Teaching to read in mother tongue whilst learning to read in school in another language

[MrFibble]

I'm hoping for some wise words of advice.

DD has started learning to read at school in German and it's going really well. She has started applying the German sounds to English when she tries to read English books and although she's managing I think I need to help her more than I am at the moment. I'm worried that if I don't English could become her third language and I don't want that.

I've explained that the English alphabet has different sounds but came a little unstuck when explaining all the different sounds that there are in English and I don't want to confuse her so I am considering sticking to the same system she has at school for learning to read and creating a "laut tabelle" for English sounds. Is this a good approach or do you think I should just take a standard English language phonics teaching system and use that instead?

What have you ladies done? I'd appreciate any advice.

Um. Perhaps I should preview before posting....

Edited version below.

I'm hoping for some wise words of advice.

DD has started learning to read at school in German and it's going really well. She has started applying the German sounds to English when she tries to read English books and although she's managing TO READ A LITTLE SHE IS GETTING FRUSTRATED and I think I need to help her more than I am at the moment. I'm worried that if I don't English could become her third language and I don't want that.

I've explained that the English alphabet has different sounds THAN DOES GERMAN AND LUXEMBOURGISH but came a little unstuck when explaining all the different sounds that there are in English. I don't want to confuse her so I am considering sticking to the same system she has at school for learning to read and creating a "laut tabelle" i.e. A TABLE ILLUSTRATING THE DIFFERENT PHONICS for English sounds. Is this a good approach or do you think I should just take a standard English language phonics teaching system and use that instead?

What have you ladies done? I'd appreciate any advice.

I was starting to do English reading with dd prior to her starting (Italian) school last September. I left off it for a few months, as the regular phonic-ness of Italian was totally confusing her in English. Once she had nailed the Italian, (which took a matter of weeks, as it's so regular, like German I think IIRC from my long-ago A'level!) I looked around for something stimulating for her to do in English reading, as tbh, the whole ORT Floppy Dog thing was so dull.

Moondog pointed me in the direction of the Headsprout online scheme (it's not free, but some initial lessons are, so you can have a try) and now her English reading has almost caught up, in about 2 months.

I think at the beginning of school reading there is this tendency to confuse the 2 languages, especially when one is regular and one not.

Nothing to add but I watch with interest as I will soon have the reverse problem ie teaching French reading at home while Junior learns English reading at school.

Message withdrawn

Good points here. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I have a fear (probably unreasonable) of the DCs not getting any cultural heritage from me and becoming little Luxembourgers or Germans... It's so strange seeing my DC being so happy in 3 languages - makes me feel all cosmopolitan . I just want to ensure that their English will be good enough for them to go to English-speaking universities (if they want to) and so we can discuss English books... Bah, I'm getting myself worked up. Doesn't help that I am getting flack about DDs "poor" writing skills from MIL who wants to take her in hand (fumes quietly).

I'm tempted with the on-line thing - anyone else given this sort of programme a try?

There's another good one (free I think) called Star something....starfall maybe???

I am with Pitchounette.

DD is learning to read in French at school. I find that she will read a word in English, pronounce it as a French word then realise what the word is in English and correct herself. We are doing the same in German.

We did have an amusing moment recently when she read graffiti on a wall, 'Mama, what does foook mean?'

My kids operate in their 2nd language at school (Gaelic), and they only read/write it until about this point in the year in primary 3, when English begins too - ds is just about to start English at school.

He has already read the first Harry Potter book in English! I was worried about them getting confused between the phonics systems in the different languages (especially the combinations of consonants which are quite complex in Gaelic) but ds has just done it himself, figuring it out and asking if he got stuck. I did some very basic obvious English rules e.g what 'i-n-g' sounded like, but apart from that have left them up to it.

Dd1 is 2 years further on in her English work and is doing well, but she didn't have the urge to read English before it started at school - ds did, so I kind of went with the flow. Dd2 is still in full immersion but was reading the back of the Frosties packet this morning - got a bit stuck with what she was calling "flakkees" (flakes), but making a good attempt.

I suppose where it is different for us is that we are in a deliberately self-selected bilungual setting in the UK, where children have to keep up to the national (Scottish) standards in English, and also we are not cross-cultural, in that the second language has been somewhat imposed on them (we used to live in a very Gaelic speaking area), its not a cultural heritage that either parent has. We are also surrounded by things in English - like cereal packets, road signs etc, which make it a more natural acquisition. Even when we regularly go back to where we used to live, and the children chatter in Gaelic to the next door neighbours and the old lady up the road and stuff, they are still also surrounded by written English every day - I've had to start scanning the front of the newspaper for worrying stories as ds likes to read the headlines!

I do think Mme Lindt is right - mine will read a word using Gaelic phonics, realise it is an English word, and self-correct.

