Children learn language naturally and unconsciously. Unlike youngsters and grown-ups, young children are natural learners and they are self-motivated to pick up a language without conscious learning. They are good at imitating the pronunciation and setting the rules for themselves. 

 

Raising children as Malayalam speakers will be a huge task for the parents who live abroad. Children find out how things fit together through play. It lets them use their senses and boosts exploration and curiosity, and these abilities are the inspiration for intellectual development and cognitive processing.

 

Learning an additional language is often fun and opens various opportunities. Some languages are easier to learn than others. As per Google, Malayalam is one of the hardest Indian languages to pick up. Keralites who live abroad find it difficult to pass the language to the youngsters. They get disappointed when the children get the grammar wrong while conversing in their mother tongue – Malayalam.

 

Learning Environment 

 

• Children should be facilitated with the right environments and experiences to support them in language learning.

 

• Finding a good Malayalam language communication class online will enable children to understand the language systematically. Activity-based learning in combination with structured teaching is focused on Malayalam language learning school online sessions.

 

• The need of learning their mother tongue should be conveyed to children to make them feel secure.

 

• Supporting activities like rhyming, storytelling, and speech sessions should be linked, focusing on the concepts, to grow the interest.

 

• Providing opportunities to share their ideas or any incident will encourage them as they are getting a chance to express their feelings as well as their language skill

 

• General interest can be increased by backing up the activities with specific objects.

 

• Reading what they have learned will enable the children to get précised idea of the usage of language. 

 

• Giving picture books, short storybooks, etc. will let them understand the structured approach of the language and will boost their confidence level.

 

Stages in learning 

 

Listening period

 

Speaking in a language comes naturally before reading and writing. When children learn a new language, they need to listen to the sound and the pronunciation initially. This listening stage will help them to observe the communication of elders and understand the right usage of it. 

 

During this time they should not be forced to take part in actual spoken dialogue by making them repeat words. They need to be given useful opportunities to pick up the language. Children may use different self-strategies to get to know the usage of language.

 

Beginning to talk

 

The children will start experimenting with small sentences including easy words of which they could memorize the sounds and pronunciation. They may not be realizing the mistakes in it, but if appreciated, will continue the attempt happily. This process continues for some time as they pick up more words in the language and use it as shortcut dialogues before they are prepared to build their phrases.

 

Attempt to understand

 

Understanding a language is more important to speak. As young children’s ability to grasp cannot be underestimated, they may use various context clues to understand the language. Even though they do not understand every word, they get an idea of its meaning and try to interpret it in different ways while conversing with others.

 

Handling Frustration 

 

Children sometimes may get frustrated with their inability to express their ideas in the language. Various activities to boost them up and to help them understand the mistakes will be useful at this stage. They should be motivated to understand the terms in language patiently and should be given enough time to self-correct the repeated mistakes.

 

Parental support

 

Children got to feel that they are making progress. They need continual encouragement to motivate them while they're gradually learning. Parents can best do this job by helping their children during the learning process. They can influence the child into developing attitudes toward learning and other cultures by bringing the child’s activities into family life. 

 

The lifelong attitudes of a child will start forming at the age of eight or nine. Parents can improve children’s language skills by speaking to them using the target language, studying with them, making them join language classes, and further helping them to use different tools and techniques to learn more.

 

Malayalees who are moving to other countries for survival or better prospects in life are trying to maintain Malayalam speaking at home. It would often be a challenge for them. Family members by staying connected to the relatives can play a key role in helping the youngsters to find out and practice their heritage language, Malayalam. As the Malayali parents who stay abroad hold relationships in high regard, they ensure frequent visits and phone calls to the relatives. This, in a way, helps the children develop their language skills by frequently conversing in the Malayalam language. This shows that the house remains a feasible environment for language preservation. As long as languages are said to be vanishing faster than species – with a distinctive one dying every fortnight – it is vital that heritage languages still be spoken.