Second Language Children - Teaching Reading and Writing

Reading and writing are important skills that every child needs to master to get along well in the world. If you have a bilingual or multilingual child, teaching your child to read and write in the all the known languages will be an added advantage. While research hasn't shown multilingual children to be more intelligent than monolingual ones, knowing more than one language will certainly make them more worldly and will open up more opportunities for them.

So what is the best way to teach second language children to learn how to read and write? Well, you proceed in more or less the same way you would go about teaching monolingual children.

You make sure the child is reasonably proficient in speaking and listening skills. Then you teach reading first and, when letter and word recognition is mastered, you proceed to the writing part.

It is important to keep learning fun, relaxed and interesting, something the child likes and looks forward to. Once you establish that sort of attitude towards learning, the rest will be smooth sailing.

Keep learning sessions short and stop if the child appears bored or distracted. Don't force your child and don't compare his or her progress with that of other children. Each child is unique and should be treated as such.

As mentioned, a child needs to be able to speak and understand the languages before he or she can read in them. However, you can read to your child from an early age to develop an interest in books.

Get plenty of well-illustrated books in both the first and second languages, and keep them around within easy reach so your child can peruse them at any time. Set aside ten or twenty minutes everyday to read together in both languages. Read aloud while pointing to each word you read. This will help your child to make the connection between the spoken word and the written word, and also to understand in which direction the script is written (left to right, or, in a language like Arabic, right to left). Read clearly and slowly. With a well-familiar book, you can pause at certain words and encourage your child to fill in the gaps. Along with reading books from your child's learning level, it is also a good idea to read from books that are slightly above his or her learning level to expand your child's scope further.

Continue reading together even after the child has mastered reading. Ask him or her to read out loud to you, or to visiting guests. This will develop reading as well as presentation skills. Be sure to applaud enthusiastically after a good reading.

Apart from reading books, you can read street signs, shop signs, food package signs and so on. If you live in the region of the first language, these will be in the first language. In this case, and if possible, you can consider taking your holidays or having your child spend vacations with relatives/friends in the region of the second language.

To promote writing, it's a good idea to make non-toxic crayons and markers available to your child from an early age. The idea is to teach the child how to hold a writing implement while scribbling away creatively. Just be around to make sure your child doesn't put writing tools in his or her mouth.

Proceed towards formal writing once your child seems fairly comfortable with talking, listening and reading skills. Teach alphabets first. Regular reading will already have acquainted the child with the shapes and sounds of the alphabet. Show him or how to write both capital and small letters. You can write a letter in pencil and have the child trace over it with a marker. Repeat this several times, moving on the next letter after the first letter has been mastered and then progressing to words.

You can have the child write words of the things around the house, or you can have him or her help you write shopping or to-do lists. Get magnetic letters in both languages and play with them. Check out writing software programs for young learners that will teach your child to write on a computer.

At a later stage, if you have relations who speak the first and the second languages, you can have your child write to them. Wanting to communicate with or to show off to a favorite relative or friend can be a powerful motivation to improve writing skills.

The best way to teach second language children to learn how to read and write is to keep the whole process natural and easy. Both languages should be regularly used for everyday purposes. A language that is not used is a language that will wither away.