And it's easy, quite often it takes several months, and all family members are involved in the learning process. If parents set out to instill foreign reading skills in their child and they have some basic knowledge of the language, then they themselves are quite capable. Reading is a very important component of knowledge of a foreign language. The ability to read in English will undoubtedly be useful to your child:

• for effective mastery of a variety of information and broadening one's horizons;
• will favor active immersion in the language space, mastering the skills of speaking, writing and listening;
• will expand the vocabulary, as well as the scope of their use, will help to consolidate the passed words.

It is known that acquired English reading skills persist for several years - even in the absence of practice.

Learning to read in English needs to be given separate attention, and not just the time left from speaking exercises. In this case, some nuances should be taken into account:

1. After the child is already familiar with reading skills in general, it will be easier for him to learn to read in English. If he knows how to add letters, and also reads in his native language, at least by syllables, you can start reading in a foreign language. Learning will flow naturally, and the result will be fixed for a long time.
2. Before learning to read, it is necessary that the child learns a number of words in English by ear and understands their meaning.
3. First, you need to spend some time developing oral speech, especially if you have not yet begun to master reading in your native language. If the child began to learn reading in kindergarten or school, or he will soon have to do this, you can simultaneously start learning and speaking and reading in English.

Experts advise you to first learn how the word is pronounced, and then learn how it is spelled. It will be useful for pronunciation and for reading.

Where to begin

First you need to learn the English alphabet - we study English letters, and not necessarily in alphabetical order. We start with letters that are found in English words already familiar to the child. Letters and sounds can be taught using cards, cubes, find them in a book, draw on paper.

To learn the alphabet:

1. We study several letters - remember how letters are read and written, use them in words.
2. We note that individual letters in the alphabet and in the word used can sound differently - we master the sounds that they convey. You should not demand from the child that he memorize all the sounds in a short time, it is enough to first learn the basic vowels, as well as consonants. In the process of learning, he will gradually get acquainted with different sound options. There may be some difficulties with letters that are spelled the same as Russian letters and are read differently in English (P, H, C and some others), as well as with some combinations of consonants (sh, th). There is no need to rush - an understanding of patterns can come to the child over time.

Since the pronunciation of individual letters in English is different in different words, in order for the child to naturally learn to pronounce them, you need to start with simple and monosyllabic words, acting on the principle “from simple to complex”. The learned letters need to be fixed in a playful way - to add sounds into short words.

Next, you will need to smoothly move on to reading more complex words so that the child reads the whole word and completely remembers it. It is necessary to follow the correct pronunciation. You can also use audio recordings for exercises. The child can read and say the words with you or the speaker. Regular exercise under the supervision of parents (or a tutor), as well as a sufficient amount of exercise, are very important.

For effective learning, the child needs to understand what he is reading. Try to control the understanding of the meanings of words, text. Let the child tell what he read about. If he did not understand the meaning of the sentence, let him translate with you word by word.

Before you start reading, remind your child to try to understand the meaning of the read text. Over time, after such exercises, children begin to at least partially understand the meaning of the material covered, and then the nuances. At the same time, do not strive to speed up the pace of reading, first you need to work out the correct reading and good English pronunciation of words. Reading speed is not important in itself, but only matters in conjunction with reading comprehension.

Auxiliary materials

There is a fairly large number of various teaching aids, materials, exercises with which you can teach your child to read in English.

You may need:

• English alphabet in pictures;
• cards for learning English letters and words;
• magnetic alphabet, cubes;
• paper English cards (flash cards) - they can be bought or downloaded on the Internet;
• educational coloring pages with letters and syllables;
• workbooks for learning to read - with exciting tasks that develop thinking and memory;
• children's books in English - preferably with a lot of pictures, printed in large print, with easy-to-understand texts.

In addition, there are many computer and board games for learning the English alphabet and learning to read, video lessons, a whole series of educational cartoons for learning the language, as well as learning to read in a fun way. Many children watch the adventures of funny characters with great pleasure, memorize letters, spelling of English words in a playful way, learn to read syllable by syllable, and by words together with cartoon characters. This is quite a significant help for always busy parents. You can hang cards with English words written in large letters around the apartment, and periodically change the subject.

