Learning a new language doesn’t have to be all torturous, boring, and dreadful. Kids especially dislike the idea when they have to learn it through the conventional way: sitting still in a classroom setting and just absorbing information. Learning through interaction and play fascinates them. If you want your kids to learn or even master a second language, you need to partake in it by choosing fun learning methods and devices for them. Creating a fun atmosphere where your kids can learn is an important aspect to make sure your kids will enjoy the learning process.
The games discussed below are perfect to be used at a classroom setting and also at home.
The Flash Cards
Keep in mind that we are dealing with kids learners, so it is important to start from the basics and focus on simple concepts. Utilizing flash cards as a learning tool is a great method to introduce simple words or phrases, such as greetings. Flash cards with attractive visuals will help kids to stay engaged learning.
Choose the thematic flashcards to keep the learning process simple for kids. It will be even better if you can find flash cards with relevant visuals that will help kids to make association of the word or term to aid in memorization. You can even take learning simple words and phrases using flash card further by incorporating them into your daily conversation with your kids. Your kids have just learned Indonesian greetings? Great. Now every morning, you can say: “Selamat pagi” to your kids, and before they go to bed at night: “Selamat malam”.
Has your kids learned everyday objects such as ‘pintu’ or ‘apel’ in Indonesian? Great! Again, incorporate the vocabulary into your sentences whenever possible. Say something like, “Please eat apel” or “Open pintu” – do not worry so much about saying a full sentence in the targeted language. Slowly but surely you can progress into saying full sentences in Indonesian to your kids.
You know what is the best part? You get to also learn new words alongside with your kids. The more often kids are exposed to a word or phrase or term, the more natural and hence the more effortless for them to learn.
Are you looking for flash cards to use to teach your kids Indonesian? We have a couple of recommendations here.
The Description Game
Would you like to take “learning using flash card” to another level? Play the description game! This game is perfect for older kids (or students with intermediate proficiency level) who have acquired a wider range of Indonesian vocabularies.
Utilizing the same set of flash cards you use to learn new words for beginner Indonesian students, put them into a stack, shuffle them and ask one of the kids to draw the cards. The person drawing the card should try to describe the word in Indonesian and the others should guess. So for example, if the card shows a picture of “mangga” (mango), instead of saying the word “mangga” right away, it can be described as “buah tropis dengan daging kuning dan punya rasa manis” (a tropical fruit with yellow flesh and has sweet flavor when ripen).
Want to make the game more exciting? If you have at least 6 people to participate, break into groups and time it. The group that can answer as many words in a least amount of time is the winner. To make it even more challenging, instead of using flashcards with pictures of objects on them, use flashcards that introduce concepts, for example: feelings, professions.
For Indonesian flash cards on feelings or professions, click here.
Card Guessing Game
Though still using cards as the main medium, card guessing game requires the cards to only have images. How this game works is: each person is given a specific time limit (for instance, 30 seconds) to draw as many cards as possible. At each draw, the person has to say the word in the target language corresponding to the image shown. For example if the image shows a table, then the correct answer will be ‘meja’ (which means table in Indonesian). If the player answers correctly, he/she can continue guessing as many cards as possible until the time is up.
When the time is up, the turn will move to another player’s. If the player says the answer wrongly, then he/she will lose the chance to continue despite still having the remaining time. The objective is to maximize the number of correct answers.
Image only flash card is very versatile to use for teaching any language, and is not limited to teaching Indonesian. Wondering where to buy versatile image only cards you can use to play language games? Click here.
Are you teaching Indonesian to English speakers or English to Indonesian speakers or both? Think Bahasa offers has a variety of flashcard packs with image only, Indonesian, English, Indonesian-English words. Check out here for a complete listing.
Word Jumble Race
Word jumble race game is highly recommended for older kids. It is a great game to introduce and practice grammar and word order in Indonesian. Indonesian language sentence structure follows this order SPOK: Subjek (Subject), Predikat (Verb), Objek (Noun), Keterangan (Adverb).
What’s great about this game is you can play this game in small, medium, large groups and even individually. We highly recommend this Indonesian word wall sets for you to play this Indonesian Word Jumble Race game. The objective of this game is to put sentences into the correct order. The winning team is the first team to have all sentences correctly ordered. With 30 sentences to choose from, you don’t have to utilize all the sentences included in this set. Pick only the ones you like and you think is suitable for your groups. You can even mix and match the words. With your creativity, the sky is the limit with variations of this game!
Indonesian Scrabble
Have you played Scrabble to form words in English? Great! That means you already know the rules of playing Scrabble. Chances are you may already have Scrabble at home or know someone who does.
Use Scrabble game to learn and teach Indonesian. In order to score points, using the alphabet tile to form Indonesian words. Scrabble is a word game that can be played by at least 2 players, so this game is also great to be played at home.
Keep a dictionary within reach for your kids (and even yourself) to refer to when stuck. The point is not really about winning the game, but is to learn new words and practice spelling as you are playing the game. If you are playing scrabble with people who have intermediate or advance proficiency in Indonesian, make the game more fun and challenging by requiring each player to form a sentence using the word they put on the Scrabble board.
Storytelling Game
Storytelling games are great because it also allows your kids to practice their listening skills. You can make the most out of storytelling game if you have an intermediate proficiency in Indonesian. There are so many variations to execute this storytelling approach for your kids. You can use everyday objects you find in your house, and then tell a story about it in your target language (in this case: Indonesian). If your kids are into drawing, you can draw characters as you narrate your story for your kids listening to you. Keep your story short under 5 minutes if your kids are still very young.
If you have older kids, take advantage of their ability being able to hold a two-ways communication. Since they can to absorb information and create a response in return. Engage them in a discussion, ask about what they think, allow them to partake in the storytelling themselves using vocabularies or phrases they already know.
If you don’t speak Indonesian, you can still incorporate this storytelling game approach into your kids’ learning. Play a narrated storytelling video (it can be a short cartoon, music video, animation) in Indonesian and let your kids watch it.
Need some recommendations for narrated storytelling or simply Indonesian learning videos? Click here.
Final Words
As you can see, the recommended games listed here can be conducted by someone who has no or little knowledge of Indonesian. As you are teaching Indonesian to your kids, you can learn at the same time. Your ‘investment cost’ to conduct or to mediate these fun games for teaching and learning Indonesian is very affordably priced (all under $10), while the outcome you and your kids will get from learning the language surely will last a lifetime.
Kids are amazing learners. Exposing them to Indonesian with various different methods will help them effortlessly learn the target language. Any other game you love to use to teach / learn Indonesian? Share with us in the comments below.
