Teaching how to read english

9 Fun and Easy Tips

With the abundance of information out there, it can seem like there is no clear answer about how to teach a child to read. As a busy parent, you may not have time to wade through all of the conflicting opinions.

That’s why we’re here to help! There are some key elements when it comes to teaching kids to read, so we’ve rounded up nine effective tips to help you boost your child’s reading skills and confidence.

These tips are simple, fit into your lifestyle, and help build foundational reading skills while having fun!

Tips For How To Teach A Child To Read

1) Focus On Letter Sounds Over Letter Names

We used to learn that “b” stands for “ball.” But when you say the word ball, it sounds different than saying the letter B on its own. That can be a strange concept for a young child to wrap their head around!

Instead of focusing on letter names, we recommend teaching them the sounds associated with each letter of the alphabet. For example, you could explain that B makes the /b/ sound (pronounced just like it sounds when you say the word ball aloud).

Once they firmly establish a link between a handful of letters and their sounds, children can begin to sound out short words. Knowing the sounds for B, T, and A allows a child to sound out both bat and tab.

As the number of links between letters and sounds grows, so will the number of words your child can sound out!

Now, does this mean that if your child already began learning by matching formal alphabet letter names with words, they won’t learn to match sounds and letters or learn how to read? Of course not!

We simply recommend this process as a learning method that can help some kids with the jump from letter sounds to words.

2) Begin With Uppercase Letters

Practicing how to make letters is way easier when they all look unique! This is why we teach uppercase letters to children who aren’t in formal schooling yet.

Even though lowercase letters are the most common format for letters (if you open a book at any page, the majority of the letters will be lowercase), uppercase letters are easier to distinguish from one another and, therefore, easier to identify.

Think about it –– “b” and “d” look an awful lot alike! But “B” and “D” are much easier to distinguish. Starting with uppercase letters, then, will help your child to grasp the basics of letter identification and, subsequently, reading.

To help your child learn uppercase letters, we find that engaging their sense of physical touch can be especially useful. If you want to try this, you might consider buying textured paper, like sandpaper, and cutting out the shapes of uppercase letters.

Ask your child to put their hands behind their back, and then place the letter in their hands. They can use their sense of touch to guess what letter they’re holding! You can play the same game with magnetic letters.

3) Incorporate Phonics

Research has demonstrated that kids with a strong background in phonics (the relationship between sounds and symbols) tend to become stronger readers in the long-run.

A phonetic approach to reading shows a child how to go letter by letter — sound by sound — blending the sounds as you go in order to read words that the child (or adult) has not yet memorized.

Once kids develop a level of automatization, they can sound out words almost instantly and only need to employ decoding with longer words. Phonics is best taught explicitly, sequentially, and systematically — which is the method HOMER uses.

If you’re looking for support helping your child learn phonics, our HOMER Learn & Grow app might be exactly what you need! With a proven reading pathway for your child, HOMER makes learning fun!

4) Balance Phonics And Sight Words

Sight words are also an important part of teaching your child how to read. These are common words that are usually not spelled the way they sound and can’t be decoded (sounded out).

Because we don’t want to undo the work your child has done to learn phonics, sight words should be memorized. But keep in mind that learning sight words can be challenging for many young children.

So, if you want to give your child a good start on their reading journey, it’s best to spend the majority of your time developing and reinforcing the information and skills needed to sound out words.

5) Talk A Lot

Even though talking is usually thought of as a speech-only skill, that’s not true. Your child is like a sponge. They’re absorbing everything, all the time, including the words you say (and the ones you wish they hadn’t heard)!

Talking with your child frequently and engaging their listening and storytelling skills can increase their vocabulary.

It can also help them form sentences, become familiar with new words and how they are used, as well as learn how to use context clues when someone is speaking about something they may not know a lot about.

All of these skills are extremely helpful for your child on their reading journey, and talking gives you both an opportunity to share and create moments you’ll treasure forever!

6) Keep It Light

Reading is about having fun and exploring the world (real and imaginary) through text, pictures, and illustrations. When it comes to reading, it’s better for your child to be relaxed and focused on what they’re learning than squeezing in a stressful session after a long day.

We’re about halfway through the list and want to give a gentle reminder that your child shouldn’t feel any pressure when it comes to reading — and neither should you!

