I hope this is the right place for this thread.
My son is being raised bilingual, we are doing OPOL and English is the minority language. He started speaking at around 21 months and he is now two and a half. He speaks a lot less English than his community language, which is French, but his understanding is very good. Other than speaking to him in English, the main tool I am using to improve his language acquisition is reading, which he loves. We read to him a lot in both languages.
I was a pretty early reader and was able to read simple phrases by the age of 3, so I know that my parents must have taught me the alphabet and how to read some words when I was around the age my son is now.
If we lived in the UK and English was his community language then I don't think I would hesitate to start teaching him about the alphabet and letters soon. But we live in France and next September he will be going to school where obviously they will start teaching him to read in French.
Will I confuse him if I start teaching him to read in English and then he goes to school and they start teaching him that different sounds go with the same letters?
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Teaching bilingual child to read
MargotBamborough · 24/11/2023 14:57
KatharinaRosalie · 24/11/2023 15:02
I didn't find that my children were confused, they were able to understand quite easily that in x language, this makes x sound, but in y language, it's y sound.
AnnaBegins · 24/11/2023 15:45
We're the other way around, so mine were learning to read English at 4/5. I found because they were learning phonics, it was so easy to transfer that to French with the explanation that certain letters/combinations are different in French. I waited about 6 months after my son started Reception to start with reading French, so that he had the concept of phonics and blending already.
I wish I'd kept it more equal between the two languages, as sadly now he's such a fabulous free reader in English he gets annoyed with having to do a bit of sounding out in French. However he can pick up a book and read it so that's positive and he continues to improve.
I'm not entirely sure what I'd have done if mine were starting later like in France! Think it depends if they are showing an interest.
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