How many minutes a day should my child practice English?
There is no research-backed magic number, but short daily practice beats long weekly sessions. As a practical guide: 5 to 10 minutes for ages 3 to 5, 10 to 20 minutes for ages 6 to 9, and 20 to 30 minutes for ages 10 and up, including some speaking every day, on top of lessons and playful exposure.
Aim for a little English every day rather than a long session once a week. No study sets an exact number of minutes, but a sensible guide is 5 to 10 minutes of focused practice for preschoolers, 10 to 20 minutes for ages 6 to 9, and 20 to 30 minutes for older children, with some of that time spent speaking. Background exposure such as songs, books and cartoons comes on top.
Why daily beats weekly
- Children forget quickly. New words need to come back again and again before they stick, and short daily sessions give more of those repeats than one long session.
- Attention spans are short. A 4-year-old can focus happily for a few minutes. Past that, practice becomes a battle.
- Habits are easier than effort. Five minutes after breakfast every day is easier to keep up than an hour on Saturday.
What matters over the long run is total exposure. Research on bilingual children has found that vocabulary in each language grows with how much of it they hear (Pearson et al., 1997), so focused practice works best on top of as much everyday English as you can add.
A practical guide by age
These are starting points from common practice, not research thresholds. Watch your child: if they are still enjoying it, carry on; if they are tired, stop on a high.
| Age | Focused practice per day | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 3 to 5 | 5 to 10 minutes | A song, a picture book, a naming game |
| 6 to 9 | 10 to 20 minutes | A short chat, a reading-along book, a word game |
| 10 to 12 | 20 to 30 minutes | Conversation, reading, a short writing task |
| 13+ | 30 minutes or more | Conversation plus study for school or exams |
Make sure some of it is speaking
Many children get plenty of listening and worksheets but almost no chance to speak, which is why they understand English but freeze when they have to answer. Build a few minutes of talking into every day:
- Ask a question in English at dinner and let them answer in English
- Play "I spy" or "20 questions" in English in the car
- Ask them to retell a cartoon episode in English
- Let them teach you a word or phrase from school
Easy ways to add exposure
- English songs in the car
- Bedtime stories or audiobooks in English
- Cartoons in English, watched together and talked about afterwards (see Can kids learn a language from TV and cartoons?)
- Video calls with English-speaking relatives or friends
Where Askie fits
If nobody at home can hold a conversation in English, the daily speaking part is the hardest to arrange. Askie, a voice-first AI companion for ages 4 to 15, can have a short spoken conversation with your child in English (or another language they are learning), at their level and about their interests, so a few minutes of speaking each day is easy to fit in. You can read every conversation afterwards. For balancing this with other screen time, see Healthy screen time.
Speaking practice, every day
Askie gives your child a patient conversation partner for practising a new language out loud, at their age and level.