Worried about english reading ability of bilingual child.

[zad1000]

We are english and living in germany. We have been her almost three yrs and DD, 6 is in a bilingual school wher the overwhelming majority of the children are german. The reading and writing is going at a slow pace in the class and it is fairly simple words that they do. when I sit with my DD at home and try to read some of the ladybird books or phonics books, she appears to be really struggling. Part of it is that she is starting the letter sounds and then stops looking at the word and looks at me and tries to guess the word. We sat down last night and she is messing with her feet, fidgeting and showing no enthusiasm at all.

I know that the system in many european countries is slower than in the UK and it is a mistake to feel the pressure that she must be at the level of a child in the UK, but I am worried that there is a problem.

I am getting frustrated with her which is obviously completely counterproductive and i need to step back and stop trying to get her to read for a while.

I assumed that she would find the english they are doing pretty easy being one of the few native speakers in the class but i worry that some of the german kids are doing better than her.

she speaks german very well for a non german child.

I never pushed dd, who was 6.5 when she started to learn to read in French. It use to make me very nervous when I saw my friends's Reception and Yr1 children outstripping her. But they made very fast progress and she pretty much translated the same technique to reading in English - just needed a bit of help with certain pronunciations. She is nearly 10 now and reads perfectly well in both languages.

Just keep reading to her in English/let her look at the English books. Fret ye not - it will come.

Thank you. Did she learn to read in French or english first? my husband thinks we should be doing more with her at home but i really don't enjoy it, there is a good reason i am not a teacher.

for " we should be doing more at home". , read I

I agree, you just have to chill. My dd (6) does the guessing thing too and it drives me nuts.
I found that finding books for my son (8) that he was actually interested in helped. (Big Nate books at the moment)
My son is completely fluent in reading English and Swedish now and I have learned to take it slower with my dd, it will come.
It used to p!$$ me off when I would proudly tell my mum that ds or dd had read a WHOLE page in english. She would say "Good, but they would have been at that stage years ago here"
Kids start school 2 years later here and my kids had to learn a whole new language too.
Don't beat yourself up.

Thank you. I am the problem, i just thought she would find it so easy and in a class of nearly all german, expected her to be top. I get really frustrated that she is not trying and then hate myself for it and when i say to my husband last night that i don't want to try to do this with her, she has to want to do it herself, he said "ok so just throw in the towel then" when it is not about that, it is about not screwing everything up.

Don't panic. My two eldest had very different experiences when learning to read English. DD1 attended an international school with British teachers and learned to read English at the same time as she learned to read in French. She had an enormous amount if homework and was never enthusiastic. DS went to the local French school and learned to read in English along with his peers - no homework and no pressure. DD1 is now studying English at uni and DS reads Percy Jackson ect in English with no problem.

Keep it simple and keep reading to her - she'll get there.

My DD (almost 6) is bilingual in Spanish and English. Until about a month ago I was horrified at how slow her reading was coming on in both languages. Suddenly she is brilliant at it, so I wouldn't fret, as others have said. It just clicks one day!

I do worry though. Her writing is definitely not as good in English as it would be in England. But, she is in a bilingual school where the English is taught to children who do not speak English so she is being held back a bit I think. I do lots with her at home and just try to make up for it best I can.

Don't forget your child is bilingual! Huge start and advantage in life, HUGE!

My dd could read simple words in English, cat, dog etc. She liked that Jolly Phonics programme that was on CBeebies - maybe worth looking at the website as there used to be some good spelling games on there.

Thank you. I wanted helping her to read to read to be a pleasurable experience but i am ashamed to say, i hate doing it, it is not enjoyable and i feel lots of pressure and i am obviously transmitting that to her. she has to be enthusiastic otherwise it is a chore for her and will spoil her interest in books.

it is difficult here as i do not have an english library to go to with her so it relies on me buying books and it is not the same as her going to a library and picking out what she wants.

Zad - I am in Germany too and have experienced a number of your issues....

My DS1 and DS2 have both been through DE kindergarten - where they learnt to speak German but no reading/writing. Started at an International school at 6ish - so behind in terms of english learning, but at the same time as their german peers - reading has for both of them taken longer than I would have expected - they are trying to learn in both languages of course - but as pps have said - it does just seem to click one day.

We're now at the point of actually moving them to the DE system - we're planning on staying permanently - and hope that their english reading will give them a head start - DS1 is 9 and will (fingers crossed) be going to Gymnasium in August and DS2 (7) will be moving to our local Grundschule.

Two things that do spring to mind - have you looked in your local german library? Many of them have English book sections - worth a try. The other one is to register on www.bookswapper.de - you can swap all your english language books for free - they do have children's ones too!

