Should I read to my child in the language spoken at school/daycare even if I am not fluent in that language?

Caroline Erdos, Literacy Expert

Dr. Erdos is a consultant for the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board in Quebec and a speech-language pathology advisor for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Canada. Prior to this, she was ALDI Coordinator (Advancing Learning in Differentiation & Inclusion) for the 10 English school boards in Quebec, Canada, where she supported resource teachers through various professional development initiatives. Caroline has over 20 years’ experience as a pediatric speech-language pathologist in a tertiary care centre and has worked as a language and literacy consultant and a legal expert in speech-language pathology. Her areas of expertise include bilingualism and multilingualism, reading impairment, oral language impairment, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and craniofacial disorders. She has guest lectured at Université de Montréal, McGill University, and the McGill University Health Centre. She has also given workshops at numerous conferences across North America and has written and collaborated on several publications.

Rich language models, through spontaneous conversation or book reading, play a very important role in developing children’s language skills. Many children worldwide speak one language at home and learn another at school or daycare. Studies have shown that supporting the home language is beneficial to later language and academic outcomes. That is, children who continue to receive rich language input in their home language go on to perform better academically in the second language spoken at school. Similarly, children who are taught to read and write in their home language go on to have superior reading and writing skills in the language of schooling. You should therefore read to your child in the language that you are most comfortable.

There are, however, a few things that you can do to facilitate transfer of language skills from the home language to the language spoken at school:

·        Pick books that address similar themes as the books or activities explored at daycare or school;

·        Highlight vocabulary words that are similar in both languages – magician/magician (English/French), acción/action (Spanish/English);

·        Highlight story structure, for example by asking your child “What was the problem in this story? There is always a problem in a story like this”;

·        Practice answering both simple (Who helped the grandmother in this story?) and complex (Why do you think Sally left early?) questions about the story;

·        Model how to figure out word meanings by thinking about the parts of words, for example “I wonder what a multitude of maps means. I know that

multi- means many, so maybe it means that he had a lot of maps”;

·        Talk about words that start with the same sounds (silly, snake, six), long (caterpillar) and short words (ant), words made up of two words (sunglasses).

Alternatively, your child can listen to recordings of stories in the daycare or school language. This is a good alternative, but this language experience is not as beneficial as the rich back and forth dialogue that you can engage in when you read to your child in your language.  

You can find more reading tips, written in a multitude of languages, here.