how to teach reading

[Amirah]

ok so i been freaking out and reading everything i can about teaching reading in more than one language but i am getting conflicting opinions and kinda lost.

 

i have a 2yr old. he is not talking yet but we are doing OPOL(husband speaks arabic but is gone except a few hours a day) he watches arabic cartoons and DH reads in arabic. i speak english but can read in arabic and by the time he is 6 i will have completed 4 yrs of intensive arabic.

 

i was planning to do arabic curriculum and english everyday but i read on here that i should start one then add the other. question though which should i start first? i was thinking maybe we start arabic first in kindy and then add english phonic/reading in 1st? or should it be the other way around? also if i do this do i not teach the alphabet or anything in english until i am ready to add it?

 

my reason for thinking arabic first is because all of his family on DH side speak only arabic and french maybe 1 or 2 know some english. also all of our friends here are from DH country and their kids speak a mix some speak english or countrys dialect one or two speak Modern standard.they will send their kids to school though so they will get english. the only place little one will get it is tae kwan do and maybe the mosque. im kinda lost so any advice would be great.

[Ohdanigirl]

Have you gotten opinions from others doing Arabic and English? I can see how getting different opinions can freak you out when you are just starting. Take a deep breadth and relax. I promise you will not break him. LOL Different things work with different people.

 

I do Spanish and English. I have always spoken to my children almost 100% in Spanish until the summer before we start kindy. Then I begin all English. It take awhile, but since my children have herd English pretty much all there lives, they eventually start speaking English, after some hesitation. Once we cross that hurdle we do OPOL, myself doing English. I teach my dc to read in English first, because there are so many rules and contradictions, and because we school in English. This is completely different from what others have done, but has worked well for us. Spanish is a phonetic language, and easy to read once you are reading in English. Also, my dc do all there religious instruction in Spanish, and we add n read alouds, at least one Spanish book is being read for extra/free reading.

 

From what I have read, I think you could have quite a few options. The two alphabets you will be working with are very different. I believe that some people have actually done both at the same time with out a problem. There are others on the board with actual experience, so I hope they will correct me if I am wrong. I think you should sit down and think about what your end goal is. Do you plan to do the bulk of your school in English. If so, will your son get enough exposure to Arabic to keep him from losing what he does learn? Can you incorporate books in Arabic? For example, as he gets older could you find literature and books related to his History that he can read, or have read to him in addition to what he reads in English? If you want to school in Arabic, will you feel comfortable doing so? If not, will you have outside help?

 

The point is, consider your situation, goals, and comfort zone. Really think about it and then decide how to best get there. Regardless of what others say, if you are not comfortable, it will be of no help. Come back, and let us know what ou have thought about. What you want. How your dh feels. Etc. The ladies here are all very helpful.

 

HTH

 

Danielle

[Amirah]

Have you gotten opinions from others doing Arabic and English? I can see how getting different opinions can freak you out when you are just starting. Take a deep breadth and relax. I promise you will not break him. LOL Different things work with different people.

 

I do Spanish and English. I have always spoken to my children almost 100% in Spanish until the summer before we start kindy. Then I begin all English. It take awhile, but since my children have herd English pretty much all there lives, they eventually start speaking English, after some hesitation. Once we cross that hurdle we do OPOL, myself doing English. I teach my dc to read in English first, because there are so many rules and contradictions, and because we school in English. This is completely different from what others have done, but has worked well for us. Spanish is a phonetic language, and easy to read once you are reading in English. Also, my dc do all there religious instruction in Spanish, and we add n read alouds, at least one Spanish book is being read for extra/free reading.

 

From what I have read, I think you could have quite a few options. The two alphabets you will be working with are very different. I believe that some people have actually done both at the same time with out a problem. There are others on the board with actual experience, so I hope they will correct me if I am wrong. I think you should sit down and think about what your end goal is. Do you plan to do the bulk of your school in English. If so, will your son get enough exposure to Arabic to keep him from losing what he does learn? Can you incorporate books in Arabic? For example, as he gets older could you find literature and books related to his History that he can read, or have read to him in addition to what he reads in English? If you want to school in Arabic, will you feel comfortable doing so? If not, will you have outside help?

 

The point is, consider your situation, goals, and comfort zone. Really think about it and then decide how to best get there. Regardless of what others say, if you are not comfortable, it will be of no help. Come back, and let us know what ou have thought about. What you want. How your dh feels. Etc. The ladies here are all very helpful.

 

HTH

 

Danielle

 

ultimately our end goal is for him to be fluent in arabic. we are willing to do whatever on our part to make it happen. i plan to teach mostly in english except for his language arts which will be in both english and arabic. our religious text(Quran is in arabic as well as all the major religious books). i also have books for all other subject in arabic in case we decide to school other subjects in arabic. DH has also said he can translate the curriculum we intend to use over to arabic if i want to do lessons in both languages. reading materials or any other supplements as he gets older would not be a problem since we frequent DH home country often and plan to send little one there for 3 monthes in the summer every year once he reaches 6. right now i am comfortable reading to him in arabic. when he is kindy age which is 4(we do 2 yrs kindy) i will have a couple of years of intensive arabic as well as husband is going to start speaking to both me and son in arabic only when he is home(right now he just speaks to son). i think im more worried about his access to english language than arabic. most of our friends and family speak arabic and french(im not in touch with any of my family outside of my parents and sis due to personal reasons.) the only access he would have to english is tae kwan do lessons and maybe at the mosque for quran lessons and socializing but even there most of the kids speak urdu or arabic. most of the other families i am in contact with that homeschool teach both side by side and that was my original plan, but most of them living in countries where arabic is the main language or they just teach it as a foreign language not really for fluency. hope that helps