Although consistency is always helpful, we recommend focusing on quality over quantity. Fifteen minutes might sound like a short amount of time, but studies have shown that 15 minutes a day of HOMER’s reading pathway can increase early reading scores by 74%!

It may also take some time to find out exactly what will keep your child interested and engaged in learning. That’s OK! If it’s not fun, lighthearted, and enjoyable for you and your child, then shake it off and try something new.

7) Practice Shared Reading

While you read with your child, consider asking them to repeat words or sentences back to you every now and then while you follow along with your finger.

There’s no need to stop your reading time completely if your child struggles with a particular word. An encouraging reminder of what the word means or how it’s pronounced is plenty!

Another option is to split reading aloud time with your child. For emerging readers, you can read one line and then ask them to read the next. For older children, reading one page and letting them read the next page is beneficial.

Doing this helps your child feel capable and confident, which is important for encouraging them to read well and consistently!

This technique also gets your child more acquainted with the natural flow of reading. While they look at the pictures and listen happily to the story, they’ll begin to focus on the words they are reading and engage more with the book in front of them.

Rereading books can also be helpful. It allows children to develop a deeper understanding of the words in a text, make familiar words into “known” words that are then incorporated into their vocabulary, and form a connection with the story.

We wholeheartedly recommend rereading!

8) Play Word Games

Getting your child involved in reading doesn’t have to be about just books. Word games can be a great way to engage your child’s skills without reading a whole story at once.

One of our favorite reading games only requires a stack of Post-It notes and a bunched-up sock. For this activity, write sight words or words your child can sound out onto separate Post-It notes. Then stick the notes to the wall.

Your child can then stand in front of the Post-Its with the bunched-up sock in their hands. You say one of the words and your child throws the sock-ball at the Post-It note that matches!

9) Read With Unconventional Materials

In the same way that word games can help your child learn how to read, so can encouraging your child to read without actually using books!

If you’re interested in doing this, consider using PlayDoh, clay, paint, or indoor-safe sand to form and shape letters or words.

Another option is to fill a large pot with magnetic letters. For emerging learners, suggest that they pull a letter from the pot and try to name the sound it makes. For slightly older learners, see if they can name a word that begins with the same sound, or grab a collection of letters that come together to form a word.

As your child becomes more proficient, you can scale these activities to make them a little more advanced. And remember to have fun with it!

Reading Comes With Time And Practice

Overall, we want to leave you with this: there is no single answer to how to teach a child to read. What works for your neighbor’s child may not work for yours –– and that’s perfectly OK!

Patience, practicing a little every day, and emphasizing activities that let your child enjoy reading are the things we encourage most. Reading is about fun, exploration, and learning!

And if you ever need a bit of support, we’re here for you! At HOMER, we’re your learning partner. Start your child’s reading journey with confidence with our personalized program plus expert tips and learning resources.

Author

25 Effective Ways to Teach Reading to Beginners

The Butterfly Teacher is thrilled to welcome guest writer Sophia Sanchez, an ESL instructor who has extensive knowledge about language development. In this post, she shares 25 practical and effective ways to teach reading to beginners. Get your pen and paper ready…there are tons of teaching tips below!

*This post contains affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, which do not cost any extra for you. Please see the full disclosure here.*

How Do You Teach Reading Effectively?

Reading is a complex exercise.

We have to teach kids to read the written word and to build vocabulary simultaneously.

On top of all this, as students grow, they need to master more complex reading skills, such as inferencing.

So what are the best reading strategies that teachers and parents need to teach? And HOW do you teach them?

To best answer these questions, you must approach reading instruction based on your students/child’s developmental level:

Early / Beginning Reader
Emergent Reader
Advanced Reader

You will be able to teach reading more effectively when you recognize the strengths and weaknesses of each developmental level and cater to those.

Tanya–The Butterfly Teacher, shares reading comprehension teaching tips for advanced readers, so in this post, I will share tips for early and beginning readers.

Let’s jump right in!

Vocabulary-Building Strategies for Early Readers

A highly effective way to teach reading to beginners is to help them build extensive background knowledge and vocabulary skills.

As you teach early readers more vocabulary, make sure the learning is playful, because most kids learn best via play!

