how is reading taught in other languages?

[Periwinkle007]

just curious, is it also through phonics?

Presumably that's what you mean by reading without understanding a word. Perhaps we should call that sounding out, not reading. Because I think most people understand the term reading to include understanding what you're reading. It's interesting because I haven't been to Turkey ages, decades in fact, but I plan to. My family never gave learning Turkish any thought. But I think I might.

"Perhaps there wasn't the same attachment in Turkey to using the arabic symbols"

Well this reform didn't come about as the result of popular vote or anything

Turkey was newly formed at the time, after losing WWI alongside Germany and then fighting off invading Allies. It was governed by a (well-loved & benevolent) dictator who said (1) we are now a democracy, (2) you will no longer dress like Arabs, you will dress like Europeans, and oh by the way (3) this is your new alphabet.

I doubt if this sort of overwhelming change can come about in any other way.

"Perhaps we should call that sounding out, not reading"

What would you say is the difference?

I believe reading involves a greater or lesser degree of understanding of the content, whereas sounding out does not.

Presumably a child with no understanding of the Turkish language, but an ability to pronounce Turkish letters could read signposts of placenames because the meaning is implied.

Having thought about this for a bit and read several definitions, it seems to me that "to read" can have both meanings:

1. "I read a book", "You need to read this music" >> read and understand
2. "Read this word", "Read the name of the street closest to you" (for example, when talking on the phone to a tourist who doesn't speak the local language) >> utter aloud or render the written word in speech (possibly without understanding it).

DD's English vocabulary is unfortunately quite limited. When she reads a book, she also reads many words that she does not know, even though she doesn't understand what they mean. She is not "sounding them out", not least because she is not reading them aloud. She is reading those words (and pronounces them correctly if asked) just like she is reading the ones she understands.

DD speaks Turkish. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

Our ds's go to Welsh school too, and like LingdiLong, their spelling is phonetic using the sounds from the welsh alphabet.

Would children learn to read English in a term if we waited until they were 6? I doubt it, more might pick it up a bit quicker but not all children are fluent readers or on chapter books by Christmas of yr2 are they and that would be the equivalent. I'll report back after the summer when ds1 starts being taught English (year 3).

But if we compare Finnish, Swiss, Welsh or Turkish children are we comparing children with as many varying origins as the ones in British schools? Some parts of Wales are becoming very diverse indeed. I've had recent experience of Newport/Gwent (not Newport/Pembs.) Perhaps the Newport-G results will be telling.

Not just children, lands, it applies to adults too. My Turkish is abysmal but I can easily order a taxi or from a menu and be understood because the written language is so straight forward to pronounce. It also males it easy to add to your vocabulary because if I see a word written in an obvious context I know how to pronounce it.

But don't adults have far more experiences to draw on than children. An infinite variety of things in any country (familiar or not) are going to be obvious to an adult which are not to a child. I can't really see the comparison.

When we go to Turkey I'll bear all of this in mind, and I'll talk to my older brother about it too. (He's the only one of us, as far as I know, who can still speak Turkish. Once we all could.)

Cottonwoolwrapper I think in Switzerland the written language is Swiss German rather than High German, it's the big difference to Scotland (where we speak Scots but read English). My brother lived there for several years and said he found it difficult to improve his (High) German because most Swiss people preferred to speak English rather than High German.

The other point I wanted to make was although it does take longer to learn to read in English than some other European languages our grammar is much easier so what you lose on the roundabouts you gain on the swings.

louisiana, double checked (to make sure I am not going loopy) and the written language is standard (or high) german in german speaking switzerland while the spoken language is swiss german.

I will take that back. The written language is Switzerland is Swiss Standard German which is nearly identical to the Standard German spoken and written in Germany. The spoken language is Swiss German which varies between different areas in Switzerland and is sufficiently different from Standard German that a speaker of Swiss German would have subtitles on German television.

Seems somewhat confusing to me but the German speaking Swiss obviously manage. They also seem to learn English and lots learn French as well.