The problem of teenagers being bored learning a foreign language isn't unique to one particular country.

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a German teenager.

He attends extra curricular English lessons a couple of times a week after school but doesn't really enjoy going. The lessons are based around practicing grammar and translations and he doesn’t really see the point of it.

He only keeps going because his parents want him to and he knows that they’ve invested a lot for him to have more opportunities in the future. But extrinsic motivation can only take a teenager so far and once a foundation of core language skills has been built, more drilling and testing isn’t going to inspire them to see the journey through to a high level of proficiency.

If you want your child to develop their language skills to a high level and use them beyond the classroom, they need to be using the language as a vehicle to do things that they actually care about and have a level of choice over.

Here are 4 things that I think are worth focusing on instead.

Challenge: pushing them to think critically and share opinions on issues.

Collaborate: working on meaningful projects with peers from other countries and cultures.

Create: producing original pieces of work and experimenting with solutions to problems they see in the world.

Contribute: applying their ideas to make a genuine difference to their local or global community.

By starting with these, your child will develop more than just language skills. They'll be on their way to developing the character, confidence, skills and mindset to thrive globally.