It’s never too early to introduce children to foreign language.
Even if you’re not proficient in a foreign language yourself, you can always learn alongside your children or students.
Here are 5 books to expose your preschoolers to foreign language. These are perfect for an “around the world” theme in a preschool class or to introduce children to new cultures at home.
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Bebé Goes Shopping by Susan Middleton Elya
Bebé Goes Shopping is an adorable book that mixes English with Spanish to teach children Spanish vocabulary words. There is a clever rhyming scheme throughout the book. The Spanish words are integrated strategically so that the reader can understand them through context.
How Hippo Says Hello by Abigail Samoun
How Hippo Says Hello is a short and simple story that teaches children how to say Hello in seven languages. On each page, Hippo is traveling to a new culture. There is a lovely illustration representing that culture and children learn the greeting for each culture. A pronunciation guide is included on each page to teach you how to say each greeting.
Abigail Samoun has written several other books in this series to teach children other words and phrases:
How Do You Say I Love You by Hannah Eliot
How Do You Say I Love You is similar to How Hippo Says Hello and the other books in that series. Except, How Do You Say I Love You is a little more elaborate. It reads a little more like a story and the text on each page rhymes. It teaches children how to say I Love You in ten different languages.
How To Count 1-5 In Five Languages by Kenard Pak
How To Count 1-5 In Five Languages is a darling little book that your kids will love! Each page introduces a child from a different culture and they count 5 objects in their language. There are push buttons on the side that read each language for you so that you and your kids can learn the correct pronunciation.
There is also a similar book, How To Say I Love You In Five Languages.
Les Miserables by Jennifer Adams & Alison Oliver
This Les Miserables board book from the BabyLit series by Jennifer Adams is a great introduction to simple French words. On each page, there is a vocabulary word in English and a short phrase. The accompanying page has the French translation of both the word and the phrase. The illustrations are simple, but eye-catching.
The BabyLit series takes well-know literature classics and puts them in a format appropriate for young children. Don Quixote from this series a good book to introduce Spanish language to kids.