Phonics and foreign language speakers

[rdj2027]

A Japanese friend of mine asked me to help her to teach English to her sons ages 2 and 5.  Her five year old is currently enrolled in an international school where while the teachers are native English speakers, all the children are Japanese and she is not happy how little English is actually spoken during school hours.  She would like to teach them at home and has asked me for a phonics program.

 

Are there any differences between phonics programs which might make one more suited for someone whose native language is not English or are they all the same.  Money is not an issue.

 

I have never used phonics, neither have my children, they just sort of all learned to read on their own and seem to be natural spellers so I have no experience whatsoever.

 

TIA

[Ellie]

A Japanese friend of mine asked me to help her to teach English to her sons ages 2 and 5.  Her five year old is currently enrolled in an international school where while the teachers are native English speakers, all the children are Japanese and she is not happy how little English is actually spoken during school hours.  She would like to teach them at home and has asked me for a phonics program.

 

Are there any differences between phonics programs which might make one more suited for someone whose native language is not English or are they all the same.  Money is not an issue.

 

I have never used phonics, neither have my children, they just sort of all learned to read on their own and seem to be natural spellers so I have no experience whatsoever.

 

TIA

 

A friend taught her Japanese students English using Spalding.

[CadenceSophia]

I do think an OG based program might be best. Something that has a CD of pronunciation for the phonograms. Honestly there are youtube videos for that too.

 

A 5 year old who is just learning English should probably not also be learning to read -- or at least stop at only memorizing the phonograms for a while. Decoding words will be useless unless he has a strong oral fluency already.

 

You can post this on the bilingual board too.

[lulalu]

Does the mom speak and read and write English? Very hard to do if she cannot do all three of those at a higher elementary level.

 

Then- I would tell her as he learns the oral language first for a good 2 years. Reading will be much easier after that.

 

Then with the differences between these two languages either a spalding method or webster method would give a good base.

[rdj2027]

Thank you everybody.  Yes, Mom speaks, reads and writes English.  He can read Hiragana, Katakana and some Kanji so I figure he understands the idea of reading.  I had a short conversation with him and thought he spoke very well.

[CadenceSophia]

Then I would go with AAR.

[MerryAtHope]

If he's already speaking English fairly well, I too would suggest All About Reading. Here's a blog post about a mom using AAR to teach her English Language Learners.

[maize]

How is mom's accent? Can she hear and reproduce all the differences between English phonograms? This is difficult for many Japanese people, even those who have achieved a high level of fluency in the language. We have a lot of phonograms that do not exist in Japanese and substitutions are common among Japanese speakers of English. If mom cannot accurately reproduce all the phonograms I would be more inclined to let the child learn from the native speakers at school. It is a lot easier to learn something correctly the first time than to have to un-do bad habits once formed.

 

One possibility might be the online phonics lessons that a boardie has put together--is it ElizabethB?

Edited December 26, 2016 by maize

[Mabelen]

I personally would not do a traditional phonics program in her case. The kids are already learning how to read in Japanese. Her goal is to increase English speaking time. I would try to increase the exposure to native English sources, since that is what is missing with all the Japanese school mates. I would make use of sites like Starfall and Razkids or any other sites where there is simultaneous audio and print input with native speakers. This would provide a native pronunciation model and also build vocabulary. The mom could use those as a springboard for conversations in English. Later on, they can use videos and audio books.

[rdj2027]

How is mom's accent? Can she hear and reproduce all the differences between English phonograms? This is difficult for many Japanese people, even those who have achieved a high level of fluency in the language. We have a lot of phonograms that do not exist in Japanese and substitutions are common among Japanese speakers of English. If mom cannot accurately reproduce all the phonograms I would be more inclined to let the child learn from the native speakers at school. It is a lot easier to learn something correctly the first time than to have to un-do bad habits once formed.

 

One possibility might be the online phonics lessons that a boardie has put together--is it ElizabethB?

Her pronunciation is actually quite good.  I really do not wish to become involved in the English education of another child since I am not a native speaker myself.  I only agreed to help her find a phonics program for now.  

 

While the teachers at the school are native speakers, there is little to no attention to the individual child or their questions.  They have applied to other schools but getting in is not easy.

 

She is also looking around for a group of English speaking children but has not found one yet.  They live too far away from us to meet on a regular basis or I would have offered to connect her to some of the kids and parents here on base.

[Ad astra]

English is my second language and I had a great success with Hooked on Phonics in teaching phonics to my kids. The lessons don't require a direct instruction and students basically learn it by reading practice. My kids loved its cute illustrations, leveled readers, and DVDs... even the app! 

 

Starfall is also a good one for independent/foreign learners. Its phonics app is called Starfall Learn to Read.

Edited December 30, 2016 by Moon