English spelling for bilingual kids
December 6, 2022 1:10 PM Subscribe
Best way to teach bilingual kids english spelling?
We have two kids, 6 and 9. We are a completely bilingual family (english and spanish), including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins etc. The kids go to a very rural school in Argentina. They speak and read both spanish and english perfectly, and write very well in spanish. However, their spelling in english is atrocious. They write it in phonetic spanish (ai wel haf tu cukis is I will have two cookies - I exaggerate a little but not much).
I had thought that their english spelling would improve by osmosis just by reading in english, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Does anyone have any experience with this? What are the best practices for teaching the mess that is english spelling? What worked for you and your family?
We have two kids, 6 and 9. We are a completely bilingual family (english and spanish), including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins etc. The kids go to a very rural school in Argentina. They speak and read both spanish and english perfectly, and write very well in spanish. However, their spelling in english is atrocious. They write it in phonetic spanish (ai wel haf tu cukis is I will have two cookies - I exaggerate a little but not much).
I had thought that their english spelling would improve by osmosis just by reading in english, but that doesn't seem to be happening.
Does anyone have any experience with this? What are the best practices for teaching the mess that is english spelling? What worked for you and your family?
Best answer: Very similar situation here, though with a different language.
I noticed the spelling problem when I was homeschooling during the first lockdown. I bought a few workbooks aimed at the 'supplementary homework' market such as Vorderman's Spelling Made Easy titles and went through with the kids, doing just a page a day or every other day. Some of these books cover spelling rules but I didn't labour these. I took breaks between each book until they were ready for the next one. That got things started but it's not how they learned to spell.
The main practice technique I use is daily spaced repetition tests. Pretty much without fail every day we spend a few minutes doing a mini written spelling test prompted by an Anki app on my phone. The words come from the workbooks or are words they've had problems spelling in other contexts. If they get a word wrong they write it out three times and half an hour later I ask them if they remember the spelling. As with any learning, lots of support and encouragement is key.
I do it after they've finished their school homework or if we're on holiday we get it out of the way after breakfast. Keeping it short but only skipping a day in exceptional circumstances is the approach that works for us. It's as much part of the day as teeth brushing now.
If the app throws up three or fewer words several days in a row I add a couple more into the dictionary. Usually there are something not too far from half a dozen words to check each day; occasionally it creeps over ten and then I apologise on behalf of the app or stop if they are getting annoyed and let the words carry over to the next day.
Since I started this method in the first lockdown we're gone from being unable to spell quite basic words to the older child being about to spell unconscious, synagogue and mountainous fairly reliably so I'm pretty happy with the progress.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:04 PM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
I noticed the spelling problem when I was homeschooling during the first lockdown. I bought a few workbooks aimed at the 'supplementary homework' market such as Vorderman's Spelling Made Easy titles and went through with the kids, doing just a page a day or every other day. Some of these books cover spelling rules but I didn't labour these. I took breaks between each book until they were ready for the next one. That got things started but it's not how they learned to spell.
The main practice technique I use is daily spaced repetition tests. Pretty much without fail every day we spend a few minutes doing a mini written spelling test prompted by an Anki app on my phone. The words come from the workbooks or are words they've had problems spelling in other contexts. If they get a word wrong they write it out three times and half an hour later I ask them if they remember the spelling. As with any learning, lots of support and encouragement is key.
I do it after they've finished their school homework or if we're on holiday we get it out of the way after breakfast. Keeping it short but only skipping a day in exceptional circumstances is the approach that works for us. It's as much part of the day as teeth brushing now.
If the app throws up three or fewer words several days in a row I add a couple more into the dictionary. Usually there are something not too far from half a dozen words to check each day; occasionally it creeps over ten and then I apologise on behalf of the app or stop if they are getting annoyed and let the words carry over to the next day.
Since I started this method in the first lockdown we're gone from being unable to spell quite basic words to the older child being about to spell unconscious, synagogue and mountainous fairly reliably so I'm pretty happy with the progress.
posted by Busy Old Fool at 3:04 PM on December 6, 2022 [3 favorites]
Busy Old Fool's advice is excellent. I would just add a few thoughts.
Spelling in Spanish is much simpler than spelling in English. Your kids already see that. Spelling in English is dumb. Don't be afraid to tell your kids that. Just acknowledge it. But then they still need to learn to spell.
One particular issue with English is that the most common words are also very likely to be non-phonetic. Focus on those simplest words. You could use the Dolch Word List or some other list, or whatever words come up in some app, like BOF suggested.
As the parent of a very smart kid with dysgraphia, I think it's fine to rely on spell check for long words. But kids should know how to spell "from" and "cookie" and "I".
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:36 PM on December 6, 2022
Spelling in Spanish is much simpler than spelling in English. Your kids already see that. Spelling in English is dumb. Don't be afraid to tell your kids that. Just acknowledge it. But then they still need to learn to spell.
One particular issue with English is that the most common words are also very likely to be non-phonetic. Focus on those simplest words. You could use the Dolch Word List or some other list, or whatever words come up in some app, like BOF suggested.
As the parent of a very smart kid with dysgraphia, I think it's fine to rely on spell check for long words. But kids should know how to spell "from" and "cookie" and "I".
posted by Winnie the Proust at 4:36 PM on December 6, 2022
Hm - when I was a school kid in the UK, pretty much every week at school from ages 7 to 11 we had a spelling test. A list of 10 to 20 words would be given, and we had to learn how to spell them over the week (the only homework we ever had for most of those years), and then the teacher would read the words aloud and we had to write them out, hopefully spelling them correctly.
This was 40 years ago so some magic new, efficient methods for learning overarching rules might have emerged since then, but certainly in my experience, it was a matter of devoting a very long period of time to gradually learning how to spell, word by word. Obviously some patterns and generalisable rules would emerge in the course of that, but it was mostly long-term, low-pressure learning by rote.
posted by penguin pie at 4:44 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
This was 40 years ago so some magic new, efficient methods for learning overarching rules might have emerged since then, but certainly in my experience, it was a matter of devoting a very long period of time to gradually learning how to spell, word by word. Obviously some patterns and generalisable rules would emerge in the course of that, but it was mostly long-term, low-pressure learning by rote.
posted by penguin pie at 4:44 AM on December 7, 2022 [1 favorite]
i before e ,except after c.
Look, book ,cook. But that is moot, as we have loot to boot.
Now I feel like a fool.
English spelling is messy
posted by yyz at 7:18 AM on December 7, 2022
Look, book ,cook. But that is moot, as we have loot to boot.
Now I feel like a fool.
English spelling is messy
posted by yyz at 7:18 AM on December 7, 2022
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