1–Build Their Oral Vocabulary Through Conversation:
Encourage children to frequently interact verbally with you and others. More conversation will build on the vocabulary they may already know.
2–Combine Pictures with Vocabulary Words & Actions:
For example, put up a poster outside your class with signage for shaking hands, hugging, greeting with a bow/folded hands, or just smiling, and get the kids to point at how they want to be greeted. Encourage the kids to say the words aloud and then act them out.
3–Play Games to Identify Everyday Items:
Boring teaching will make reading seem like a chore! Make learning to read more fun with games that help children build vocabulary.
As children grow more proficient and confident pronouncing words for things like vegetables, fruits, simple objects, colors, plants, actions such as mowing, sweeping, washing, drying, etc.–they are forming the building blocks for strong reading fluency.

Simple Ways to Teach Pre-Literacy Skills

The vocabulary word building tips from above help beginning readers develop more background knowledge that influences their reading.

Here are simple but effective ways to teach reading to beginners who need more pre-literacy skills.

4–Introduce Kids to Books With No Text:
A few of my favorite examples for beginning readers are:
Free Fall by David Weisner,
Up and Up by Shirley Hughes,
and Noah’s Ark by Peter Spier.
As you share these picture books, let each child “read it” on their own, say the story out loud for others, or even interpret a page in their own words to develop pre-literacy skills.

Wordless books or simple word books such as this book set help early readers build essential vocabulary skills. Click HERE or the image to learn more. (Amazon affiliate link)

5–Start a Story Prompt:
Use flash cards or picture books to begin a make-believe story. Then allow your students/kids to create the next part or line of the story you’ve started. This helps them build the foundation for sequencing in reading.
6–Read Simple Rebus Readers:
These fun books help beginning readers answer your story prompts, identify sight words, and build vocabulary–which are all important pre-literacy skills.

What is the Main Difference Between Alphabetic Principle & Phonemic Awareness?

Let’s pause here to quickly dive into an important topic that relates to beginning readers.

Alphabetic understanding vs. letter-sound relationships!

What in the world is alphabetic principle and how is it different from phonemic awareness?

Many people use the words “alphabetic principle” interchangeably with “phonics.” It relates to letter-symbol relationships and spoken words.

Phonemic awareness involves breaking word parts down to isolate and identify specific sounds or phonemes.

To effectively teach reading to beginners, parents and teachers must use different teaching strategies for these two reading skills!

Let’s continue with specific examples

Easy Ways to Teach Alphabetic Principle

7–Introduce Single Letters and Their Sound:
English is not a phonetic language, but language learning is a lot about listening and ears like sounds. Confusion can set in but reducing pace and increasing fun games for practice can help.
8–Get Kids to Say Words Which Start With That Sound:
This can be combined with the same teaching strategies that you use to teach vocabulary words. Put pictures with words next to everyday items. Emphasize the sound that initial letter makes.
9–Give Sounds for Single Vowels:
Like ‘e’ for egg
10–Give Sounds for Single Consonants:
Like ‘h’ for hut

Tactile letter activities like this one help beginning readers build letter recognition and phonemic awareness. Click HERE or the image for more details. (Amazon affiliate link)

11–Do Kinesthetic & Tactile Activities to Learn Letters:
Write letters in the sand or in shaving cream. Use magnetic letters, ropes, and other items that beginning readers can touch as a fun way to build letter recognition.
12–Identify Letters among other letters (like a design:)
Before kids can identify letters as letters, they can play at spotting them. E.g Write ‘egg’ on the board with space in between. Now hold up the letter ‘e’ and ask the kids to spot it in what’s written. Add more words on the board which include ‘e’, and ask them to spot all the occurrences.
13–Complete Letter Crafts Decorating Objects Which Start With That Letter

Ideas for Helping Beginning Readers Build Phonological Awareness

14–Play Phonological Awareness Games:
Pair your students in two teams. One team will say words and the other team has to say a word with the sound it ends on
For example: one team may say the word “red.” The other team will need to say a word like “dog” since the word red ends with “d.”
This type of game can be difficult for some kids, so feel free to modify it with flashcards, pictures, or other ways to assist kids. If it’s too frustrating for them, they will not feel confident to play, which will lead to possible tantrums.
15–Get Kids to Call Out Rhyming Words With You

16–Form Various Words With The Same Set of Sounds
17–Play Rhyming Games With Nonsense Words:
Kids love gibberish! Plus, using nonsense words heightens their awareness of word sounds and word parts.
18–Try basic tongue twisters: (you will have kids rolling in laughter!)
She sells sea shells on the sea shore, but the shells she sells are not the real sea shells’. It’s better to start with the first four words, and slowly add the rest meaningfully in steps, or it might turn into a gibberish spewing noisy classroom!

