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Our weekly Ask an Expert series continues to grow into a treasure cove of information and advice concerning bilingual families. The experts in the panel all shine in their own right; amongst them is bilingual English/Spanish speech language professional, Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, who recently debunked three common myths about speech development in bilingual children. Now, we are excited to announce that Dr. Kester has joined the impressive panel of bilingual experts that collaborate in our weekly series-Ask an Expert.
We invite you to visit Dr. Kester’s website, Bilinguistics, to learn more about her and her team.
They are “dedicated to enhancing speech and language services for Spanish-English bilingual children, enabling those children to achieve their highest communicative and academic potential.”
Click here to send her your questions regarding speech development in bilingual children.
Should I start teaching my son how to read in Spanish?
A couple of weeks ago author and celebrated researcher Barbara Zurer Pearson answered the question: “When should my child learn to read in a second language?”
Today’s question, sent by Claudia Hadad, digs in deeper into the issue of teaching young bilinguals to read in the minority language.
“We use both English and Spanish at home but our native language is Spanish. My son is 5 and already reads in English. Should I start teaching him how to read in Spanish? Would he be confused with the fact that we use the same alphabet but the sounds are different.”
Hi Claudia,
Ellen Stubbe Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Children are just as capable of becoming bi-literate as they are of becoming bilingual. Dual language learning does not confuse children. Will your child make mistakes in the process of learning to read in two languages? Yes. Just as monolingual, mono-literate children make mistakes when learning to read, bilinguals will as well. Many of the mistakes bilinguals make in development may be the result of influence from the other language but this is part of the learning process. Some people call that “confused” but with feedback, bilingual children learn to correct those errors, just as monolingual children learn to correct their errors with feedback. Children quickly learn to to use both systems. Recent research also suggests that the earlier a child learns two languages, the better off he will be for dual language reading development .
If your son is already reading in English, he should have a relatively easy time learning to read in Spanish. Spanish is considered a “transparent” language because of its mostly one-to-one letter-to-sound correspondence, while English is considered an “opaque” language because there is often more than one sound associated with a letter. Transparent languages are generally easier to learn because their rules are more consistent than opaque languages. Additionally, the orthographies of English and Spanish are very similar, making it easier for children to transfer knowledge from one language to the other.
For a lot of detail on the differences in the orthographies and sound systems of English and Spanish, please see Gorman & Kester (2004) at the following link:
http://bilinguistics.com/education/abad_0701/abad_0701.pdf
Happy reading!
Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Excellent! I am so glad that she used the term “influence”, as opposed to “interference”, which many people use to describe when students may make errors as a result of the influence of one language on another. It’s excellent that she also states that learning to read bilingually is a developmental process–students will initially make errors and possibly overgeneralize rules from one language to the other language, but the errors will start to iron out upon increased exposure to literacy!!
So great! All this info is coming at the perfect time! My son will be starting Montessori preschool in a few weeks and will soon be being introduced to sounds and writing there in English. I wanted to parallel at home in Spanish but was feeling unsure about the decision. After the info you’ve offered this week, I don’t feel unsure at all! Thank you!
Siobhan, we were in exactly your situation last year–my youngest son was in his first year of Montessori school, working with the letter baskets and English language sounds. As reading “clicked” for him in English, I started having him do some of the reading in our Spanish picture books at home. It really only took a week or two before he had figured out the differences in sounds (and syllable divisions), and now he reads quite well in both languages! Every once in a while he’ll read an English word “Spanish-style,” but he almost always catches himself and self-corrects. It’s really fascinating to watch, I think.
Having been a bilingual kindergarten teacher for 16 years I was really afraid of confusing my 2 year old who already reads in English at about a first or second grade level. A friend assured me that because he was so smart and bilingual in other ways (speaking, singing etc.) that he wouldn’t be confused at all and she was right. He’s not quite as proficient in reading in Spanish as he is in English but he wasn’t at all confused by the alphabet or the sounds . He just knows that he does stuff in Eng and Spa including reading. I love the flexability that being bilingual gives your mind.
I agree, but with one condition. My daughter is going into 5th grade at a bilingual school in Mexico. I (mom) am a native English speaker. Her father speaks fluent English, but is a native Spanish speaker. While she was young, I watched some of my English-speaking neighbors struggling with their kids learning Spanish. Most of these parents were also struggling themselves, not so much with the actual language, but with their attitude towards it. I decided to throw myself into my Spanish learning as much as possible in front of my daughter and always keep a positive attitude. When she started preschool (age 3), I signed up to be a homeroom mom even though my Spanish wasn’t great. I think this attitude really helped her in her confidence. Finishing 4th grade, she received the 1st place medal for academic excellence in her class in both languages.
My best recommendation to any parent who wants their child to be successful in a second language is to learn it alongside your child. READ, WATCH, SING & PLAY in the second language! And always have fun!
p.s. – Audiobooks are great, too! It’s a great way to listen to the language and have discussions about them afterwards.
I started Ian in Spanish first. He is 41/2 and I would say he reads basic sentences in both languages almost at the same level. I did not emphasized English since I try to speak in Spanish all the time to him.
He learned the sounds of the letters at a very young age in both languages (20 months) and at Montessori he worked with the teachers in English only.
I did not pressure him, but I read to him in Spanish most of the time and several times a day. Spanish is very simple because, as Ellen says, it is a transparent language. Very few letters have double sounds like the g or c , that change the pronunciation depending on what vowel follows it.
Best advice? Buy tons of books in Spanish from Ebay in bundles of 25, they end up being inexpensive and simply wonderful to have around. I love “Nacho Lee” a basic book that teaches how to read in Spanish. Also bring Spanish books from the library every 2 weeks so you and enrich their vocabulary.
Kristen, I think you hit the nail on the head when you talk about your attitude.
You are doing an awesome thing!
Marcela also has it right, have lots of Spanish books around.
Sisi: You’re awesome. I love you.
I am constantly amazed by all your stories and inspired beyond belief. I will now focus on teaching my child the basics of reading seeing the success that so many of you have had at such an early age.
@Marcela-welcome back! Thanks for the ebay books bundle tip..great one!
@Kristen–I agree with you that attitude has everything to do with it. Gives your child the confidence and the positive role model.
@Sisi–2-year-old reading at a first grade level? I definitely want to read more about that if you´d like to share.
@Siobhan–that´s exactly why we have the Ask an Expert series..so we can all feel encouraged by what we already instinctively know to do. Please let us know how he does.
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