Dr. Seuss books have been helpful for me. I also found this game called Zing that has been loads of fun. I gave my students pocket dictionaries and have them look up the words and we start building a story. It helps them a lot. I put the link in to the game as it was surprisingly difficult to find anywhere else.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ZING-The-Bewitching-Storymaking-Board-Game-2006-Family-Fun-Creative-Learning-/402193160773

Context and repetition for vocabulary is essential to learning.

Stories and songs that provide context are far more meaningful than flashcards.

Write a story, then make accompanying cards. Dictate the story, or play audio of the story, and see if the learners can assemble shuffled cards about the story in the correct order. The learners don't have to produce the vocabulary, but recognize it in context to begin.

Known stories such as the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Momotaro, The Great Turnip, etc. present familiar context and vocabulary.

I made a "kamishibai", a series of picture cards of a story I wrote and illustrated myself. I presented the shuffled cards to the learners, and they listened and assembled the cards in the order of the story.

After, we did an activity in which learners quizzed each other on the vocabulary in the story. "What's this in Japanese?" and answered each other.

A good follow up activity for story telling is to have the learners quiz each other, trade cards, and then ask other learners.

Finally, have the learners retell the story in groups. Each learner retells one of the parts of the story illustrated on the cards.

I've done this as a story telling unit with elementary Grades 4-6 many times with great success and the learners like it.

For actions, I try to do TPR as much as possible. That’s very easy for things like run, eat, wake up, get dressed, etc.

For adjectives, I sometimes do TPR as well. Tall, short, old, etc can be done with way. I use flashcards in addition to concept check with a slap game or dash game.

For nouns? Realia. For young learners, most of which you’ll be teaching you can either find at home or at a 100 yen shop. I might keep the items in a box and have them pull out an item and say what it is. Or give them two boxes and a list of items. They need to ask “do you have a...?”

Bingo. Make your own bingo cards with images. Works for many adjectives, nouns, and verbs.

Gestures after choral drilling. I’ll do a gesture without speaking and they need to repeat the gesture but also say the word.

Slap games, running games, ball games. I sometimes put flash cards on the board and one kid has to throw a ball or plushy die at the board and the other kids need to say what it hit. I make it even more difficult by putting flashcards on the floor too, so they have to say the board card and the card the die landed on on the floor.

Songs are good for preschool and elementary school. But they might get bored after a while.

I’ve tried arts and crafts sometimes too. I have them make things and drill numbers, stationary vocab, and colors while they work on whatever it is I’m having them make.

I’ll usually just use flashcards to check their understanding (slap game / running game, bingo games) instead of drilling.

I use gestures as much as possible. You can do “I have a big nose” entirely with gestures and have them copy you. Just be sure to reward the kids who do the gestures with you so others will too and they’ll continue to do them. And be consistent. Make sure you don’t mix up gestures for things like “have, want, give”

More abstract things like “this, that, these, those, my, and yours” can also just be done with realia and gestures.

Chants and songs make them remember without thinking too much. Games make them want to remember.

Depends on the type of words. If abstract nouns, then flashcards or videos are the best way to introduce them. Verbs can be acted out or mimed. Realia, TPR commands, miming, acting out are all efficient techniques with young learners. The most important thing is to dramatize the delivery to make an impact.

You do have to repeat a lot and constantly build up their vocabulary. You do meet infrequently since children get sick a lot.

Age 3-5 - meeting once or twice a month

My schedule for a 30-60 minute lesson

Introduction - Good morning. How are you and so on Introduction and review of feelings - i am ~ statements

5 minute brain break - game, dance, English video

Review old words, then introduce new words or phase [no more than 2 phases, roughly 10 to 15 new words]

Finish with Game with new words, then reintroduce old words. Physical games tend to work the best.

It works pretty well, and they retain key words and phases.

Just got understand that not every kid will be interested. Most japanese parents do care about the classes and are willing to practice at home. If you can provide free resources or low cost.

My main problem has been only teaching them once a week. By the time I see them again next they’ve forgotten everything we did last week and we just have to start over again. Every bloody week. Basic vocab and questions. The ones who are good are clearly having classes elsewhere as well. Sorry, not particularly helpful.

