Developing and maintaining English in a non Anglophone country

[ViveLesVacances]

I am currently living in France with French DH and our 4 DC, aged 11, 7, 5 and nearly 1 year old.

We do OPOL, but having grown up in France their whole lives, our DC have much better written French than English. We've always had English tutoring to give formal lessons, but school days are long in France and they have a lot of homework to be getting through, without the added burden of extra English on top.

For those of you who live outside of an English speaking country, how well do your DC speak English? And how do you cultivate a decent level?

Following this to see what ideas are offered! Am also in France with a French DH and doing OPOL with our toddler. We're planning on sending her to an English-language school so we'll probably have the same issue as you but the other way round!

Do your kids read much in English? That's a good way for them to absorb correct form.

My friend's DH speaks Spanish, they live in the UK with their DC. Initially they did OPOL but it simply wasn't enough Spanish as the DH worked FT so the DC's exposure to Spanish wasn't really enough to have the level of impact they wanted.

After a bit of research, they decided to only speak Spanish as a family / at home. My friend was worried that her non-native Spanish would encourage bad accent/habits but the research suggested that it was better than the minimal Spanish the kids got from OPOL.

So to cut a long story short, can you all speak English at home to reinforce/practice more?

Other than that, I guess English tv, games, music? See what kind of work or books British kids are doing and order off Amazon. Or see if there's a local English tutor?

My children have great writen English because they get additional English homework they hate it and think I'm the worst parent on the planet. This requires a good relationship with the school. I either tweek online reading comprehension tests or just make them up and email them to the school secretary once a week for her to print off and give to their English teachers. If they don't do them then they get "didn't do homework" on their records. A case of you have to be cruel to be kind. There's a massive amount of free reading comprehension questions online or worksheets for home schoolers in the uk and other countries. For example I take an 11 plus exam and break it down into three or four 30 minute reading comp. sheets for both my 11 and 14 year old. I get key stage reading comprehension sheets for the 7 year old. They're millions of free ones online. They hate me but I've pointed out that if we ever move or if they want to study in an English speaking country then not doing this is the same as slamming a door in their faces, plus their ESL homework takes them less than 10 minutes while their classmates will need much longer and the equivilent to them doing the work I set, so they're not really doing anything extra.

We also have lots of books, I get them in charity shops when I'm in the uk or get friends and family to give books for gifts/bring them when they come. If they don't have a worksheet for the week they can pick a book and read it.

We are in France, DH is French, both D.C. born in France and have never lived in an English speaking country.

We have enrolled them in English school so they do reading and writing in English (on Wednesdays) with homework on top.

All media is in English.

We used to bribe them to read in English, but now they have "got it" and enjoy reading in English.

We have always been strict about them speaking the appropriate language to the right parent. I know some parents take the "if they are expressing themselves, they should not be reprimanded for speaking in the 'wrong' language" road but we never have.

Every holiday is in the U.K. This means that the D.C. are not very well travelled...but that's not a problem in France where most kids spend their holidays with grandparents / holiday homes in Brittany etc and that is the price we have chosen to pay.

In Montréal so not quite the same French language intensity as in France but DS (3.5) goes to daycare in French and obviously DH speaks only French to him.

I only speak English to him. English cartoons only, Peppa pig, Thomas etc, so with an English accent, not much American stuff but occasionally.

English songs. English books. I encourage him to socialise with English speakers. Holidays in the UK. My family come here and obviously only speak English to him.

His English and French are pretty good for a 3 year old.

But I correct him if he makes even a slight error : much more than I would if we were in the UK, probably to the point that it's annoying! For example, DS might say 'I was at the supermarket and I buy bread and milk'. I'd correct him and say 'You bought bread and milk, bought bread and milk' with stress on the 'bought' .

DH does the same but with the gender etc.