Helping Your Child’s English at Home (Even If You Don’t Speak English)

“I can’t speak English at home. Will everything they learn at school go to waste?” No. You don’t need to be an English teacher to support your child. Rich, everyday conversation in the language you’re most comfortable in is one of the most valuable things you can give them at home. Chatting, stories and play all give your child room to put their thoughts into words.

You can add a few small, enjoyable moments of English too. There’s no need to test new words every day or run a second lesson after school. The aim is to keep your child curious and to build a home life that sits comfortably alongside the school’s approach.

Which Language Should You Speak at Home?

Use the language you express yourself in most naturally. Being able to talk easily about feelings, family stories and the events of the day really matters. You don’t have to shrink your conversations down to a few short, memorised sentences just so they’re in English.

If you use Turkish or another language at home, let the school know. ASHA’s guidance on learning more than one language encourages families to speak, and support language, in the languages they’re comfortable with. Using more than one language doesn’t in itself cause language difficulties.

Making time for your home language isn’t choosing it over English. It helps your child build relationships, develop ideas and put them into words. Asking questions about the pictures while you read together, or talking over something small that happened today, are all part of that.

How to Weave a Little English Into Everyday Life

Start by asking the school for a song or story your child enjoys. Don’t try to repeat the whole programme at home. Listening to a familiar song together, doing the actions, then moving on to another game can be plenty.

Pick one of these:

• Singing a short song your child loves from school, or joining in with the actions.
• Looking at a book with few words and clear pictures.
• Leaving room for your child to use a familiar word during a game.
• Joining in with a small family activity the teacher suggests.
• Listening with interest when your child tells you something they’ve learned, of their own accord.

If you’re not sure how something is pronounced, you can listen to a reliable recording together. There’s no need to translate every sentence into English, or to set yourself up as the one who corrects your child. For the wider picture, see our guide to when and how English can begin at preschool.

Why Not Keep Asking “How Do You Say It in English?”

If a child is constantly interrupted with “And what’s that in English?” while they’re telling you something, the conversation can turn into a test. Asking them to perform in front of other people can also make them less keen to talk. Not saying a word they know at that particular moment doesn’t prove they haven’t learned it.

Instead, join in with whatever your child starts. If they’ve said an animal’s name in English, you can carry on in your own language: “Where shall we put this animal in the game?” The thing they care about, the meaning, stays at the centre.

You don’t need to correct every mistake when they use the wrong word. If you know the right form, you can calmly say it back to them; if you don’t, ask the teacher. Home’s job is to keep everyday communication going. Our guide to what children may gain from early English can help you think through your expectations.

What If They Understand but Don’t Speak?

In a new language, a child may spend a while mostly listening, or joining in by pointing and moving. Saying little doesn’t always mean learning nothing. Ask the teacher which instructions your child understands, how they respond during play, and how they make themselves understood.

Don’t stretch this explanation to cover every communication difficulty, though. ASHA’s guidance on assessing multilingual children notes that when a silent period goes on for a long time, other possible causes need to be considered. If there’s also difficulty in the home language, a loss of skills, or clear struggles with everyday communication, get a specialist’s opinion.

Is It a Problem When They Mix Two Languages in One Sentence?

A child may drop a word they know in one language into a sentence in the other. On its own, that isn’t confusion. Their choices will shift over time depending on who they’re talking to and where they are.

If you’ve understood what they said, respond to what they meant. You don’t have to stop every sentence with “Now speak only Turkish”. NAEYC’s guidance on family languages explains why it’s worth families keeping up the home language, even when a child answers in a different one.

The strongest language support at home is listening carefully to what your child is trying to tell you.

Linking Home and Sun Preschool

At Sun Preschool, daily notes and photos are shared through Sun Portal, our parent app. They give you something concrete to ask your child about: “Which part of this did you build?”, “Was there a song for this game?” Asking the teacher for one idea you can repeat at home is plenty.

In our programme, the younger groups meet English through everyday interaction; English lessons start at four, in the Cocoons group, and carry on in the Butterflies. Rather than setting up a second school day at home, you can briefly return to an activity your child enjoyed. Our guide to English at preschool explains how the school day is organised.

If you’d like to talk about your child’s languages and what they’d experience at school, you can arrange a visit. We’ll sit down together to talk through your questions.

References & Further Reading

• ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) — Learning more than one language, and how families can help.
• ASHA (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) — Assessing multilingual children, including the silent period.
• NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children) — Why it matters that families use their home languages.