I try to review everything we've learned up until that point every lesson. So a lot of repetition I guess. The first time I teach them vocab I make sure they know what it means by asking for the Japanese or asking the JP staff to explain it.

1 trick that works well is to use relatable things to maximize conversation and tricking the students.

Example: In a class of Kindergarten kids we teach them foods and then ask if the like the food and they have to individually answer yes, I do or no, I don't. In the curriculum we are to ask that question about food. So you can do that. However after them answering 2 or 3 times about the food they will start to get tired. If this conversation is supposed to happen for 3 more weeks it's going to be hard. So normally what I'll do is make sure I complete what the curriculum is asking and then ask about real world things or characters or something that the kids would like or find funny. That way you can continue the conversation and it's lots of fun and kids will answer. If they always say yes. Ask them if they like Nato Juice. Typically that will get a quick response of no.

Just accomplish the mission and use that conversation about anything in the world because you can use that phrase on anything. Not just foods.

I used to use flashcards with young kids. Especially pre-elementary, I would just rifle through a stack of them and those kids picked it up like crazy, even though they were only coming once or twice a week. I found the rhythm and timing were important though. Too slow and they lose interest. Have them repeat after you at a quick, steady pace. After a few rounds (ie after a few weeks of reviewing the same cards) you can eventually start quizing them.

Check out the Usborne First Thousand Words in Latin. They're a bit young for grammar, but you can get started with some basic vocabulary for many words and concepts that they already know in their native tongue. It's full of pictures and contextual scenes.

My experience is really limited, but I’ve known elementary school Latin teachers and did a demo lesson with young kids a few times—and I spend a lot of time with my 2 yo:

I would say that LLPSI isn’t really age appropriate for her young, but that just talking in Latin with deliberate practice type games is fine. I would just do the kind of talking that you would normally do with a toddler but in Latin and see what happens.

I started with mine from the very start, so you are in a slightly different position, still I'd imagine the method would be very much the same.

1. To the best of your ability, speak Latin with them as much as possible.
   1. I opted to start from birth and speak nothing but Latin with my kiddo. This isn't doable for all and I had several years of spoken Latin under my belt.
2. Don't worry about being able to say a lot at first; say what you can.
   1. Even with my experience, I ended up using the same phrases over and over again. In part because I had parent brain, but also because there isn't a lot to say to an infant. I talked a lot about diapers, sleep, and basic emotions for a while. As I gained confidence I started switching things by un-sheltering the grammar, i.e. I used the same vocabulary but used them in new ways. Of course in time as it was necessary, new vocabulary and phrases naturally entered the scene.
3. Utilize your resources, there are not as many as we might hope for, but there are quite a number.
   1. Every day now we speak, read, watch, sing, and listen to Latin. There are a number of children's books translated into Latin, songs written & translated into Latin, as well as podcasts, youtube videos, etc.
   2. List of translations
   3. Youtube (for kids): Found in Antiquity, Divus Magister Craft, Coquamus, GrecoLatino Vivo, ScorpioMartianus, Life in Latin (my own), Magister Talley, Magister Marcus, Magistra Parmasan Cheese, etc.
   4. Songs: Carmina Per Se Illustrata (CD), Vale Italia (CD), Mater Anserina (Book), Latine Cantemus (Book), Carmina Popularia (CD), Elvis in Latin (CD)
   5. Podcasts: Quid Est, Quomodo Dicitur, Satura Lanx, Sermones Raedarii, Secunda Mensa, Latinitas Animi Causa, etc.

Ut mihi videtur, non est certus annorum numerus, quo melius aptiusque Latinarum litterarum studium ineatur. Verum potius, quo maturius puer sermone Latino imbutus erit, eo facilius ad summam notitiam perget.

