Speaking comes from the sounds accumulated through listening.
Making a child speak before listening is like making someone cook without ingredients.
When their child begins learning English, many parents think of speaking first. This is because the image that first comes to mind of a child who is good at English is one who converses naturally with foreigners. But reversing the order leads to plenty of struggle with little to show for it. Speech does not begin with the mouth. It begins with the ears. What a child hears must accumulate before there is anything to say, and if the storehouse is empty, there is nothing to draw from.
Think back to how a child learned Korean, and the order becomes clear. After birth, the child spent quite a long time simply listening without speaking. During that period, the parents' words, everyday sounds, and repeated expressions accumulated little by little, and one day the first word emerged from that storehouse. No one asked the child to speak before listening or skipped listening because the child was late to speak. English is no different. The order is the same. The only difference is that children hear far less English than their first language, so that listening time must be created deliberately.
As listening accumulates, it builds three things. First, a connection between sounds and meanings. Before learning the written word apple, the child should first connect its sound with the fruit. Then, when learning the written word later, the child only has to attach it to a sound already known. Second, a sense of English rhythm and intonation. English has different stress and breathing patterns from Korean, so this sense is difficult to teach through explanation and develops only in proportion to how much a child hears. Third, material for speaking. Most sentences children produce are variations of sentences they have heard somewhere. The more sentences a child has heard, the more material there is to draw on, and children with more material can improve their speaking quickly even after just a few lessons.
The sentences children produce are
variations of sentences they have heard somewhere.
There is more than one kind of listening. Background listening, with audio playing in the background, and focused listening, while following the text with the eyes, have different roles. Background listening is exposure that familiarizes the ears with English sounds. The aim is to build up the amount without pressure, such as by playing songs or audio from familiar videos while getting ready for school or riding in the car. Focused listening is closer to learning that connects sounds, written words, and meanings. The child opens a book, listens to the audio, and follows the words with a finger or the eyes, so even a short session is intensive. Background listening alone can weaken the connection with written words, while focused listening alone can easily leave the total amount insufficient, so it is best to use both.
| Item | Background Listening | Focused Listening |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Exposure that familiarizes the ears with sounds | Connecting sounds, written words, and meanings |
| Method | In the background during play or travel | Following the audio while looking at the text |
| Materials | Songs, familiar videos, familiar stories | Books and audio suited to the child's level |
| Duration | No pressure even for longer periods | Briefly, around 10 minutes every day |
| Child's State | Relaxed; doing other things is fine | Seated and focused |
The principles for creating a listening environment are simple. First, choose materials that suit the child's level and interests. Listening continues when the child can at least roughly understand the content and likes the material enough to repeat it voluntarily. The song a child asks to hear for the twentieth time is better than content that adults consider good. Second, keep it brief and do it every day. Twenty minutes every day is more helpful for opening the ears than two hours crammed into the weekend. For more detail on why daily exposure matters, see the article on why daily learning is necessary. Third, connect what the child hears to speaking. If the child repeats even one or two sentences a day once they begin to understand them, listening turns into material for speaking noticeably faster.
Check Just Four Things
Sounds the child cannot understand at all are close to noise. Check whether the material provides clues for understanding the meaning, such as pictures, scenes, or a story the child already knows.
The power of listening comes from repetition. Even if it seems trivial to adults, material the child asks to hear again is often the best learning material.
Cramming listening into the weekend makes the ears repeatedly open and close. Set aside one time for listening every day without exception, however brief.
If it ends with listening alone, the material merely accumulates in the storehouse. Check whether the child finishes by repeating one sentence heard that day.