Songs, rhymes, riddles in English will definitely come in handy in learning the language. They will not only help the child and expand his vocabulary, but also contribute to the understanding of grammatical structures. While the child has not yet learned to read in English, you can do this for him by choosing simple and entertaining texts.

How to get your child interested in learning

The driving force behind any learning is curiosity. Try to instill in your child a love of learning from an early age. An adult is required to gently and imperceptibly push his child in the right direction. Don't demand much in the first few months. The child needs to be allowed to get used to a new direction for him. The communicative game approach is very effective. Learning to read takes place in the form of an exciting game, with the help of observation and associations. Positive emotions and the absence of reproaches for mistakes are very important. If it didn’t work out, it’s okay, we’ll figure it out together, fix the mistake and move on.

• unobtrusively orient him in learning, as well as support him in every possible way;
• do not focus on mistakes, do not pull, but guide and help to understand;
• do not force to study, but adapt to the mood of the child;
• him even for small achievements;
• to motivate the child in a way of involvement in the learning process of the game - so any rules and patterns of reading will be mastered by them imperceptibly;
• organize the learning process in natural conditions, comfortable and entertaining.

Teaching preschoolers (and children in grades 1-2) to read is a topic that raises so many questions that I decided not to write about it in about preschoolers, but to separate it into a separate article. So, today about the most pressing issues of teaching reading in English.

Very often, parents, remembering how they once learned the language, ask this, almost classic, question:

But what about transcription?

First, transcription does not teach reading.. And I never taught. Those who have studied transcription, confess: when reading a text in English, do you imagine it written in transcription marks? Of course not. You don't need transcription to read.

Transcription helps you learn how to pronounce an unfamiliar word. Previously, almost the only way to find out when there was no teacher nearby was a paper dictionary. Therefore, when studying the rules of reading (in the fifth grade, by the way), they immediately took transcription marks so that children could use the dictionary at home. I repeat, not for reading, for using a dictionary! But now we have a lot of various resources at our disposal. There is also a textbook with an audio application, where new words, texts, songs, etc. are voiced; there is a computer, smartphone or tablet with voiced dictionaries, and in extreme cases, almost any online dictionary provides the opportunity to listen to a new word. Children look into the paper dictionary less and less. And that's okay. This is progress.

Secondly, transcription will only confuse a small child. It can be given starting in early adolescence. In the same fifth grade, it is quite possible, although now it is no longer necessary. And imagine, a preschooler or a first-grader, who has just recently learned the Russian alphabet, is studying the English alphabet - these are already two sign systems that he must keep in mind. And here some introduce a third sign system, which is needed to decipher the second. Does it really sound difficult? Now imagine how difficult it is for a child. No, a child with a good memory, of course, will master this. But why? Everything has its time.

Why is it impossible to sign words in Russian letters?

Sometimes I see that some parents and even (horror!) colleagues sign the child under the word as it is read in Russian letters. You can't do that. Never. Generally.

Firstly, Russian letters cannot convey English sounds. When writing words in Russian letters, you yourself spoil the child's pronunciation. Which, by the way, is formed most naturally in childhood.

Secondly, if the word is signed in Russian, what will the child do? That's right, he will read it. Do not remember how it is written in English, but read these very Russian letters. He will remember how the word sounds, but, having met this word in a new text, he most likely will not recognize it.

With preschoolers and younger students, learning to read begins with alphabet and sounds. And the main role is played not by the alphabet, but by the sounds. It is very easy to memorize the alphabet - it is enough to regularly turn on alphabetic songs to the child, which are on YouTube great multitude. But in order to start reading, the child must learn which letter of the alphabet makes which sound. To do this, the students and I (using card games, videos, TPR - about it) remember its sound for each letter of the alphabet and one or two words that begin with this sound. For example, when seeing the letter Bb, children immediately remember the ball - ball, and hence the sound /b/. At home, you can additionally listen to such phonics songs.

There are two ways to teach children to read. And the best effect will be if you use both methods at the same time.

Whole word method.

This method of teaching reading is offered by the authors of most children's textbooks. According to this method, new words are given as follows: picture + word. Children look in the textbook at pictures with words signed to them, listen, repeat after the announcer, play with cards. Typically, the teacher uses two sets of cards: picture cards and word cards. In special educational games with these cards, children remember which word fits which picture.

