Sophisticated English for 4yo?

[Ofelia15]

Good afternoon! I really need your help please. I will be sitting my kid for independent schools admissions in a year time, and one of the main requirements is a broad vocabulary and rather sophisticated English. Could someone please define the meaning of "sophisticated English" in relation to a 4yo kid, and how can I make her sound more sophisticated? I'm not English and wasn't born in UK, so really need advise from native speakers and language specialists. Thank you very much for all your comments!

For 'sophisticated' English it might be best to try older children's books. They are less likely to have simplified language than modern ones. Beatrix Potters are good, but stick with the shorter ones. I remember well my younger DD at about that age saying, when I had annoyed her, " Mummy, I am affronted"

I'm with Titchy. Your DC can go anywhere until 7 and can try out for 7+ schools then. I have bilingual DNs and their English was awful, and for one non-existent when they started reception. It had all levelled out by age 7 though as they speak English all day at school. Being able to speak to her Russian relations is more important than what school she goes to when she is 4.

Ofelia is right in this case when she says that although many of the girls at the schools she's talking about speak other languages at home, they all speak English fluently. If she wants her daughter to have as much chance as the girls who have fluent English, her daughters English has to be near perfect. This may sound harsh but it's just what you're up against at these top schools.

What tv does she watch? I would go for cbbc programming like Deadly60, Junior BakeOff, Junior Masterchef etc

I think that a good way to appear sophisticated is to confidentally talk about a topic. Is there a subject she is interested in?

enderwoman, she's only 2.5 now, so she doen't watch any TV shows as such. I think those shows you have mentioned were designed for slightly older kids, but I will take a note of it and check if she can watch it now. At the moment she's obessed with Peppa Pig, and I like this series too because of it's simple language, lots of explanations of various things (eg. who is vet, what is recycling, shadow, etc.) - I think it's a good base for her now, from which she can move on to something more complex. She also watches nursery rhymes and various educational videos.
She doesn't have any particular subjects yet too, and talks about everything. Also you never know what she might be asked to talk about at these schools' assessments.
She will be only 3.5 at the time of the assessment, which is a disadvantage, as some kids will be almost a whole year older than her, and it does make a huge difference. But I'm also aware these schools tend to give little credits to younger kids and expect a bit less from spring/summer borns.
Would you be able to recommend any TV shows for 2-3yo? She's happy to read more advanced books, but not so keen on older kids shows.

Topsy and Tim and Katie Morag on CBeebies are both adaptations of books so you can reinforce one with the other.

2.5 !!!

Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom is made by the makers of Peppa Pig.

My children also enjoyed Dora and Go Diego Go (are American accents a problem?)

A good book for encouraging conversation was You Choose www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0552547085/ref=pdawsim1411?ie=UTF8&dpID=61UPyVw%2BuRL&dpSrc=sims&preST=ACUL115SR101%2C115&refRID=0HNJCS0AGKHWKHPC4YGN]]

I would agree, don't stop her Russian!
Reading older books to her (I.e. written some time ago, not aimed at older age group) will help, as English in children's books had become much simpler over the last fifty years.
Enid Blyton is a good starting point, and there are several aimed at younger children. Will think of some suggestions later.
Milly Molly Mandy is good for that age too. And Dorothy Edwards' My Naughty Little Sister books.

Oh no, I'm not stopping her Russian. I just want to bring both languages on the same level. Even though I now speak with her in English for most of the time, my husband still speaks to her in Russian only. Also her grandparents visit quite often . So she won't loose Russian. I do realise the importance of the native language.

Thank you again for all suggestions and recommendations - I'm making a list here :)

Don't forget audio books! On iTunes & Amazon you can listen to an excerpt so you can choose books narrated by people speaking with an appropriate accent (i.e. not American).

Also make sure you include lots of traditional nursery rhymes & songs, which you can also get on CDs & digitally. Audio versions are a boon as they can be played at times when you can't be reading & there is such a wide choice now.

