Support

Parents can help their children to study and especially with their own experience of language can contribute to their children's experience.

Families can help by sharing their views on language issues and by simply being language users. The student of English Language will need to ask questions such as:
What do you say when you ... and
How do you describe ...
- in order to find out about local use of language, accents and dialects.
What do you think of people who say ... - in order to assess the views of users on how other people use language.

Students should also be reading and listening to language all around them - from magazines and advertisements to overheard conversations and children's talk. This may not seem as obviously "academic" as reading Jane Austen or studying a chemical reaction, but it is in fact the bread and butter of real research - as long as the language listened to and read is evaluated and considered for the way it is expressed.

You might look at the tasks set for practice to see what sorts of things are valuable language experiences. This might help you see the difference between your child saying "I'm watching television" and "I'm watching television because it helps me with my language word in English." Do be sure to ask a question like "What are you hoping to achieve by this", "What are you looking for" and "what particular features have you identified?"