Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Hi I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

  • Would you like to learn English like a native speaker?

  • Of course.

  • Let's talk about it.

  • Would you like to see how my son, a native English speaker is learning his native language?

  • Today we're going to talk about three things that happen naturally during conversations

  • with him that are helping him to learn to speak English.

  • And I'm curious, as you watch this video think about mothers, and fathers in your country.

  • Do they do these things as well?

  • I have a son who just turned one year old.

  • You're going to meet him in this lesson, and he already knows how to say a couple things

  • like mama, dada, kitty, fish.

  • Even though it sounds like ish, and ants even though it sounds like nts.

  • But he's learning a lot.

  • He can even understand more words than he can say.

  • Maybe that's similar to you.

  • Can you understand more than you can say?

  • He can understand words like milk, food, lets go, give it to me, hurray.

  • You know all of those important words.

  • Over the next year he's going to learn a lot more words.

  • He's going to learn how to say them, he's going to learn how to understand them, but

  • how is he actually going to learn them?

  • Well at the moment we read a lot of books with him, I tell him stories as we walk through

  • the neighborhood, and he hears my husband and I talking together a lot.

  • But these are things that a lot of you do.

  • Maybe you read stories, you listen to stories.

  • So what are some things that are unique to babies?

  • Lets talk about three of those things today.

  • We're going to watch a short clip where I'm going for a walk around our lawn, and I'm

  • just talking to my son about things that are happening.

  • We do this every morning, and in the video it was 7:00 AM, he had just woken up, but

  • we were still having an interaction, a conversation together.

  • Let's watch this clip, and then we're going to break it down into those three elements.

  • Do you see the ants Theo?

  • Yeah, they're on that tree.

  • They're climbing up.

  • Where do you think they're going?

  • Yeah, maybe their little home?

  • What happens when you pull on that tree Theo?

  • Oh, the leaf fell on the ground.

  • The whole branch moves huh?

  • Whoa.

  • That looks like fun.

  • Yeah, are you going to tell me about it?

  • Mm-hmm (affirmative).

  • Okay.

  • Oh, I can't let you eat that leaf.

  • I know it looks tasty.

  • It probably won't feel too god inside of you.

  • Yeah, that one too.

  • Oh, it's on the ground.

  • Maybe we can go eat some breakfast?

  • That's something you can eat.

  • Would you like some breakfast?

  • Yeah?

  • Let's go look over here.

  • There's so many things to explore outside.

  • Do you want to touch this one?

  • Whoa.

  • You got some leaves off of that branch.

  • And then the gate.

  • What do you see?

  • Oh, do you hear that air conditioning over there?

  • I know, I hear it too.

  • The first thing that people do when they're interacting with babies, and speaking with

  • them is they ask a lot of questions.

  • I've found myself doing this, and I've also noticed other people I know when they interact

  • with my baby, if they're a parent, if they're not a parent they ask questions.

  • And I wonder why we do this?

  • I think it's maybe because he is curious, and he is engaging with the world around him,

  • and we want to be part of that.

  • We want to engage, and be curious with him, "What do you see?

  • Do you see that?

  • What's that?

  • What are you doing?"

  • We're engaging with him, and we're using his natural curiosity in order to learn more language.

  • So I think that you can use this as well as an English learner.

  • Spark your curiosity about the things around you.

  • Look at the room around you, look outside if you're outside at the moment, and try to

  • ask questions about things, "What's that noise?

  • Oh, is that the air conditioning?"

  • And maybe you don't know the word for air conditioning in English, or you can't pronounce

  • it well.

  • This is a good time to use that word, to practice, and to engage yourself in the world around

  • you by asking questions about things that are just natural in your world.

  • The second thing that adults often do when they talk with babies is use baby talk.

  • And this means that your vowels are elongated, and your pitch usually goes up.

  • Sometimes your emotions are just really obvious.

  • They're even exaggerated, and we use this for babies almost universally.

  • I think a lot of countries use baby talk when talking with babies.

  • Let's take a look at a quick clip so that you can hear this in action, and then we'll

  • talk about it.

  • Do you see the ants Theo?

  • Yeah, they're on that tree.

  • They're climbing up.

  • I said, "Yeah, they're on that tree.

  • They're climbing up."

  • But I didn't say it like that.

  • I said it in a little bit [inaudible 00:05:47] higher pitch, and I elongated some vowels

  • naturally.

  • I wasn't thinking, "I should elongate these vowels so that my son can understand me clearly."

  • No, this is just something that naturally happens, "they're on that tree."

  • Those vowels are elongated to help him understand more clearly.

  • And there was actually a study that showed people who talk to babies in baby talk, those

  • babies understood their native language faster, because they were spoken to clearly, and they

  • could hear those vowels, which are often the most tricky parts of language.

  • So for you, how can this help you as an English learner?

  • Should you listen to mothers speaking in baby talk?

  • No, not necessarily.

  • But what this translates to for you is that it's best to start off with something that

  • you can understand.

  • So for example, this English lesson I hope that you can understand the majority of what

  • I'm saying.

  • My speech just naturally is pretty clear, and straightforward.

  • This means it's easier to understand.

  • So start with this kind of speech.

  • Don't jump right into an English TV show, and then feel overwhelmed, and bored.

  • Instead start with something that you can understand.

  • Babies start with baby talk, and then they work up to more mature, adult-like speech.

  • So don't feel bad starting with something a little bit lower level, and then working

  • your way to eventually watching English movies.

  • The third thing that adults often do when they're speaking with babies is they interact

  • with them by talking back to them when they're babbling.

  • Babbling means when they're just saying nonsense.

  • It's just sounds.

  • Yaya, nana, mama, lala.

  • It means nothing, but adults are interacting with them and saying, "Oh yeah, what are you

  • saying?"

  • Or they're giving a toy, or they're showing that they're listening.

  • And this is something that's really valuable to babies because it's encouraging them to

  • speak even though it's nothingness, it doesn't mean anything.

  • They're learning step-by-step to speak.

  • Now let me just say it was really hard to capture any of my sons sounds on camera, because

  • the moment he sees something new like my phone he wants to grab it, and then he stops babbling.

  • So what we have in this clip is about as good as it gets, but let's take a look at it really

  • quick just to see that kind of sounds, more like mmmm sounds that he's making, and how

  • I'm interacting with him.

  • That looks like fun.

  • Yeah, are you going to tell me about it?

  • Mm-hmm (affirmative).

  • Okay.

  • Having someone to talk to is so much more fun than just speaking by yourself.

  • So I'd like to help you use this technique as well.

  • Even if you're just saying sounds like my baby, it doesn't mean anything.

  • I recommend checking out this video I recently did about how to learn to speak English in

  • your home country without moving to another place.

  • You can do it, check out that link so that you can get a bunch of tips to help you start

  • speaking today.

  • And now I have a question for you.

  • Do mothers, and fathers in your country use these techniques when they're speaking with

  • babies?

  • Maybe your parents used this when you were baby as well.

  • You can use them now.

  • Be curious, learn with information you can understand, and speak.

  • Have that joyful confidence, that innocence like a child, and use the language that you

  • know.

  • Thanks so much for learning with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson

  • here on my YouTube channel.

  • Bye.

  • The next step is to download my free E-book five steps to becoming a confident English

  • speaker.

  • You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently, and fluently.

  • Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

  • Thanks so much, bye.

Hi I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it