What’s the Absolute Best Way to Teach Children to Read?

Kids learn at their own pace.

As no two kids are alike, teachers really have to individually nurture each child on their reading journey. So there’s no ONE absolute best way to teach reading to every single child.

This post features lots of effective ways to teach reading to beginners so that you have more than one strategy to try.

Here Are More Helpful Posts on Reading Instruction For You:

The Best Free Literacy Apps
11 Children’s Books Written by Celebrities
Using Life Lessons to Teach Children’s Literature
Books that Teach Socio-Emotional Skills

Here’s hoping for wonderful journeys in the world of reading!

Author Bio: Sophia is a newbie online ESL/EFL instructor. She is a passionate educator and blogs about education on her personal blog. She found her true calling — teaching — while she was juggling writing and a 9-5 desk job.

English from scratch. Learning to read

What is the first thing a child is taught when he comes to school? Of course, the alphabet, and then reading and writing. Any teaching of a foreign language begins with the same. Is it possible to speak English without mastering the literacy? Yes, if you completely immerse yourself in the language environment. But even under such ideal conditions as living in an English-speaking country, you will still feel like a child in the company of adults. Without a decent knowledge of English, it is not easy not only to live in an English-speaking country, but also to travel the world. Even the airport is much easier to navigate for those who know how to read English.

So, it is clear that in order to master the language, you will definitely need to learn how to read. Any foreign course is built in such a way that in the first lessons you learn the alphabet and pronunciation. At the initial stages, of course, you will need to make an effort to remember how certain letters and letter combinations are read. But having mastered English literacy in the first lessons, you can easily voice any text, even filled with unfamiliar words.

How to learn to read English correctly. Some Tips

There are many ways to learn to read English. Someone resorts to the help of transcription. Others write down the pronunciation of English words using Russian letters. There are people who like to read aloud a lot. And someone focuses on audio files. In fact, all methods are good in their own way. When learning to read, it is not enough to learn letters, diphthongs and remember all the rules. In this matter, constant practice is important. Here are some tips to help you develop your English reading skills:

Learn to listen to English. Oddly enough, but the ability to hear what the British and Americans say directly affects our ability to read. At the initial stage, adapted books are very useful, provided with discs with audio recordings of the texts themselves. Having before your eyes the text that the announcer reads, you learn to read correctly on a subconscious level.
Try to read every day. Make it a rule to read English books for at least 20-30 minutes every day. Choose books according to your level of language proficiency. At the initial stage, you can read fairy tales and short stories. And in order to develop spoken language skills, it is also useful to occasionally look at English-language periodicals and blogs.
Get used to writing in English. As you know, reading and writing are directly related. One follows from the other. If a person reads English at a decent level, then he will most likely state his thoughts on paper very competently. Getting to know native speakers is one of the most affordable and effective ways to improve your reading and writing skills. Communication in modern society is often based on correspondence in chats and social networks. Therefore, having met a native speaker, you yourself will not notice how correspondence in English will become part of everyday life. Introverts can be advised to keep a diary, which will be filled with entries in English.
Learn English tongue twisters and poems. For example: Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not. Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot. We'll weather the weather whether we like it or not Tongue twisters help to work out the pronunciation of complex sounds. Poems enrich vocabulary.
Practice pronunciation. Spend time practicing those sounds that are unusual for Russian speakers. For example, the combination th is not given to every student the first time. And, of course, the easiest way to learn the correct pronunciation is to listen to the dialogues and monologues of native speakers. Modern TV series with English subtitles help to deliver the correct speech.

Reading in English . Alphabet

Suppose you want to learn to read English from scratch. In this case, you will have to start from the very beginning, that is, from the alphabet, consisting of 26 letters.

English alphabet (alphabet)

English has 20 consonants and 6 vowels. Vowels include letters: A, E, I, O, U, Y.

In order to learn the alphabet faster, you can turn to children's songs. Bright cards with letters also help a lot.

There are a few letters in the English language that "behave" differently from the rest. So, almost all consonants in English make one sound. But X is an exception. This letter conveys two sounds at once [ks]. It is also worth paying attention to the last character in the English alphabet. The pronunciation of Z depends on whether we are dealing with the British or American version of the language. In the first case, the letter is read as [zed], in the second - as [zi:].

