By engaging in cultural practices, children can immerse themselves in a new culture, discovering its products and perspectives. The discovery of the new culture will encourage them to compare the two cultures and reflect on their own. This process plays a vital role in shaping their broader perspectives and forming their identities within the context of that culture.

For example, we used the material of Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods), which represents the Japanese New Year’s holiday. The Seven Lucky Gods can be placed under the pillow before bed to wish for Hatsuyume (a good first dream in the new year). The video below demonstrates how our children went to bed with hopeful, happy feelings, with the picture of Shichifukujin wishing for a nice first dream of the year. We talked about what kind of dream we would wish to have and read and learned about the Seven Lucky Gods.

An additional aspect of this cultural practice is that if you happen to have a bad first dream, you can gently throw the picture into the river the following day to drive away bad spirits and wish for good luck. Learning about culture goes beyond just learning language skills; it helps enhance children’s curiosity in an immersive environment.

What’s recasting?

Recasting is a great, effective way of promoting language learning. Recasting is the technique used to indirectly correct a learner’s language by restating (repeating) or rephrasing their incorrect speech in the correct form, without explicitly identifying errors. This technique is widely used and supported by teachers and language specialists because it helps enhance the learner’s language input and intake processes in a safe environment while lowering their “affective filters,” which include emotional states such as anxiety or stress.

The example video on Home Page under “Converse while Recasting” shows how a child processes input and intake of the new vocabulary Mangetsu (full moon) using the bilingual wall art. 

Examples of Recasting

• A child: “The boy ran. She fast.”
• Recast: “Oh, he was fast? That’s great!”

• A child: “Ashi ball ochite de itai (Legs ball fell and painful).
• Recast: “Ball ga ashini ochite itai (The ball fell on the foot and it’s painful)?”
• A child: “un, sou (yeah, right).”

• A child: “It’s a full moon!” (when seeing a half-moon)
• Recast: “a full moon?” and wait for a child’s response or self-correction.

The recast provides the correct structure, allowing the learner to hear the proper form and internalize it without disrupting the flow of the conversation. This element of recasting is very different from corrective feedback, which involves explicit corrections of the learner’s speech.

The following video shows how I recasted while code switching (changing to another language).