All children need the same skills to learn to read no matter the language. Once children learn the skills, they can be applied to most any other written language. Because our students have an English background, they have a greater context in which to apply their new-found skills. For some, they will intuitively apply their reading skills from Spanish to English without a lot of formal instruction. Others will require more formal instruction before they can transfer skills. For most students this transfer of skills happens quickly. Once they learn the concept of sound/symbol correspondence in Spanish, they can easily apply this to English.
All children need a few skills that support beginning reading. Kindergarteners need to:
- Know that spoken words come apart and that letters represent these sounds by developing an awareness of words including rhymes.
- Know the names of the letters of the alphabet and write these letters.
- Understand about letter-sound matches.
- Understand the process of decoding these letter sound matches-pulling apart and pushing together sounds in words.
- Separate words into syllables and then into phonemes (word parts).
- Develop ever-increasing vocabularies.
- Understand the conventions of reading in their first language. In English—reading from left to right, from page top to bottom.
- Have a positive attitude towards reading.
All of these skills are developed when you talk about words, learn new vocabulary, read to your child and talk about the process of reading with them. Much of this learning is informally transferred to children through fun with words through games, songs, pictures, and stories.
We urge you to have fun with words and reading, but not to attempt to “teach” them to read in English. Staff will provide you with many ways you can support language development, reading, and writing skill development.