I have tried some free online audio stories but my dd needs to look at the book at the same time as listen to the story and we don’t have that many books yet.
Lelask-
Do you have an IPad? I know they are quite pricey, but would be a fantastic investment, especially with your location. Alex has lots of books, interactive and plain, that read the story, highlighting the words as they go. Even the PP sight-readers are available, and read very slowly.
A cheaper alternative would be a Kindle or other e-reader. No, they don’t narrate the voice over, but you can almost instantly download books, then download the audio (in some cases exact) to your PC.
The initial cost would be well-worth it in the beginning, and would save you a fortune in shipping lol Not to mention being priceless in terms of education for your LO. And did I mention just how much FUN :yes:
I was just thinking reedeeze would be perfect for you! It’s fairly fast in places, but not always, it’s repetitive and it shows the words too. Try it free on utube to see if it is a good fit. Also some nursery rhymes audio would work especially if you taught her the lyrics and had them written out in decent sized print as well. Reading familiar nursery rhymes is a regularly used strategy to improve both speech and pronunciation.
If any one wants to suggest a program I can use to record some books, I will happily do that. Will the LR speech recorder work? I could just record a few favorites that almost every one has, a bit slower than usual. Or maybe with a pause between each sentence.
Keri, i do have an iPad but my child doesn ´t ask for it anymore. We use it for LR only as she is now interested in real books, puzzles ect.
The only app she wanted, I have just realized she didn ´t ask for it for two days :unsure: ,is the abcmouse app.
We have read some books on iPad but if I open it now she cries “nooo”. I think she is bored with interactive books and needs plain books. She doesn ´ t even like the grasshopper books which I thought were plain.