Its fascinating though, watching them learn it. I'm so proud of my bilingual kids (even when they are shouting gaelic abuse at each other over a Wii game!)!

My two children (7 and 6) have learned to read and write English in school (here in UK).
As others have said, once a child knows how to read in one language (especially a tricky one like English, which has so, so many exceptions when it comes to pronounciation!), they pick up others easily.

As soon as our children could read in English, they were pretty much able to read in German (without being 'taught'). This is probably helped by German being a very phonetic language (each word is pronounced excactly as it is writteh, so very easy to decode!). My dd (7) has just read the whole of Pippi Langstrummpf by herself ).

So I really wouldn't worry about 'teaching' a child to read in another language. What is important imo is that they can speak the language well. The reading then comes naturally.

I should have previewed - please excuse my typos...

DS will start learning to read in German when he starts school in August. We've recently just started him on the Headsprout program Bucharest mentioned for learning to read in English. He likes it as it's just a computer game to him really. He's getting good at developing the American accent. DH is not soo happy about that!

I wasn't going to do it this way. Was going to wait, let him learn German first (since it's "easier") and then tackle English, but he was beginning to show some interest and I was interested to see if he could do it (because of long boring story surrounding his speech problems and potential future school).

Ah.... Gipfeli (CH by any chance?) you have answered one of my questions about Headsprout - I don't want a US accent or spellings! I think I need to find a UK English on-line thing if I go this way.

Anyway, I've decided to relax a bit on this at the moment since I can't really do English reading with DD as I'm having to focus on DS at bedtime so DH takes the opportunity to read in German to her.

Hopefully we'll get it sorted soon. If not, I'll be back!

Thanks everyone.

Hi,
As annasmami said the important thing is that they can speak the language well. Reading it will follow if they already know the words they are trying to decipher on the page.

However I think you should definitely make time to read to her, include books for younger children - you can point at the words as you read them so she is sight-learning them as she hears them and getting a feel for how English words look.

DD1 6.4yo has learnt to read in English recently, after 6 months in the UK, having been born and brought up in Spain with English at home and 4 years of Spanish-speaking infant school.

When she started to learn to read in English she tried to pronounce the words as tho' they were written in Spanish so 'it' would be 'eet' etc. Then there came a phase where it was the other way round - she would try to write Spanish words using English phonetics - 'too' when she meant 'tu'.

It seems to be sorting itself out and I would like to do some proper reading in Spanish with her soon as she now has a very good grasp of reading and spelling in English.

Keep at it and good luck!

By the way we used the Floppy's phonics and Songbird books from ORT and Jolly phonics workbooks, DD1 liked them.

She is now using the magic key stories at school and likes them a lot.

Hi, we are also in Germany, but were in France a few years ago.

My eldest 3 children went to school before I had the chance to teach them reading, so they learned in the language of the country where we were.

They didnt learn english reading until they were sure in the other language, ie about 7-8 yrs old.

With dd, she is now 6 and starts in September at the school. We are doing english reading, and I am hoping to have her confident with that before she starts in german.

I think it is asking fo trouble to try and teach the 2 systems side by side, especially if you are doing phonics for both systems.

nighbynight - I agree, it's better to do one language then the other when it comes to reading. The skills are transferable.

Just a quick update:

DD's reading in German has really taken off! I am amazed at how quickly she has cracked it - she started to "officially" learn in September last year and yesterday she read 2 chapters of, "Die Magische Baumhaus." I am so pleased!

She's also now wanting to read some English books to DS at bedtime. So far she has read, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" and, "Head to Toe," and "Wheels on the Bus." I am pretty convinced that this is more from memory rather than reading but it's a start isn't it?

So the upshot is that I have decided to relax about this. We (DD and I) will read English books together when we can and DH will do the German bedtime story.

I will not do the English phonics with her until she starts learning English at school. I might get her an on-line reading programme / game to help her along but won't get stressed about it.

And she starts French next year too. Heck. Or rather, Merde!

I notice people trying to introduce reading in a second language while their kids are learning reading at school in another language. As a certified bilingual endorsed teacher who taught for many years non English speaking homes and is now retired it’s best to allow children to learn to read in one language first and use their cognitive academic skills to transfer beautifully into the second language. The best thing for children is to dominate very well in one language their reading writing speaking and listening.

The OP's child will now be a multi-lingual adult...

Which year is your DD in? If she has just started learning to read (i assume she is in year 1 or 2) I wouldn't confuse her. Learning to read in English is very, very different to German. I think once she has mastered German she will easily pick up English. Most German kids are fluent in English by the time they finish school and definitely good enough to study in the UK. I would stick to talking to her in English ajd possibly reading English books to her or letting her watch English TV programs.

Holy prehistoric thread resurrection. 😮