Reading suggestions for learners of English as a foreign language

[Bonsoir]

DD has a very good friend at school who is French and has been learning English for nearly 4 years. This little girl is 7.2 and is a very able free reader in French and has been for at least 18 months. She is being taught to read in English at school with old ORT which of course bore her rigid. I lent her the complete set of DD's old Angelina Ballerina story books (the ones by the original author and illustrator) and she has worked her way through those and doesn't find them too dull (the vocabulary is quite good for little girls).

What else can I suggest to this little girl's mother? Her spoken English isn't good enough to read books that are more difficult than Angelina Ballerina, but she doesn't want anything too babyish and everyday vocabulary would be best.

I'm thinking of what my daughter was encouraged to read in french to gain confidence and trying to think of english equivalents.

Dick King Smith? Animal Ark series? A book of simple fairy tales, as she will have already read them in french which will help comprehension? Those pocket sized hard-backed books which are simplified stories with loads of pictures based on fairy tales / disney films - eg Lion King, Jungle Book, Cinderella etc. I can't think what the english equivalent of Pere Castor would be. Maybe an illustrated book like the Magic Paintbrush (my daughter loved that in french).

Petit Poule in english?! Possibly something like Tashi as they are short stories, have illustrations, but would feel more grown up?

Looking at daughter's books - Walker stories are a set of easy readers with everyday vocab. Julia Donaldson Princess Mirror-belle. Or how about My Naughty Little Sister which has alot of everyday things.

Not sure my suggestions are that helpful - but Angelina Ballerina has some pretty long words in, so I would have thought she could manage some of those. Do her parents speak english well and are they helping her as that will make a difference?

Yes, her mother speaks English and helps her. She has no problem decoding (she is brillant at it) in English, so long words are not an issue - the issue is her vocabulary which is very bitty.

I would imagine her English would be on par with her English classmates after four years in mainstream education, only reason I mentioning , I have colleague from Ukraine who arrived to UK about three years ago and her DD was just over three at the time, who's now in a English primary Y2 and her vocabulary is great. Her mother told me couple of months ago her DD struggled with pronouncing few sounds in English correctly, school was on the ball and they contacted Salt who recommended two intensive sp.-blocks so to correct those sounds, but at the same time Salt measured her DD vocabulary and expressive language and results came impressive, her DD's vocabulary measured well above average in comparison to her peers of same age to whom English is native/first language.
There is a website called ablekids.co.uk that could be helpful, my colleague used it frequently for all sorts of materials. It specialises in provisions for for fully Bilingual children.
Hopefully you DD's friend mother can find perhaps good list of books that are tried and tested.

try the Barrington Stoke books for dyslexic children that should aid her in learning words but also challenge her a bit.

here

strictlovingmum - she is not in class with English classmates - she is in a French class, and learns EFL.

My 7 Yo like the black cats series www.blackcat-cideb.com/32-english-catalogue They are short and easy at first and gets more complicated, but still not too difficult. They can download the story too if necessary so she can hear the proper sounds.

Rainbow fairies, Tiara club and easy Jackie Wilsons (Sleepovers, Lizzie Zipmouth) have quite a restricted vocab.......

I'd try and get hold of annuals for light reading. They often include puzzles like crosswords and wordsearches and have short paragraphs of reading about characters that may interest her.

Would she read cartoons like The Beano?

What music does she like? My children like learning songs by printing off lyrics and singing along to the song. I actually credit High School Musical for making my dd a good reader

IndigoBell - you are quite right! Good idea!

Thanks everyone!