Verum enim vero ego puerulos minime linguam docere oportere censeo, sed potius usu quotidiano nullaque adhibita doctrina sermoni assuefacere. Hoc enim mihi videtur prudentissime scripsisse Augustinus:

>[Scribit se graecam linguam puer odisse nulloque modo discere voluisse, Latinam vero linguam multo cum gaudio coluisse. Hic eius rei causas profert:]. nam et latina aliquando infans utique nulla noveram, et tamen advertendo didici sine ullo metu atque cruciatu, inter etiam blandimenta nutricum et ioca arridentium et laetitias alludentium. didici vero illa sine poenali onere urgentium, cum me urgeret cor meum ad parienda concepta sua, id quod non esset, nisi aliqua verba didicissem non a docentibus, sed a loquentibus, in quorum et ego auribus parturiebam quidquid sentiebam. hinc satis elucet maiorem habere vim ad discenda ista liberam curiositatem quam meticulosam necessitatem.

Itaque conare Latine cum tuis loqui de rebus variis genereque diversis, etsi minimi momenti. Atque eos redde sermoni assuefactos nullo adhibito magisterio, nulla ferula, nulla doctrina, nullo praecepto. Nec tam magni momenti est te rectissime loqui, nam tu simul disces et eo maturius proficies. Te ita loquentem audient atque imitabuntur, teque quotidie sermonis usu gaudentem ludentemque videbunt ita, ut linguam Latinam non quasi scholasticum exercitium, sed potius ludum domesticum habeant.

Haec igitur mea sententia est: quae Anglice dicere volueris, Latine dic. Et si tui Latine respondere voluerint, tibi respondebunt, sin aliter eos non coges, sed potius expectabis dum voluerint (quod procul dubio aliquando accidet, verum nulla festinatione opus est). Hoc satis est ad linguae consuetudinem communicandam minimeque odiosam reddendam.

The best method is speaking to your children in 3-4 word sentences to build up a core vocabulary of 500-1000 words over time. you have to correct them a lot though, as you would speaking to them in your native language.

uidesne uirum illum? - Video.

siste, Maria, attende! caue uehiculum - gratias, mama, non uidi.

Quid ēsse uelis uesperi? - nescio quid, non interest; nescio an pisces uel colum.

So I mainly teach higher levels, but I have a google document that students can edit and add any words to they like. They have to tell me that they're adding words, just so I can talk about it and clarify.

Every day, they have to write a sentence with the new words and then show me the next morning. They then turn them in to banana sentences. For example, we're learning the word cat. "I have a very lovely banana. She's so sweet and miaows loudly. I'll be a crazy banana lady if my fiance would let me" and guess what banana is in small groups.

After they've shown me the sentences, we stick good examples on the vocabulary list. I only touch it to tidy it up, correct spelling and grammar.

On Fridays, I print the vocab list. I get them to tick if they know it, cross if they don't and question mark if they're not sure. Like they know what it means by they don't know how to use it.

We then play a few quizlet games.

I tend to do the weeks topic vocabulary on a tuesday, so they spend the whole week using the same words over and over again. I also have previous week's vocab stuck on the walls.

Basically, recycle, recycle, recycle.

Actions, everyday verbs they will use, and can relate daily

Definitely flash cards. I'm not sure what age group your students are, but mine are absolutely loved through all age groups. You can play many games with them.

Flash cards games examples:

*Hot Seat - one player is on the "hot seat" and you lift a card behind him. Others have to describe what's on the card and the hot seat has to guess. If in a large group, split them in two groups, who guessed the word first, gets a point.

*Fly swatters - bunch of flash cards laying on the table, students standing around with fly swatters in their hands. You say the word and who swatters it first, gets the point. I never had a student who wouldn't have fun, including students over 60. Also with a few kids in class you can modify and have the cards all over the classroom.

*Guess what - you put the cards face down on the table (ideal amount is 15-20 cards, very depending on your student abilities. They also have to know the set of cards well) and create a kind of a game board (a snake? a loop?). Students get counters and throw a dice. They fall on a card and have to guess which card it is. Then the card is turned face up, everyone sees what's on it. If the student is right, they keep the card. If they are wrong, the card goes face down back on its place.

You can get very creative and figure out your own games too 💙

TPR and visual aides are what usually helps my students.

Gesture - physical action seems to trigger words in their brain, so you can just do the gesture and they will recall it. Eventually with enough recall they just know the word. Simon says is a good way to train them on gestures if they are younger.

