5 year old learning a new language

[learninganewlanguage]

Would really appreciate any advice on this. We are living abroad for 3 years, and dc has been going to the local school for about 6 months.

DC isn't picking up the local language. The only words she knows are words I have taught her (I am about 50 per cent fluent). The teacher either does not have the time or the inclination to help and tells me that because DC is very intelligent she should be fluent by now.

I have started teaching DC at home to supplement what she is (not) learning at school. I have taught DC quite a lot of maths and reading etc over the last 6 months to keep her up with what is happening in the UK, and DC learns really quickly and is ahead and loves it. However, with the language, she only remembers a new word for a few seconds and when another is introduced she forgets the first one.. She really seems to have huge problems with it. She also doesn't seem keen to concentrate on it which might be because she is finding it difficult. Should I just keep at it? On the face of it, it seems to be a "working time memory" problem, but she doesn't have the same problem when learning other things... she loves reading and picks up new words in English in a flash and never forgets them, and she has always been like that.

Thanks, if anyone can help.

" working time memory is in this context to do with not remembering something long enough to learn. I am worried because she doesn't have the same problem with maths, reading or other activities."

You say that she quickly learns new words in English. I wouldn't worry as there doesn't seem to be a learning difficulty.

What you need to do is increase her exposure to the language.

All the more reason for you to give her the stability of being able to communicate in her language at home. If I understand, you moved only 6 months ago. It's a huge upheaval for her. What you have to do is give her the opportunity to meet and play with French speaking children, put her in activities, not to change how you interact with her.

It is quite common. I know another couple of families having exactly this problem! Moved 6 months ago, child refusing to speak French. Another where the child refused to speak French at school (despite father's family being French!) and said she was going to learn Italian as that was the language the other "foreign" child in the class spoke!

I teach a language to kids in that age group.
The food news is she probably understands a lot more than you think but hasn't got the confidence to use it.

I second advice to immerse her in the New language. Sourround get with people who don't speak English (but don't be tempted to give up on speaking English with her).
Let her passively soak up the language (music, tv,story...) and build her active vocabulary in very small steps. Instead of teaching and having her repeat loads of words and phrases, limit the amount of phrases. Maybe see a goal with her to learn one new phrase per day.

Feel free to message me directly, if you want a little more in depth advice.

It would be very useful btw if you could arrange for and adult who will only speak to get in French in a regular basis.
A nanny, a tutor or a regular babysitter might really help.

I'm curious which country and city it is?