Hi everyone. My Filipino wife and I came to live in the UK last year. Her son (my stepson) joined us shortly afterwards, while he was still 16. He is now 18, and studying at college. In his first year he took ESOL Under 19, and passed Entry Level 3. This year he is studying a vocational subject as well as English and Maths for GCSE, but is struggling due to his limited vocabulary and unfamiliarity with British speech and accents. I assume others in this forum have faced similar problems, and I would love to know how you overcame it, please?
My wife finds the subtitles on the TV useful at times, also talking books may help. She will also read out loud to us. She came unstuck on the "hippopotamus's chiropodist! Only English to be spoken even to other Filipinos. Get them to ask for things in a shop instead of you.
Thank you everyone for your responses. I’ve had some discussions with my wife and stepson about English-only and reading aloud. It’s a start!
