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My kid goes to English public kindergarten and learns there to read and write in English. We live in USA. At home we speak Czech and Czech words are read as written with different phonetics. How long should I wait (e.g., after she masters English reading) to introduce phonics rules of a second language? Where can I read about reading in your second language - how's and when's? (or someone's experience?) |
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I would suggest two things. One, teach the alphabet and reading skills as a separate but equal thing. "This is the English Alphabet and This is the Czech Alphabet" Then teach the Czech alphabet the same way any other kid would learn it - songs, games, didactic teaching etc. The second thing I would suggest is reading, "The Bilingual Edge". It is a wonderful resource for people that want to teach their child their home tongue in an environment that does not regularly use the second language being taught. It'll give you all the details about the "HOW" of teaching Czech to your chidren even if they are resistant as well as all the ways having your kids be multilingual is to their HUGE advantage. |
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I assume from your description that the child already speaks Czech, just can't read and write in Czech yet. In this case I guess you are reading Czech tales to her at home, from Czech books. I think that soon after she learns to read in English, she ought to get interested in reading those Czech tales too (Krtek rulez! :-), which gives you a natural opportunity. Our elder daughter is right now learning to read and write more or less parallelly in Hungarian and Finnish. The phonetics of these two languages are fairly close to each other, so - although she does have some minor ortography issues - we know she will sort it out sooner or later. English, however, is so different, in your situation we would definitely teach reading and writing one language at a time. |
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The problem with introduction another language to any child is their own resistance. If your child is as stubborn as mine she will resist learning another language tooth and nail. The best way to introduce another language would be either before 3 or when they decide to stand out from the crowd because at this age the kids are looking for conformity and most try not to show their foreign background. |
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