Do I need to (try to) teach my DS phonics?

[ChariotsofFish]

DS, 7, has never been to an English language school, but we are now returning to the UK. He reads fluently in both English and his second language, but he is self taught in English. He has a general idea of the concept of phonics, because that’s how he was taught to read in his second language, but the spelling rules are much more straightforward. Is he going to need to learn English phonics for year 3? I have no idea how good his spelling should be at this age. From looking at stuff he writes, he gets the spelling right about 90% of the time in his second language but much less than that in English. He really likes doing well at school, so he’d probably be motivated enough to learn phonics if he needed to.

Is his spelling 'phonically plausible' or all over the place?
If it is all over the place then phonics would help.

Even if plausible, does he know the different options for making the same sounds? If not then phonics would help.

How does he work out how to pronounce a word he hasn't come across?
e.g electric v. eclectic v. eccentric
If he 'sounds them out' then he is using phonics. If he guesses and gets them wrong then phonics could help.

I would, yes.

His spelling is plausible, but he doesn’t know all the different options for making the sounds. And it looks like he often uses phonics from his second language to create a spelling in English.

I don’t know about how he reads words he doesn’t know. Usually he reads in his head and when he is reading things out it just sounds like he knows all the words.

Does anyone know how I would teach phonics to him? Everything seems to be about how you had it to teach kids to read, I’m not sure how to go about it when he already reads.

The oxford phonics dictionary might be good for him to look through. It breaks the words down into “sound familes” first, then again by spellings.
So for example on the long e sound page it has common words grouped by ee (bee), ea (bead), e_e (theme), y (silly) etc
(PS that’s from memory so I hope it’s correct!!)

If my dd misspells something I can often say, “no it’s the other way to make that sound” and she knows the various possibilities.

Dd also reads/writes in a second language but in her case she learnt English first and her second language has more consistent rules so she was able to decode it accurately way before she could understand what she was “reading”.

It might be worth looking at something like a THRASS chart to help him recognise and learn the different ways of making the different sounds.

I would also start by asking the school how they teach spelling from Year 3 upwards.
Until this year our school just did traditional spelling tests (not a good way to teach spelling). Now we’re starting a scheme which teaches spelling rules but also assesses where children have gaps. Then we can help children who’ve missed things in year 2 (i.e. some phonics they haven’t remembered). I’m looking forward to it.
Perhaps his school is doing something similar?

I’ll look into the THRASS chart and the phonics dictionary, thanks!

We can’t apply for schools until we’re back in the UK, so we can’t check with them yet unfortunately. I hope whichever school has a space is doing that scheme though!

Please avoid THRASS. It doesn't meet the criteria for phonics instruction in England

https://www.phonicbooks.co.uk/advice-and-resources/advice-and-resources-for-parents/phonic-code-table/

Once children "get" phonics they usually get it across the board - so he'll understand how to read English phonically but not all the pairings of sounds and letters.

I have two DNs who learned to read in another language and picked up reading (the concept) quickly in English but probably need an extra boost with spelling still (teens now).