Abstract
Much scholarship on “play” activities has focused on enhancing children’s learning processes and developing interest towards learning second language (Nair, Yusof, Arumugam, 2014). Many of these studies, however, adopt the survey to conduct their study. This study explored how “play with local kids” activities effect the development of English speaking and listening of two Chinese children in the Philippines, employing an ethnographically based approach to observe the two participants playing with local kids, which lasted about 4 months. The findings of the study revealed that “play” activities can not only help young children have a better understanding of their English conversations, and make them have more confidence to speak English, but also inspire them to speak English in such environment. In view of the results, it is obvious that “play with local kids” is a very good way for young children to acquire a second language in a multilingual setting. It is strongly recommended that language researchers and teachers should pay more attention and do more research on the relationship between “play” and second language acquisition.