The pronunciation of the letter R is also very different between the Americans and the British. In the UK, this is a long sound a [a:]. In the American alphabet - ar [a: r].

Transcription

Reading English will be much easier if you learn the transcription, which is a system of signs used to record sounds. Since this or that letter may sound differently depending on what signs surround it, it can be difficult for a foreigner to read some words correctly without transcription. However, recently many students refuse to memorize the symbols of English phonetics. Indeed, thanks to the Internet, today you can easily listen to how the right word is read.

How to read consonants

It's easy enough to remember how to read consonants in English. The fact is that you can easily find analogues in Russian for many consonant sounds. For example, the English Mm is, in fact, the familiar M [um]. And in the word lemon, the pronunciation of the consonant L is similar to the Russian L. Also, analogues in our language can be found with the consonants N, B, F, Z.

The pronunciation of the letter C depends on which characters it is adjacent to. If C is followed by the vowels I, E, Y, then it will be read as [s]. For example, in the word cinema (cinema). Before other vowels, C reads like [k]: come (come), camel (camel), cake (cake).

The consonants T and D in English are very similar to Russian T and D, only they are most often pronounced with a breath. But the letter Q will always be accompanied by a vowel U. The letter combination Qu is pronounced as [kw]. For example, in the word queen (queen). The consonant G before the vowels I, E, Y will be read as [j] - [dʒ]. For example, orange (orange), badge (icon). Before all other letters, G is pronounced like [g]: game (game), gale (storm).

Another unusual letter for the Russian language is Jj, which is always pronounced as [dʒ]. This consonant is very common in the names of representatives of English-speaking countries: Jack (Jack), James (James), Jane (Jane).

Below we provide a list of all English consonants with transcription:

Bb - [b]

Cc - [s] or [k]

Dd - [d]

Ff - [f]

Gg - [dʒ] or [g]

Hh - [h]

Jj-[dʒ]

Kk - [k]

Ll - [l]

mm - [m]

Nn-[n]

Pp - [p]

Qq - [kw]

Rr - [r]

Ss - [s] or [z]

Tt - [t]

Vv - [v]

Ww - [w]

Xx - [ks] or [gz]

Zz - [z]

Vowels

Reading in English for beginners is usually complicated not by consonants, which are often read the same way as they sound in the alphabet, but by vowels. There are only 6 vowels in English, but the problem is that each of them, depending on the position in the word, can have several reading options. Much is determined by whether the letter is in stressed or unstressed position. For stressed vowels, there are 4 types of syllable in English:

An open syllable is a syllable ending in a vowel or a consonant (except R) followed by a silent E. A stressed vowel in an open syllable is pronounced as it is pronounced in the alphabet. For example, plane (plane), placement (room), he (he).
A closed syllable is a syllable that ends in one consonant (excluding r) or several consonants. The stressed vowel in such a syllable is transmitted in a short and clear sound. The vowel A is pronounced as the middle between e and a [æ]. For example, cat (cat). The letter O in stressed position in a closed syllable sounds like [ɒ] in the word dog (dog), E - like [e] (for example, ten - ten). Vowels Y and I in a closed syllable are pronounced as [i] (little - small, myth - myth). Finally, the stressed letter U will resemble a somewhat slurred short sound and [ʌ] (cut - cut).
If a stressed vowel is followed by the consonant R alone or in combination with other consonants, then the vowels will be read as follows:

a [ɑː] - long Russian sound a - park (park)
o [ɔː] - lingering long Russian sound o - sport (sport)
e [ɜː] - resembles the Russian sound ё in the word "honey" - fern (fern)
y [ɜː] - byrd (bird)
i [ɜː] - first (first)
u [ɜː] - burn (burn)

If a stressed vowel is followed by a consonant R in combination with any vowel, then the syllables are divided into diphthongs or triphthongs (complex sounds consisting of two or three letters pronounced as one). In this combination, the vowel A sounds like [ɛə]. For example, in the word fare (fare, fare). The vowel O in the fourth type of syllable will be pronounced as a long Russian sound O [ɔː]. An example here is the word more (more). The vowel E under stress is pronounced as something of a fusion between Russian I and A [ɪə], for example mere (only). Y and I with the fourth type of syllable are read as [aɪə]. For example, in the words fire (fire) and tire (tire). The letter U turns into the sound [jʊə] (during - during).

