Language Learning · 6 min read
How to Use Bilingual Flashcards With Young Children
Flashcards have a bad reputation, and they deserve it when they are used as tests. Used as a game, next to a story, they are one of the fastest ways a small child collects words in a second language. Here is the method, and the free set.
Start with words that are already in the story
A word on a card is abstract. A word on a card that the child met an hour ago in a picture book is a friend. Choose cards that match the book you are reading this week: the animals in one story, the colours in another, the weather words from the cloud story. Read the book, then play with the five or six cards that appeared in it. The story gives the word a face and a feeling; the card gives it a moment of its own. That order, story first and card second, is the whole difference between a drill and a game.
Five games that take two minutes
Hide and name: place three cards face down and ask the child to find the dog, in the second language. Slap: say a word and see who touches the card first. Story line: lay four cards in a row and invent a sentence that uses all of them, in whichever language comes. Memory: two copies of each card, face down, matching pairs, saying the word in both languages on every turn. Wrong on purpose: point at the cat and say “el perro” and let the child correct you, loudly. Two minutes each. Stop while they still want more.
How many cards, how often
Five new cards a week is plenty for a three-year-old; eight to ten for a six-year-old. Keep last week’s cards in the game so old words get a turn beside new ones. Two minutes a day beats twenty minutes on Sunday, because young memory is built from many small returns, not from one long visit. If a word will not stick, it is usually because it has not appeared in a story yet. Find it a book.
Say it, do not test it
The quickest way to make a child hate flashcards is to ask “what is this?” and wait. Instead, say the word yourself, in both languages, every time, and let the child join in when they are ready. Some children repeat on the first day. Some listen for a month and then produce twenty words in an afternoon. Both are learning. Praise the joining in, never the accuracy, and never correct pronunciation in the first months. Accent is the last thing to arrive and the least important.
Making the cards part of the room
Cards that live in a drawer are not played with. Clip this week’s five to a string on the wall at child height. Stick the colour cards on the fridge next to the crayons. Put the animal cards in the bath, laminated or in a zip bag. When a card is in the child’s world, they will pick it up and say the word without an adult in the loop, and that unprompted moment is where the second language stops being a lesson and becomes theirs.
Using the free bilingual set
The printable set on this page pairs each picture with the word in English and Spanish, with a French version available, and is cut to a size small hands can hold. Print on card if you can, or laminate, because the cards will be chewed, dropped and taken to bed. Start with the animals, then the colours, then the feelings, matching each group to the Eva Gallo story it appears in. The set is free in exchange for your email, and you can unsubscribe after the download if you only wanted the cards.
Where the cards lead
After a few weeks the child will start to hear their card words inside new stories, and point, and say them before you do. That is the signal to retire those cards and print the next group. The words have moved from the card into the child. From there they show up at the dinner table, on walks, in the mixed sentences bilingual children make so easily. The flashcards were never the point. They were the bridge from a story to a language the child now carries with them.
What to do with a child who refuses the cards
Some children push the cards away on the first try, and that is information, not defiance. Put the cards down and read the story again. Try once more in a week, with three cards instead of six, and with the child holding them rather than you. If they still refuse, let the words live only in the book for now and come back to the cards at another age. Nothing is lost. The second language is being stored every time the story is read, and the cards will be waiting when the child is ready to play.