Elena: German, French and Dutch for 6-8 year olds

Elena is an interactive site consisting of songs, chants, interactive talk boards and video material.

With Elena, children from the border regions learn to speak their neighborhood language. In a challenging learning environment they become familiar with the basics of German, French and Dutch.

Who is Elena?

Elena is all about Elena Colson. She is 7 years old and born in Strasbourg. Together with her sister Sophie, her parents (Marie and Auguste Colson) and the dog Misty, she moves to the country of the target language, where her parents open a restaurant. Elena soon befriends her neighbours, the twins Max and Otto.

Framework

Elena consists of ten themes consisting of a number of lessons, which are very recognizable for the children and are in line with the themes of early language learning. (more info in the manual ).

In each theme, the children learn a certain number of basic words, both passively and actively. The basic vocabulary is supplemented by an extensive vocabulary that the children only need to know passively.

Starting from a natural language acquisition, Elena develops first the passive and then the active language mastery with the vocabulary as the main goal, according to Krashen's motto: 'When I go abroad, I take a dictionary with me, not a grammar.'

Vocabulary acquisition proceeds according to the so-called Four Stroke of Vocabulary Education ( Verhallen ). The four-stroke consists of the steps: roughing, semantizing, consolidating and checking.

Why should I use Elena?

Early foreign language education is becoming increasingly important in Europe. More and more primary schools in the Netherlands offer early foreign language education. Because without this costing young children extra effort, they have the ability to playfully learn several languages.

KlasseTV.nl has this digital method for early German, French and Dutch. developed with various partners, including the EarlyBird expertise center and Mad Faculty.