Learning to read consonant diphthongs

At the initial stages of learning a foreign language, students will also need to find the answer to the question of how to read diphthongs in English. This term refers to combinations of two letters that give one sound.

Table of English diphthongs. Consonants

How to read different combinations of vowels?

If you are seriously wondering how to learn to read in English, you will also have to learn diphthongs with vowels. Here is some of them:

ai, ay, ei, ey - [ei] - aim (goal, task)
ai - [eə] - air (air). Before consonant R
ae - [ɪ:] - aegis (protection, aegis)
au - [o] - autumn (autumn)
ea, ee - [ɪ:] - meal (food). Only if the vowel is not followed by the letter R
ea, ee - [ɪə] - dear (dear). In position before R
ie - [ɪ:] - field (field).
oa - [ou] or [o:] - boat (boat)
oi, oy - [oi] - enjoy (enjoy)
oo [u:] or [u] or [uə] - moon (moon), book (book), poor (poor)
ou - [au] - ground (earth). In the middle of a word

Silent consonants

Those who have been reading English for quite some time rarely remember all the rules for pronouncing diphthongs. And even more so in the process of reading, not everyone pays attention to the fact that some consonants are dumb. But at the initial stage of learning, it is important to remember that the following letters are not read in English:

G and K before N at the beginning and end of a word. Foreign (foreign)
B and N after M. Autumn (autumn)
W before R. Wrong (incorrect)
P before N and S. Psychology (psychology)

You can learn to read English from scratch on your own. Do not try to cover everything at once, learn the sounds gradually. After you learn a diphthong or a letter, do not forget to consolidate the result by performing special pronunciation exercises.

In fact, there are a lot of rules for reading in English and exceptions to them, we have considered only the main ones. True, it is not necessary to learn them all. As you memorize new words, memorize their pronunciation and spelling immediately. So you will not have an urgent need to master all the rules of reading.

Teaching a child to read in English: a simple technology or an art?

Fascinating English

07/21/2021

20 minutes

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Contents

First, let's deal with the answer to the question of why in our world of high digital technologies, the time of the dominance of You-Tube and Tik-Toc - well, the time when all the information of interest can not only be listened to, but also viewed, why waste time and learn such a seemingly completely unpopular activity as reading?

If you ask the children themselves, more than half will even say that reading in their native language is boring and uninteresting! And then they force you to learn to read in English too !!!! Speak - yes!, listen - yes, yes! Watch - yes, yes, yes! But reading is nooo. ..

Nevertheless, it is necessary to explain to the child that reading is not only reading fiction in English. There are so-called "small forms" - reading to obtain the necessary, and sometimes vital information:

Reading signs, signs.
Reading a menu in a cafe or restaurant.
Reading titles.
Read instructions and recipes.
Reading composition.
Read application rules, etc.

All of the above in no way means reading full pages of text that fold into thick books.

How to prepare a child for learning to read in English?

It is not clear when to start teaching children to read in English. The main thing to understand is that the very study of English with children should by no means begin with learning to read. Rather, reading is introduced at the next stage, as a way to consolidate existing knowledge, skills and abilities. It is better that by this time the child already knows how to read in his native language. He possessed purely technical skills - to add syllables from letters, and words from syllables. Then, when teaching to read in English, attention will be focused only on sound-letter and letter-sound relationships, and the child’s fatigue from the process will be minimal.

It is also desirable that by the time reading begins, the child is already familiar with the oral side of the English language, so that at least a minimum supply of sounding samples of speech in English is stored in memory. This will help to correctly analyze the auditory image of the sounding word and correlate it with the visible letter image and vice versa.

How to teach children to read in English?

The process of learning to read can be conditionally divided into 3 stages:

Stage 1 – memorization of sound-letter and letter-sound relationships.
Stage 2 - familiarization with the rules of reading and training.
Stage 3 - fixing the basic rules of reading, the ability to transfer and vary them on the material of mini-texts, the development of a language guess.

The process of learning to read can not be positioned as learning. It is better that the child perceives everything that happens as a game. First, as a game with sounds and letters, and then as a game of words that form sentences.

The first stage

The purpose of the first stage is to memorize the letters of the English alphabet and the sounds that these letters stand for, with special attention to memorizing the consonants. This issue is covered in detail in “English sounds and letters for children. How to make friends with them? and "How to learn the English alphabet with children: instructions for use." For detailed information, we advise you to follow the links and read. Here we summarize the main points.