Excellent points, and I wholeheartedly agree that it should be a fun and engaging process for the child. It needs to be fun, not a chore, as that can create a lasting impact on the child and their relationship with reading.

That's actually one of the goals in my latest app, StoryBeans. Parents and children create their own stories, and StoryBeans illustrates the pages as you go. By the end, you have your very own unique story to read through. Alonging with encouraging creativity, this fosters a healthy and engaging reading environment as the child practices on their own words.

We do a weekly vocabulary Blooket. It's cumulative throughout the year, so students are responsible for really learning the words. I teach Juniors, and they tell me how much they enjoy it all the time!

I've been teaching 6th grade ELA for 7 years now and I've done pretty much every vocabulary game and trick in the book haha

My go-to? GimKit. I love it so much I even paid for the premium version. It's so good at teaching vocabulary through repetition that I'll give students 5 words they've never seen or hard, play a 15 minute GimKit, and by the end the kids have the definitions memorized. I also use it for word part study like prefixes, root words, and suffixes. Seriously, it's a game changer. And there's so much variety in the games that it never gets boring.

I think vocabulary is so important and that was one thing I really wanted to make exciting in my classrooms so I get your desire to make it fun for them! I try to do a different type of vocabulary learning skill every few units so it’s not boring so at the start of the year, we’ll learn how to make vocabulary cards and highlight our vocabulary books for studying and as the year goes on, we’ll make a cards again and I’ll turn them into games like memory games or build a random story by selecting random vocab words with a partner Sometimes we do word walls depending on your age range and creativity level they could do this on paper or digitally where they’re assigned a vocab board and they have to draw a picture associated to it and write a sentence and then they show it off to the class. Other things are vocab bees, where like spelling bees we stand up, but they take the definition or antonym and synonym and they always think it’s fun cause there’s always a winner and they get a little prize like a lollipop or something. I try not to use my technology to do vocab studying just cause I feel like kids learn vocab, better off paper and pen, but you definitely can also play game kit or other games like that vocab four squares are always a big hit. I substitute them sometimes as unit tests instead of giving them a vocab testyou’ll find something that works!

I teach high school but one thing I’ve done for years that my students always love is Password; I’ve been using the same janky PowerPoint I got somewhere online for over a decade and it has a little built in timer clock and just a space to write a word in a large font. I divide the class in half, have someone keep score, and they take turns coming up to the board with their back to it and their side of the room gives them clues until they say the word or the time runs out. It works best if there is a set of vocab words or literary devices they know really well already, especially if they have a handout to refer to for help with clues.

You could write vocab words on note cards and write synonyms/ antonyms on other note cards (or fill in the blank sentences), then pass them out giving one card to each student and then have them walk around the room and find their synonym/ antonym partner. Of course, the success of this activity will depend on planning/ management on your part as well as behavior and maturity level of your class.

repetition is a big one for sure. And yeah it's exhausting lol.

This is not exactly a learnable skill, nor do I necessarily think everyone needs to do it, but it is an arrow in my particular quiver that has been quite useful: meet them at their level and engage their sense of humor. Older kids may have other reasons to be in English classes that make them good students, and you can present them with a world of art and media that is often not comparable in their native language (America is going through our troubles right now lol/cry but we make a lot of books, movies, TV, video games, etc.). But little kids can be engaged with abject, egoless silliness, which demonstrates not only a level of mastery that can satisfy them, but they're little kids, they just want to be weirdos and sillybillies.

On the academic side of things I'm a big fan of rote repetition and copying, a major shift from my personality above. Motor skills, phonics, and memorization are huge gates to the effectiveness of their learning at all levels, but especially early when these skills are obviously less developed, but also more difficult to communicate their importance. Little kids don't want to copy word after word, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph. But it about, as the tech wizkids say, failing faster. If it takes you an hour to write a short paragraph (good or bad) then that is the limit on what I can provide instruction on, feedback on, help in crafting, etc. and if you can bang out a few shitty sentences in a few minutes then we have material to work with all the quicker and start actually working.