When you buy picture books see if there's a version with a cd - lots of the popular picture books have such versions (book + cd audio). Best of luck

Speak mother tongue at home. Improve second language through mixing with native English speakers informally as much as possible through activities, games, music, DVDs and play

Reading to her, audio stories with poetry and things like David Attenborough programmes are good

Ofelia, some of the old 4+ threads on here can be scary, but most focus only on NCLS and HABS. I have had 2 DC pass 4+ exams at another, very well regarded school, and I think the requirements were rather gentler. While their language skills were good for their age at the time of the assessments, I don't think their English was particularly "sophisticated".
I did read a lot to them, as we all enjoyed it, but we read a wide variety of age appropriate picture books, rather than books aimed at older children. If you haven't discovered it yet, look at the book collections on bookpeople, many would be useful. For example, for some good non-fiction, Bookpeople do a great collection called "wonderwise" which will introduce new vocabulary in an entertaining way.

Enderwoman, You Choose was very popular in our house too! And would work in any language really.

Language skills usually show huge development between 2.5 and 3.5, and I second the views of the posters above that interaction with native English speakers is the best way to achieve this, for example at nursery. There is also, I believe, quite a bit of research which shows that for very young children, watching tv does not improve foreign language skills at all.

Thank you so much everyone!!! I keep writing all your suggestions down.

AprilLady, I think you're right when you say the toughest assessments are at NLCS and Habbs, as these two are at the top of the wish list for all prospective parents looking for a good independent school for their daughter. We will be sending applications to both too, but also to few other ones in hope our DD will get a place at least in one good school.

Re: "watching tv does not improve foreign language skills at all" - I would disagree here with you, sorry. My daughter has picked up lots of words from Peppa Pig since she started watching it few weeks ago, and she even tries to sing some songs from there too. But I agree that sticking to TV only is not a good thing as it significantly deprives a kid from the live interaction, which will affect the speech development in the end. So she watches some TV, but I also try to speak to her as much as possible (though she doesn't understand me well at the moment) and read her books. Will keep my fingers crossed!

In the meantime I'm all in my ears for any other specific recommendations :)

Huge thank you to all of you again!!!

It sounds as if you haven't registered her yet. Are you sure they are all still accepting them rather than reserve list?

LIZS, sorry, I didn't understand your question... I haven't registered her yet as 99% of these top schools open their registration for Sept'17 entry around May'16.

Watching TV in a foreign language when that's all the exposure or nearly all the exposure they are getting will not help them acquire that language. But for children already immersed in a language, high quality TV programmes can be helpful to reinforce vocab and listening skills.

OP - I would be much more worried about maintaining a minority language like Russian in the UK than I would be getting your DD to acquire sophisticated English.

Assuming no special needs and that you are in the UK long term, your child will acquire English, there's no question. But keeping up her Russian could be a challenge.

I'm convinced DDs clear speech from the age of 2 was totally due to constant Radio 4. Not to everyone's taste however

Rather than television, it might be a good idea to have Radio 4 or 3 on at home, or perhaps the World Service.
Just watch out for news broadcasts, as they can be a little too detailed for small children to be listening to them. And sometimes the 6:30pm comedies use unsuitable words for children too ('bollocks', 'bugger' etc )

I think what helps children's language development most is having well-informed, articulate carers that speak a lot, and involve them in discussion.

May I also recommend some archetypal British children books for her age group?
(you can find them in any book shop, lots of supermarkets, or local library- that way you can see which she likes before buying)

Allan Ahlberg:
Peepo
Each Peach Pear Plum
Funny Bones
The Jolly Postman

Judith Kerr:
The Tiger Who Came to Tea
Mog

Shirley Hughes:
Rhymes for Annie Rose
Dogger
Alfie (series of books)

Julia Donaldson:
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo's Child
Charlie Cook's Favourite Book
The Snail and The Whale
Tiddler

Lucy Cousins:
Hooray for Fish
Maisy (series about a mouse and her friends)

Not English, but gorgeous at this time of year:
Astrid Lindgren's The Tomten

Also not British, technically,
Lynley Dodd's Hairy MacLary series and Slinky Malinki series.
They're very good for developing a sense of rhythm and rhyme in english.

Young children love to watch the same TV programmes and read the same books over and over again (annoyingly so) - they can't help but pick up the vocabulary. I think studies have shown that too much TV damages speech development in children under 2 - good quality TV is fine for 3-5 year olds. Try 'The Adventures of Paddington Bear' - several different TV series from the 1970s onwards and 'Charlie and Lola' (2005-2008) - both probably more suitable from age 3 though.