Firstly, the memorization of letters should go from an auditory image to a visual one, because oral speech is primary in relation to written.
Secondly, all sounding material must be supported by visual images. They said “dog” - they showed a picture (or they showed a picture, and the child said “dog”), then we exaggerate and separate the first sound - ddddd - then we show the letter, both capital and lowercase Dd.
Thirdly, we actively connect the process of activity. Remember that children cannot focus on the same thing for a long time. Therefore, the activity must be alternated: listen-talk-watch-write. Be sure to include a letter! Children love it - to write with a pen like adults. Just do not demand even, clear letters. Let them not fall into the cells, let them be a little crooked and oblique. Let the child write as it turns out. Children will be incredibly happy with what they wrote themselves!

Do not forget to praise! It is important.

We remember that the main activity for children is play, and that all children are great creators. Letters and sounds, since we started studying them, are our friends. And it is customary to play with friends and you can always come up with something interesting. Therefore, try to create a vivid visual image from each letter: decorate it, turn it into an animal or any other association. The task is for the baby to have a strong bridge between sounds and letters in his head, then, firstly, when he sees d-o-g, he will read and see not just a combination of letters, but a dog; secondly, the sound of Ssssnake, sssun, etc. will be strongly associated with the image of the letter “Ss”.

The second stage

The second stage - mastering the most general reading rules - should be divided into 3 parts:

Acquaintance with the rules for reading closed syllables.
Acquaintance with the rules for reading open syllables.
Acquaintance with the rules of reading diphthongs.

When getting acquainted with the rules of reading closed syllables in the child's memory, firstly, the sound-letter images of consonants are fixed, and secondly, the child begins to read the simplest words. This, in turn, creates a situation of success in the mind and motivates for further learning.

We build the process itself according to the principle of feasibility and accessibility, starting from the simplest vowel - “o”, then “e”, then “i”, then “a”, “u”. You can end with one-syllable words with "y". This will be a bridge to the transition to reading open syllables.

When introducing a rule for reading, we try to choose those words that the child already knows orally. Recognizing them while reading will cause great joy. At the stage of training and consolidation, on the contrary, it is good to select unfamiliar words, but always with pictures-meanings: the vocabulary will expand, consonants will be repeated, the child will definitely read, and not guess.

At the stage of training and consolidation, we introduce gamification techniques. Children love to win and break records. Therefore, if from the very beginning of learning to read, you introduce reading for a while using a stopwatch and record the results in a “success diary”, then the child will see progress and this will stimulate him to learn to read further.

How to enter reading rules and practice?

There are several options. You can make cards. And you can find a cartoon. The materials on the Maple Leaf Learning site of the “Let’s read” series (for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQkPO3qpUCg&t=2s) are perfect, where the vowel sound is clearly pronounced, to which consonants are gradually selected. The child can repeat. Due to the fact that the words do not appear entirely, but by letter, even the smallest will quickly learn to read.

Reading simulators can be found for consolidation and practice. Trainers are lists of words joined by one or more reading rules. There are a lot of such simulators on the Internet! You can download for free or find options online (for example, here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPVtHmdLrdV-cAi4yTnGWZwf35_BH0uUN ) and read-read read!

When the child has already learned to read several vowels, the exercise "twos" or "triples" - phrases or phrases of words with different consonants - is good. Such exercises are a transitional stage to reading entire appendices. Mindfulness develops, the rules for reading consonants are fixed. You can even pick up words that differ precisely in consonants, for example, big bag. This exercise is also great for practicing open and closed syllables.

It is recommended to alternate pure reading exercises with games. For example, children love to collect words from the letters of the alphabet. It's almost like writing a dictation, only collecting words from letters is much more interesting! When enough words have accumulated in the stock, you can try to play word-making.

The so-called "ladders" are also very suitable for reading practice. Ladders are also columns of words, but they are grouped not one at a time, but according to the principle of steps - in each new line, the number of words increases by exactly one, while the previous words are repeated. So, the ladder starts with one word, and by the fifth line there will already be five of them. The "ladder" technique is a wonderful tool for teaching how to read a whole sentence, where, as you know, there are words that are read differently. Thanks to constant repetition, reading complex combinations is remembered. Ladders can also and should be read for a while.

Stage 3 - learning to read whole texts in English!