That is, the mechanism is this - the child does not parse the word into sounds, he correlates the visual image of the whole word with its sound (due to this, the method of whole words can be used in parallel with the study of the alphabet and sounds, without waiting until all the letters are learned). Then, seeing the studied word in the text, the child remembers how it sounds and can read it. This method is good because almost half of the words in English are exceptions that are not read according to the rules and there is simply no other way to learn these words how to remember.

Method of learning by phonics.

The whole word method alone is still not enough. In order for the child to read really well, it is better to reinforce the textbook with its method of whole words by learning to read according to the rules. To do this, phonics are used with kids from the age of 6 - these are aids where words are collected in groups, depending on which rule it is read. Listening and reading these groups of words, the child deduces reading patterns. For example, after listening, repeating after the speaker, and possibly beating the words cat-fat-mat-bat in games, most children themselves will be able to read the word sat and the like.

Usually, phoenixes are beautiful books with pictures, audio and sometimes a video application (of those that I like - Oxford Phonics World for preschoolers and Sounds Great for starters, both in 5 parts), there are also interactive programs (Starfall , Teach Your Monster to Read) and video courses (for example, the amazing course Hooked on Phonics). Some authors give phonics directly in the textbook, for example, there are phonics in the Family and Friends textbook, but they are stretched over several years (!) of study. In fact, one school year is enough to learn all the rules of reading for kids.

Gradually, when children learn how to put letters into words, you can begin to select simple books for 4-5-year-old carrier children, in which there is a huge picture and one small sentence on each page. In many of them, the vocabulary is simple and already 80 percent familiar to the students, but there is a sea of ​​\u200b\u200bdelight from such books - still, read a whole book in English!

So, even from kindergarten, you can teach a child to read in a fun and interesting way, without discouraging him from learning a transcription that is incomprehensible to him, and instill a love of reading.

I hope this article was useful for you. If you have questions or additions - please write in the comments. Good luck with your learning English!

In modern methodology, they are increasingly talking about the benefits of early learning foreign languages ​​(from 3-5 years old). In particular, we are talking about the fact that young children can be easily taught to speak and read in English due to their psychological characteristics.

And, of course, the advantages of this approach seem to be obvious, because:

1. The child's psyche is not yet overloaded with stereotypes, which means that it will be easier for the baby to get acquainted with the norms and values ​​of a foreign culture.
2. Toddlers' needs for communication, imitation, their ability to accurately imitate sounds, words, and even whole phrases are simply incredible;
3. Young children have high auditory and visual sensitivity, rapidly developing memory and thinking, which means that they can easily perceive and memorize even difficult English sounds and words.

However, all these advantages are seriously weakened by other psychological characteristics of young children, among which are the following:

• children get tired quickly, which is why it is worth taking no more than 30-40 minutes for each lesson;
• it is difficult for them to keep their attention by willpower for a long time, which is why it is believed that every five minutes in a lesson they need to change the type of activity (sang a song, then played with pictures, etc.);
• Finally, children are dominated by visual-effective and visual-figurative thinking, rather than abstract-logical, which makes it much easier for them to perceive English words in the form of images and objects than in the form of abstract descriptions and explanations.

Rules for young children are also best given in action, such as showing the rules for open and closed syllables through practical examples rather than verbal instructions.

What scientists say

According to scientists L. S. Vygotsky and D. B. Elkonin, a large place in the lesson with young children should be given to game methods. Other researchers also strongly recommend developing the child's perception and imagination in ways available to him.

"So what to do?" inquisitive parents will ask. And if it is so difficult to teach young children to speak and read English, how then are there so many language courses and schools that confirm that even 4-5-year-old crumbs are able to communicate quite tolerably in English?

That's right, even a three-year-old is already able to reproduce many words and phrases. The main thing is to direct his abilities and desire in the right direction.

In the sense that it was fun and easy for a child to learn English, and that his memory, logic, thinking and fantasy develop at the same time. Let's take a closer look at a step-by-step plan on how to teach your baby to read English letters, words and phrases already during the first year of study.

Stage 1. Preparatory.

In the methodology, it is also called introductory phonetic. That is, we do not study letters, we do not analyze the rules for reading simple and complex words, but simply introduce the baby to the fact that English sounds differ from Russian (even similar ones), and English words are read in a completely different way.

