An Educational Spanish Kids Show That You Need To See!
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Are there benefits to watching a show in a foreign language?
You and your child won’t become fluent from watching a show in Spanish, but you can certainly get some benefit from it!
Hearing a native speaker:
If no one in your house is a native speaker of Spanish, then Spanish audio from shows and movies can be a great way to expose them to it.
As your child learns Spanish, it is important that thy hear it spoken fluently, by native speakers and from a variety of sources.
Hearing native Spanish will build their awareness of the language and also help them to assimilate the words and phrases that they’ve been hearing from other contexts.
Increasing Engagement:
It is important that young children learning a second language see the language spoken across a variety of settings.
Awareness that other people speak the language and that it can help them understand things like, a new show, increase their interest in learning it and their engagement with it overall.
By watching a show in Spanish with your child, you can provide more motivation for their second language learning!
Are you looking for cartoons in Spanish? Check out this post about our favorite Spanish cartoon on Netflix!
Sneak More Spanish Into Your Day With This Adorable Show
Why watching informational shows is important:
Being truly bilingual means that a person has a strong vocabulary to express themselves in both of their languages. One way to develop your child’s Spanish vocabulary is to expose them to informational shows instead of just cartoons.
Listening to an informational show or documentary is going to provide the context and visual support that your child needs to assimilate new words into their vocabulary.
One show that we like is “If I Were An Animal…” on Netflix. This beautifully made nature series explores the lives and interactions of various animals and is narrated by two children.
Here’s what I like about “If I Were An Animal…”:
Short Episodes
One of the reasons that I like this show is the short episodes. All of the benefits of Spanish language learning are packed into one 20 minutes episode and each episode is further divided into four mini episodes of about 5 minutes.
The short episodes are great for our family because of how versatile they can be in making Spanish language happen during the day.
Stuck in line at the doctor’s office? = 5 minute Spanish show! Using TV as a reward for something? = 5 minutes Spanish show!
Story Line:
For a show to really benefit your child’s second language acquisition there needs to be strong engagement.
Each mini episode artfully tells a story of how these animals live and interact with each other. One episode that we like, “If I Were A Swan” takes viewers on a 5 minute journey of three baby swans that are growing up and learning to fly but one of the babies is reluctant and doesn’t learn as fast as the others.
Building a story line for engagement and context but with higher level vocabulary and native speaking makes for a strong language learning combination.
Child Narration:
Shows can increase interest in a second language because they develop your child’s awareness of other people speaking that language.
This show is narrated by two children, a girl and a boy, who alternate between describing the action and talking back and forth between each other. Hearing other children speaking Spanish can be a huge motivating factor for your child.
Not only will they be able to hear native Spanish but they’ll be able to hear that other children are also fluent in Spanish and they’ll be able to enjoy their back and forth banter.
For more Spanish resources for your kid, check out this collection!
Bilingual Kid Kids: Spanish Resources for Ages 7-12
Watching a show in Spanish is a great way to supplement your child’s second language learning. Hearing native Spanish from a variety of different speakers will help to increase your child’s awareness of the natural rhythms of the language and help to provide a context for the language that they’ve been learning. This show’s cute storyline and child friendly narration can be a great resource for you and your family!
Happy Learning!
If you have any show suggestions, leave them for me in the comments – I’d love to hear them!
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