You can start entering mini-texts even after getting acquainted with closed syllables. These will be the simplest texts of 3-4 short sentences, something like:

This is a cat.

The cat is black.

It is fat.

It is in the bag.

Be sure to add a picture! Firstly, the picture decorates, and secondly, it creates a visual visual image. The child understands what he is reading about and, if he forgot the word, then looking at the picture, he remembers. If an unfamiliar word slips in the text, the picture helps to develop a linguistic guess.

Descriptive texts alone are not enough. Again, not everyone loves to read. But you have to train somehow, what to do? Do not forget that texts can carry different semantic meanings. The task is to put the child in such conditions in which it is impossible to do without reading. First we combine reading and other activities. For example, coloring. The key to the coloring book is the English text where the answers are hidden. It is necessary to read and color "according to the instructions" in the text.

The second option is “finishing”. When something is missing in the picture or you need to finish the objects. In such tasks, the repetition of colors, thematic vocabulary and grammatical constructions, for example, prepositions, are also combined if we are looking for where and what is located. Such tasks are very exciting and "force" to read even the most non-readers. Have you tried to draw a monster with a child according to the description? What about the unseen miracle beast with three heads and five tails? No?!..

A variation of the second task is, for example, “draw a route” or “read and identify”. The essence of these tasks is to draw attention to detailed reading! If this is a route, then for a complete reproduction, you can not miss a single nuance! The same goes for the second task. Usually a picture is given that shows a lot of similar objects or people and you need to find something specific. Such tasks not only develop reading skills, but also contribute to better memorization of words, and passive mastery of grammar.

You can also include physical activity in reading lessons. How? Very simple! What about crosses? We hide hint notes around the house, where, of course, it is described in detail what needs to be done and where to go. The idea of an adventure quest is so exciting for children that they will have to read and do it willy-nilly! If there is a surprise waiting at the end... The child will be ready to read in English all day, if only the game is repeated again and again!

How to develop children's reading skills in English

In addition to the rules of reading, there are a huge number of exceptions in the English language that can discourage even the most diligent from reading. Over time, when a certain lexical base accumulates in memory, the child develops a mechanism of “action by analogy”. This means that when a new word is encountered, the letter image is analyzed and a sample is retrieved from memory for “comparison”. It sounds paradoxical, but the accumulation of such patterns is impossible without regular reading.

Either listening and reading in parallel, or watching videos with subtitles can help. The main idea is to be able to hear the "role model" - the correct pronunciation. If listening and reading is, after all, a laborious task and attention may not be enough, then watching fairy tales and cartoons with subtitles will bring pleasure to many! You can recommend cartoons based on famous fairy tales from the Pink Fong website (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-X4xVb-jNA). Cartoons have clear voice acting, simple text, large letters in subtitles and a recognizable plot.

How to start real reading in English?

Reading in English should, first of all, bring pleasure not so much from the process itself, but from the awareness of “I read and understand”! If the child understands that this is not scary, but very exciting, he will not be torn off from reading. Therefore, you need to start, firstly, with reading according to interests, and secondly, the number of pictures should prevail over printed text.

Therefore, comics in English are ideal for the first reading! Comics are made according to famous cartoons, if the child is “in the know”, then he will be interested in learning new details about his favorite characters. What is the child interested in? Wheelbarrows? Thomas the Tank Engine, Paw Patrol? Comics can be downloaded on the Internet for free.

What do English children like to read?

True connoisseurs of English will strive to read original books, ie. those read by English children. The favorite work of English-speaking children is the stories about the witch Winnie and the black cat Wilba. What kind of adventures did not happen to them! A short gripping story, funny illustrations, clear language made this book a favorite far beyond the UK. On the Internet, you can download both the stories themselves and audiobooks.

Another favorite character is Peter Rabbit and Paddington Bear. The language level is higher, there are many descriptions. But the stories will not leave anyone indifferent.

And, of course, how would reading in English be possible without Harry Potter! Many people want to learn English just for the sake of reading stories about this hero in the original.
So, the process of learning to read in English can be turned into an exciting activity that will make the child fall in love with both the process itself and the English language. But if supervision by professionals is required, video lessons in the online English school for children Novakid will become an indispensable tool for children and parents in learning the language. Our teachers will be able to teach children not only to read, but also to speak English, because learning is built as communication and only in English! Worth a try, the trial lesson is free.