Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Education

Join the discussion on our Education forum.

Parents of bilingual children: how do you navigate learning to read in both languages?

2 replies

Epli · 19/06/2025 11:43

I am interested in the experiences of parents of bilingual children attending school in the UK or in another country where the main language of schooling is not the same as the one spoken at home.

We are both Polish and at home we speak only Polish with our daughter. We read to her in Polish, and she watches cartoons exclusively in Polish. She attends nursery full-time and, from what we've been told and heard, she speaks English well. I suspect her vocabulary is broader in Polish because of her exposure to books, etc., but she is on track with her English language development.
I am curious: what approach have you taken at primary school when help with spelling or reading was needed? Did you help even though your own pronunciation or accent might be far from native one? And how did you incorporate your native language into the mix?
I have friends in a similar position who practise spelling and reading in Polish with their child, but never do so in English (although they do make sure he practises—it’s just that he does it on his own so as not to mix the two).

Any other experiences?

OP posts:
MumChp · 19/06/2025 11:45

We have practised reading and spelling in English and my native language. No big deal.

SupposesRoses · 19/06/2025 12:55

My kids are trilingual. Until they had a solid grasp of reading in the language spoken in school I didn’t introduce reading in any other language as I didn’t want to confuse them (I read books to them in the other languages but didn’t explain to them how to relate the sounds to the spelling as it’s varied between the three languages). Then I started in the school holidays so they weren’t distracted. They pick up the subsequent languages very fast as they have already internalised the concept of reading.
Of course, if they show interest earlier than you planned, jump on it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page