Sarah0000 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Do you guys see any problems with letting a very young child read a foreign language, in this case Spanish, if there is no fluent speaker in the household? He reads English at a first grade level. This morning he opened up the Song School Spanish textbook and sounded out many of the Spanish words, first how it would be in English and then figuring out what it is in Spanish (words he already knew in Spanish). Do you think there's a certain reading level children should reach in their native language first and/or a certain oral level they should reach in the second language before reading in the second language? This is a child who started reading before he talked well, and reading really helped his speech. Maybe he learns language better that way? We also do not do any formal reading/spelling programs, just games and things like word wheels. Wasn't it Charlotte Mason that said kids should only see correct spellings of words, grammatically correct sentences, etc.? I know the Spanish is correct for Spanish, but might that interfere with intuiting what is correct in English if a very young child sees a lot of foreign language words? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 No, seeing words in different languages does not interfere with developing correct English. My kids grew up with more German books than English books (I read to them, but they saw the words) and both easily developed perfect English spelling. I would merely be concerned about his Spanish pronounciation if there is nobody in the home who can correct mistakes. I would not want incorrect words to become ingrained. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 I can read Spanish and pronounce Spanish words correctly, but without the right accent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 I had intended not to have DD work with written Spanish u til she was older, but that just didn't work. She snuggles while I read and wondered why I read the words funny in the Spanish books. It didn't take her long to just work out the Spanish phonics on her own. She still became more and more fluent in her English reading. And I believe that not perfect Spanish is better than no Spanish, so I just let her read. Also, reading and writing in Spanish opened up the use of DuoLingo, which has been a lifesaver given the rarity of progressive, leveled Spanish programs for kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Let her have fun with Duolingo or Spanish readers at the library. My library has a great collection of spanish baby board books all the way to bilingual high school textbooks for ESL. My kids had fun reading spanish off boxes as preschoolers. Didn't affect their english. ETA: Library have bilingual English-Spanish storytime for the under 5s too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah0000 Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 Thank you. We read lots of bilingual books. I'm working up the courage to attend Spanish story time at the library. I don't believe its bilingual, just Spanish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bakpak Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 Simultaneously is fine. If your child can figure out all the different sounds for the English vowels, adding in a single sound for most Spanish letters won't bother them. Follow his lead, and keep putting books in front of him :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.