Learning Indonesia can be boring for kids if you just let the kids learn from books. If you are a teacher, then you need to find the best and the most fun ways on how to make them excited to learn Bahasa Indonesia. Teaching kids requires a different approach as compared to teaching adults. Kids prefer to learn while they are playing.
In fact, there are some effective ways on how to make learning Indonesian fun for kids. Here are a few ways to teach kids learning Bahasa Indonesia.
- Role playing techniques
Teachers can apply this learning by doing approach to kids when learning Bahasa Indonesia. First of all, get a group of students, and pick a topic. For instance you can teach kids about greetings and let them take turn to play a role (the person who greets first or the person being greeted). By doing the role themselves and watching their friends doing the roles, it will allow the language concept to stick to your students’ mind while getting them not feeling intimidated by jumping straight into practical conversational practice as they are also seeing their friends are doing it with them.
- Repetition
There are many ways for you to use repetition for kids. Repetition is great when it comes to introducing new vocabulary words. The technique we highly recommend is using flashcards with attractive and colorful visuals. Consistency is key when it comes to learning, get your kids to learn 2-3 new words a day, starting with the topic that is practical (for instance names of the days) or topic your kids are most likely interested in (name of toys or animals). Integrate the learning process into your everyday conversation, i.e. by asking your kids: do you want to eat pisang (banana) ? You may not a native speaker of Indonesian yourself, so rest assured that even by introducing a few words, it could be a great start to nurture your kids’ love of learning language.
- Game Techniques
Take your kids’ learning process further and make it even more exciting by challenging what they’ve learn with doing some games. This could be a great approach if you have more than 1 kid learning Indonesian, or if the other family member speaks Indonesian, or if your kid has a friend who’s also learning Indonesian. You can do some trivia questions from time to time before dinner / lunch. Try “Who Wants to be Millionaire” game in which you can prepare some questions in Bahasa Indonesia and let the kids answer the multiple choices answers.
- Learn with songs
Song is a one of the most effective ways to teach your child Indonesian. Many children songs are repetitive in nature, and that is a great approach to let your children learning new words and also the correct ways to pronounce the words. Not to mention there are many Indonesian children songs available on the internet and even Indonesian children song videos on Youtube that are completed with engaging visuals. Many of those songs are usually upbeat, you can even encourage your kids to have fun while learning new vocabulary words by dancing to the songs. One of Indonesian nursery songs that is great to introduce to kids as a start is: “Kepala, pundak, lutut, kaki” (great to introduce body parts in Indonesian language). While listening and singing to the song, encourage your kid to also point on the body part as mentioned in the song.
If you want to make the learning process of Bahasa Indonesia more fun, you cannot only try the game technique, but you can also teach Bahasa Indonesia for kids with songs. All you need to prepare is some kids Indonesia songs, and then you can play the song in front of the kids. Then, you can write the lyrics and ask them to read the lyrics by singing. This teaching technique is very effective to make the kids become more fluent in speaking Bahasa Indonesia words. But, you should not give them a difficult song because they may not understand it.
- Outdoor Learning
Get your kids to learn Indonesian in a new environment. Kids may be feeling bored to learn Bahasa Indonesia indoor all the time. So, it is not a bad idea to bring them outside. You can teach the kids to learn Bahasa Indonesia words in the park. They can learn everything around them. You can teach about nature in Bahasa Indonesia in order to increase their vocabulary range. For instance, you can show them a tree and mention it in Bahasa Indonesia: pohon. You can also show them a leaf and say “daun” in Bahasa Indonesia. You can show everything that they can see directly so they can memorize it easily. There are really many ways to make learning fun for kids! Ways that at the same time are very easy to be integrated into your kids’ daily lives.
- Use popular media
Use popular media (comic) or screen time (cartoon show) of their favorites to your advantage. Allow your kids to consume those entertaining contents, but in Indonesian, whether by having Indonesian voiceover (audio) or subtitle (text). Engaging in activities that your kids loves will definitely make their language learning even more enjoyable.
7. Find Indonesian friends for your kids
Do you have an Indonesian friend? If you do, or if you know one of your friends does, ask if he/she has a child who’s around your children’s age. Schedule a play time together for your children and their new Indonesian friends. Another alternative is to find Indonesian friends for your kids in childcare. Your kids will be motivated to learn Indonesian if they know they can use what they learn in practice with someone they like to hang out with.
8. Get a pen pal from Indonesia
Let your kids learn to put the simple phrases they learn into practice! Some websites such as (www.mylanguageexchange.com) and (www.globalpenfriends.com) are a great way to start to find a pen pal for your kids. If you live in Australia, ask about The BRIDGE programme through the Asia Education Foundation in your kids’ school. The BRIDGE program is a great way to go about forming a partner School relationship, and often times they’d have a pen pal program with a school in Indonesia.
Do you have any other approach you’ve tried with your kids that they love? Share with us in the comments below.
