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!

Have you got space at home to host an English/ Australian aupair for a year. If someone native could spend 2/3 hours a day doing normal things with your daughter, she would be speaking English in no time. My son is bilingual and English was his dominant language until she 3. I thought he couldn't speak the minority language at all. All it took was 3 weeks full immersion into the other culture for the minority language to come up. He was 3 at the time.

I always though the hairy maclairy/slinky malinki books used particularly good vocabulary. Fond memories of DS aged about 18 months trying to say "globulous", at a stage where he didn't use more than one consonant per word.

Have you received this specific advice from the school?

DD is in the prep prep of a top 5 selective prep school and what she was "assessed" it was very relaxed. She has a speech delay and it wasn't an issue in the slightest.

whilst she was assessed

ProjectPerfect, when we visited top schools (like Habbs and NLCS), they said it was an absolute must a girl speaks English and is able to understand perfectly all instructions. They also advised to teach words like "enormous", "amazing", "excellent", etc, rather than just sticking with basic synonyms.
Girls also should be able to talk about various subjects. Considering that my DD's first language is not English, and she wasn't spoken much to in English until few weeks ago (forget about her talking in English), I'm not yet sure how relaxed it will be for her in a year time. But we will keep working on it :)

catkind You made me laugh :) My DD also likes complicated words :) You are not the first one to mention slinky malinki books, which makes me very curious - will check it online today. Thank you for your recommendation!

Your English is very good op.

Clavinova, I will try Paddington Bear with my DD - she likes her plush toy very much :), but Charlie and Lola is not to her taste (yet at least) as the cartoon is not nicely drawn, and my DD prefers more clear and well drawn images, so we might get back to it later, when she's more into the story rather than pictures

Holstein Huge thank you for the list!

originalmavis , thank you for your kind words, but, unfortunately, it will never be as good as of a native speaker. That's why I prefer reading books to my DD and watching cartoons with her :)

I had a similar issue with my DD as we live in France in a French speaking family (French DP and two French DSSs). I was the only person speaking English to DD on a daily basis when she was little and I was very determined to teach her good English.

I have a massive library of DVDs - even at 3, DD liked The Secret Garden or A Little Princess or Ballet Shoes - basically classic works of English children's literature in film format. The Angelina Ballerina DVDs also have "nice" spoken English. Audio books, CDs of children's nursery rhymes, Christmas Carols, musicals - it's all good!

What the old kids shows like Paddington, bagpuss, the clangers and Mr Ben? The English accents in these is quite 'proper' and the vocabulary very good m

I'd value the bilingual ability over and above any advantage a private primary education can offer. Any primary school worth paying for should also see it this way. If not, as others have said, it is quite possible to get into even the most prestigious of independent secondary schools from a state school.

IME and IMVHO there is something of a conflict of interest between high ability in the language of the environment and plurilingual skills in the early years. DC with very balanced plurilingual skills (which is the most desirable basis for developing high level plurilingual skills long term) at age 4/5 tend not to achieve as highly in the language of the environment as monolingual DC and are therefore at a competitive disadvantage for entrance to highly selective schools.

Some years ago, a Russian boy joined DS's boarding prep at seven without any English at all. He picked it up pretty well by Christmas (although he said it was horrid), passed CE at 13, and is now at school in Europe and fluent in three languages at 16. It would be almost impossible to tell that he doesn't speak English as mother tongue.

My DH switched languages at about 9 years old (basic English), got into a very competitive secondary school at 11 and has an English lit degree from a 'top' UK uni.

cressetmama and originalmavis, I'm not really worried about her English in the long run. It's her ability to talk at assessments that concerns me. Not sure where she would be with her English in a year time. We'll see...

Can she join some classes - art, music, dance etc so that she is usng English more outside of nursery?

originalmavis, I was thinking about it too - she's very sociable, and loves trying new activities. Will have to look for something after Xmas&NY holidays :)