To which, I spend a lot of time focusing on written sentences and structures, how to rephrase a question on a worksheet or test into a sentence by rearranging and replacing the question words with your answer, stuff that is dry and academic but it removes guesswork and creative labor from practicing their language ability. It's not (unless it is sometimes) creative writing class, get your creatively bereft sentences on the paper ASAP and a lot of blocks start to fall into place.

Total physical response

Repetition is huuuuuge. I genuinely taught almost the exact same lesson for nearly a year, just with different words depending on the topic - the TAs hated me lol but those kids made amazing progress. Out of about 30 students I don't think any of them scored less than 80% on their final test, apart from one who never came to class.

Also, doesn't sound like this applies in your case but I think most teachers don't push VYLs hard enough in phonics. Most (not all) three year olds are perfectly capable of recognising letters and producing the sounds if they're actually taught to do so, but I know a lot of my colleagues skip phonics at the lowest levels because they think the students are still too young to be able to read at all. Make it a game just like you do with vocabulary and it's no harder to teach or less fun for the students.

Screen time (cartoons, songs) is a powerful motivator.

Cambridge has some junior programs and some free samples

Don't do it. Save yourself!

I don't know about courses but I'll tell you what works for me... A bit of structure from the first day. So at the start of every course I pick the names out of a hat (well online random name picker). That order is then the order of the classroom helpers. I do the same for all young learner levels.

You could make a poster with the names in order or just use something digital like an online whiteboard you can save (what I use). 

Then that helper is responsible at the start for asking "how are you?", gets them to express. The names have an emoji board with the feelings next to it. Also they can help with handing out books and any demonstrations/ flashcards etc. (they love it!).

Then a song or game (I usually ask the helper to decide). Ideally song or game that's related to the topic but I play it by ear. If they come in bouncing off the walls with energy then something to burn a bit of energy. Then that's the warm up done 10-15 mins of an hour class.

Then we start with the flashcards, books - the nitty gritty. Last 5-10 mins something like an online memory game or spot the difference works well as I correct the books and the slower ones finish. 

Always have a few games up your sleeve you can bring out on a moments notice if you find yourself with 5-10 minutes to burn and all finished. Something like the bomb game or a dice game (each number relates to an action, they roll individually and have to do their action until the end of the game)

My personal formula:

1. take classes with native speaker
2. read using a dictionary
3. write the new words in general sentences
4. take part to communities on social media/forums and try to intervene in the threads

It's all about time!

Every day, practise the target language in any way you can, such as using learning apps, listening to videos, reading local newspapers, and so on.

Try speaking to yourself in front of a mirror, or even better, record your voice. The more you use your target language, the easier it will be to recall it and converse in it. If you practise every day, your pronunciation and vocabulary will improve.

If you make a mistake, don't be afraid or embarrassed. Mistakes result in corrections, and corrections can result in better language fluency.

Maintain your dedication. It will not always be simple. There will be challenges along the way to fluency, but if you stick with it and push through the tough times, you will succeed.

Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Daily English Booster.

I just started back with Anki. Downloaded some premade decks and making a few of my own

I wish you can have the decks for organization (deck of “animals”) and have that come up during your TL session, but as it is, you have to study the decks separately, which is a massive hindrance, I believe

I’m not saying this is the best way, but is just what I’ve started doing

I don't. My approach is to keep reading/listening/watching and looking up words when I need to. Works well and I don't have to worry about reps in Anki.

I adhere to a rather controversial but progressive and effective way when learning new words. I never use flashcards, or make a huge list of words to memorize, because they are time consuming to make. It is very difficult to internalize their meanings and use them in real conversations afterwards through this method. I learn new words through context of long passages. I don't memorize words; I memorize and familiarize myself with sentences and passages. I highlight words that I am not familiar with in sentences or long articles in my textbook, and I constantly repeat reciting those sentences by memory day after day until I feel completely confident with using the words in real contexts. I also expose myself to a lot of input by reading and listening more articles and sentences, so that I hopefully bump into those words again in completely different contexts, that way I can augment the memory and knowledge of recently or previously learnt new words.