Also - I found it very difficult doing the 'teaching' - it was much more successful from someone a bit removed - I too want reading to be a pleasurable experience and not a chore..... it's still early days and don't put her off now

I am in Italy.

I stopped trying to get dd to read in English once she started primary school and waited until she had mastered reading in Italian. (which she had by about Christmas of her first term- it's a very easy language to read, unlike English)

I subscribed briefly to a reading scheme recommended on here by Moondog. Can't for the life of me remember what it was called, but it was a lot better than bloody Biff and Chip.

I also agree it just clicks, don't know how, don't know why, it just does!

Headsprout- that was the reading scheme.

It does just click - honestly, I was worried about pushing to learn in English when I didn't know what approach they would use in French. For interest, they learnt individual letters/some phonic groups/whole word recognition. French has more regular rules than English - but I swear it worked in both languages.

Have you tried Julia Donaldson books - if you check Amazon, she has also books for early readers, plus of course Room on the broom etc.?

There is lots of phonics on the UK govt website, but it is really meant for teachers. The more you read to her, the more she will pick up. Ideally let her read 15 minutes a day and she will make great progress. Try not to get frustrated, she is still little and it is such a great skill to have.

Google Phonics Letters and Sounds and then select the UK Govt website not the commercial websites. This is what is used in primary schools in the UK.

Have 15 year old, 12 year old, 8 year old, all changed language of education 6 years ago. I'd be surprised if the older 2 were not above average for their age, only the 8 year old might lag behind and be around average. I've really done very little, just let them read and choose what they wanted to read and read to the 2 youngest ones. They're not super intelligent, just normal.

Transfer of reading skills across languages is really natural. I'm sitting next to my 12 year old reading in the 2nd language of the country completely fluently, mind you she cannot understand it as well as she can read it, but you bet her knowledge of this 2nd country language is greater than GCSE level and she could pass a GCSE in that language aged 12, transferring her language skills across languages. And this is nothing exceptional, it's quite ordinary really.

Don't worry, just look at the PISA tables and look at the starting age for reading of the top nations.

In Welsh medium schools in Wales they don't start them reading English until 8 or 9, even though most of the kids speak English ok.
So I wouldn't worry - 6 is quite little to cope with reading two languages. Speaking is much easier

The sounds are probably different and may be difficult to sort out in her mind .
I went against the grain a little and taught ds to read myself in his first language pre school then he learnt second language at school.

I have the same experience as many of the posters above. When DCs had mastered reading in their main school Language the English reading just clicked at some point. Even for DS who was a poor reader for a very long time.
Our tactic has been to listen to loads of audio books to make sure that DCs were exposed to age appropriate language even though they were not yet reading at the same level themselves. This has worked really well and made things so much easier when they did start to read in English.
DD13 reads at the same level as her UK peers. DS10 who is not much of a reader in either language is reading at about age 8 level.

Thank you again.

We did some exercises in her phonics book last night and i encouraged but not pushed and she could sound out the words, she just doesn't want to and if the word is more than 3 or 4 words she will stop. bit anyway it was ok.

i then read a new book to her - the naughtiest girl in the school by enid blyton - so a very old book.

I am bored of a lot of the books we have so I need to find some new ones. I want her to have a love of reading.

I forget so often that parenting is a marathon and not a race.

I had exactly the same problem as a child. My mum persevered, mostly by reading a lot of books to me, with more and more of my "help". We also played hangman a lot with easy words like "bus", building up when I got more advanced. I still bloody hate hangman now

I agree with the posters that it will likely all fall into place with time.

If you do want to be more proactive about it, but find the hands-on teaching frustrating, you could sign up to something like Reading Eggs. It costs money but you can generally do a free trial (and if you like it, don't sign up and pay immediately they will send your regular offers by email!). You can then leave her to progress through it herself, being 'around' for general help if she gets stuck on something. If you feel the pressure is off you as 'teacher' you can get back to just enjoying book-time with your daughter for a while.

My dc started reading in English at between 7 and 7.6 (educated bilingually in Scottish Gaelic and English). Ds was reading English way before that but he's a real bright spark. Dd2 has been fine, dd1 found it hard but she's dyslexic. Dd1 though is now the most voracious reader of them all - reading novels at a fantastic rate at an appropriate age level (she's 14).

Ime it takes a bit to get used to reading in the second language even though it's their first spoken language. And the guessing? All of mine did that.

Another recommendation (which came from a poster on here a few years ago for us), is Headsprout Reading.

Both DS did it and now read really well in English.

I tried doing other stuff with them myself at home but (despite being a teacher - to older kids), really struggled and we all just got cross.

www.headsprout.com/parents/parent-early-results/