Any early years (bilingual?) teachers about?

notanewuser

dingdongavoncalling wrote: »

I'm not sure I fully understand your concern either.

I realise DD is doing well for her age and bringing books home, is she being taught phonics at school? If not, and she won't be until 7, perhaps she is just not ready for this approach. It doesn't mean she cannot bring books home to read and enjoy using other techniques.

I would focus on the enjoyment of reading at that age. A love of books is so important

She is being taught phonics in WELSH. She won't be taught any English at school for another 3 years.

When we read with her at home (Welsh or english) she isn't building the words because she knows them already. She sees the word and learns the word rather than breaking it down as school does with Welsh sounds. I was worried that using something other than phonics at home, for Welsh and English, might cause problems when phonics are the primary tool used at school.

Mojisola

notanewuser wrote: »

She is being taught phonics in WELSH. She won't be taught any English at school for another 3 years.

She sees the word and learns the word rather than breaking it down as school does with Welsh sounds.

She's learning and is happy and isn't getting confused so go with the flow.

Teachers should be using a range of techniques to teach reading, not just phonics or just whole word. Some children will latch on better using one method rather than another.

theoretica

Your story reminded me of someone I knew who was a very strong 'look -see' reader and writer. So strong, infact, that it wasn't until she hit A level organic chemistry that she had an issue (di-ethyl-tri-nitrile-...) and was diagnosed as strongly dyslexic.

My thoughts from this are that look-see clearly works well in most situations, but there are a few where it is good to have phonic tools. But I would be tempted to make sure her love of reading is thoroughly embeded before pushing for the method she doesn't like.

iammumtoone

I can't comment on the welsh/english learning side of things but can give my experience of ds leaning via phonics (english). I am assuming the phonic style of teaching is the same whether it is welsh or english.

When ds starting bringing home phonics i thought OMG whatever is this system! I did not understand a word of it, I had to learn it myself Ds was trying to look and learn and it would have been easier for me to teach him this way as it was how I learnt and I understood it. It is easier to look and learn at the start, phonics is a nightmare (for child and parent!) However with look and learn you have to look and learn every word, with phonics once you get the hang of it by spending a bit more effort learning the small words you can easily start to read longer words with no additional skill needed. Children learn to read so much quicker with this method as it is easy to transfer the phonic sounds from the small easy words to the longer more complicated ones.

I suggest you try to stick with phonics if you can, I know it hard as the last thing you want to do at this stage is put you child off reading. You child may seem to be progressing fast with look and learn at this stage but will find that she might start to fall behind once they move onto longer words.

Hope that helps, sorry if I have misunderstood your original question.

notanewuser

She's fine with phonics as a concept, but it's the repeated use slowing her down that she doesn't like. Once the word is built she doesn't need to do it again. Likewise with writing. Show her the shape of the letter or number and you need only do it once. I think she's just consolidating it so fast that the repeated asking to break down the words or build them up with sounds is frustrating her, if that makes sense.

To use another example, you know that 2+2 = 4. You don't have to count on your fingers every time you need to add 2 and 2. She's at that point with it but is repeatedly being asked to count out on her fingers. (There's a speedy maths issue too!). School are happy with her, she's very happy, but we're seeing some flashes of resentment when we try and do the home activities from the school when we're trying to reinforce their methods.

meritaten

Two of my grandchildren were both at Welsh Medium Primary schools - and got along fine. I shouldn't worry if like grandkids, they are taught in Welsh but English is the main language spoken and read at home. The kids move very easily between the two and in the main do not have any problems reading in either Welsh or English.
(I would brush up on your Welsh though - it will certainly help you when she starts bringing projects and work home)

trailingspouse

Welsh is strongly phonetically regular, so teaching it using predominantly phonics makes perfect sense.

English, however, isn't - it's much more important to be able to 'look and say' when children learn English (they need to be able to do both). But although some letter sounds are different in Welsh, most are the same, so this will help when she comes to learning to read English. She won't have too much difficulty remembering that 'f' is different for example.

As she sounds like a bright kid, she's probably finding that look and say is enough at the moment - but as her reading material becomes more complex, she'll begin to realise the benefits of 'sounding it out' for herself.

notanewuser

Thanks iammumtoone. She uses the phonics to build new words, it's just the repeating of it she's frustrated by.

Madmel

I think a combination is the way to teach reading. Phonics is a good system, but the English language has a number of anomalies. Think about the -ough ending. It could be cough, rough, through, bough etc., all with different sounds, so phonics does not cover it all.

My expertise is in secondary teaching, and English is not my specialism, but I have taught both my daughters to read. DD1 absorbed sounds from the TV show 'Countdown'. At 18 months, she could say the letters from her name when Carol put them up. We used the old Ladybird books to teach her to read, which are very much look - say. By the time she started school at 4, she was a fluent reader, and her wonderful teacher was happy to build on what we had done. DD is now studying English A level. DD2 learned phonics at nursery using the Jolly Phonics scheme, so I bought some books and we used them in conjunction with the Ladybird books. She is a good reader too, so I don't think it makes a huge difference.

Jolly Phonics used to be available in the Early Learning Centre if you want to see the books, but I liked the whole "action, sound, shape" system of learning.

iammumtoone

This is how I helped my ds with reading at home.

When reading your dd isn't expected to break down every word she is reading if she knows the word just let her say it. When you come to a word she is unsure of then try to ask her to break it down, if she can't, break it down for her, ask her to repeat using phonics, then ask her to repeat the word in full, if she doesn't get it from the phonics just tell her and ask her to repeat and read that line again. This is how I taught my ds there is an element of look and learn in it but along with that and learning the phonics at school he picked everything up ok.

The important thing is to keep them interesting in reading whilst at the same time trying to introduce the phonics where you can even if it is just you saying them at least she will be listening and some of it will sink in.