In addition, we tell the child about the meanings of English words, enter simple phrases like I can see, show cards and play didactic or outdoor games with the child, listen to songs, watch cartoons.

Little butterflies help teach colors

The task of this stage is to interest the baby in learning a foreign language, as well as to learn with him a certain number of English words and phrases that are already familiar to him in Russian. For a three-year-old, this period can take about six months, for older children it can be reduced to 3-4 months (subject to regular classes two to three times a week). But by no means should you miss it.

Stage 2. Get acquainted with the letters.

We continue to play with cards, watch cartoons and learn songs in English. Together with this, we begin to acquaint the baby with individual letters of the English alphabet.

note

Do not overly focus on the name of the letter A, B. More attention should be paid to establishing links between the letter and the sounds that it can represent in specific words.

In addition, it is important to include games like Bingo (Bingo) or Matching (Connect) in the lessons, where not only pictures, but also words would be involved.

Play games on the carpet, use cards and dice with letters. Ask the baby to put together the words that you will call him from the cubes. At the same time, we are learning to read in English - let the baby try to pronounce the received word without your prompting.

At the same time, not only visual and auditory memory will work, but also motor memory. And the child will be able to develop his logical thinking and securely fix the graphic forms of words in memory with the help of several channels of perception.

Stage 3. We compose phrases and phrases.

The phrases that we will offer the baby to read should already be familiar to him from the preparatory stage. At the same time, we expand the vocabulary of the crumbs. For these purposes, simple phrases that can be filled with various vocabulary are well suited:

• I can see a ... (pear, cow, pen / three pears, four cows, five pens);
• I can ... (run, jump, sing);
• I like … (milk, apple juice, bananas);
• I've got ... (two dolls / three red pencils);
• It's a … (car, train, box). It is... (yellow/small/long)

We suggest that the kid first build phrases like red pen, big dog, long train aloud and then read them.

Then we move on to the sentences themselves, helping the child to read them, using pictures with images and pictures with the words themselves.

Stage 4. Simple texts.

After making sure that the previous three stages have been fully mastered by the baby, proceed to reading simple texts in English, made up of phrases already familiar to him.

Text examples

1. Meg is a cat. Meg is small. Meg is black and white. Meg can run and jump.
2. I am Kate. I am five. I like milk and bananas. I can see four apples and two carrots on the table.
3. It's a train. It is red. It is big and long. I like my train.

At first, even learned rhymes can be used as texts:

Gradually, as the baby's vocabulary expands and he gets acquainted with more difficult words, start reading richer texts.

Continue to learn songs and poems in English, you can gradually introduce the baby to watching not only educational cartoons, but also small fairy tales.

Praise the baby for any achievement and do not be afraid to suddenly overload his brain with complex information. If the training takes place in a playful way, then the kid will receive sheer pleasure from the process of learning English.

Read the word correctly

Did you know that the English alphabet consists of 26 letters and 46 different sounds? The same letter can convey several sounds at the same time. Just don't panic! We will tell you how easy it is to remember English sounds without boring tables and cramming.

As a rule, in English lessons, the child keeps a separate dictionary, in which the pages are divided into three columns: “word”, “transcription”, “translation”. New words are written there, which then need to be learned. And if everything is clear with the columns "word" and "translation", then with "transcription" there are often difficulties.

What is transcription? This is a kind of instruction on how to read the word. Usually it is written in square brackets. For example: . The characters that are inside square brackets are the sounds of the English language. One character = one sound. Only these characters are not always similar to the letters of the alphabet. . Let's look at the English sounds that are most difficult for a child and how to learn them:

We select associations

It's no secret that complex things are easier to remember by association. This rule works especially well for children.

ʊ - short [y] - very similar to the icon "horseshoe"
æ - wide [e] - open your mouth wide and say "e". We call this symbol "bug icon" 🐞
ŋ - [n] - a funny sound that is similar to how the Baby Elephant spoke in the cartoon "38 Parrots" 🐘. You need to say "n", but a little "on the nose", like you have a runny nose. Try pinching your nose with your fingers, open your mouth and say "n". Happened?

ð - interdental [z]
θ - interdental [s]

To remember this pair of sounds, the child can be told a whole fairy tale: “There was a little bunny (our tongue). But he was very shy, so he sat in a mink (in his mouth) all the time. But one day he dared to stick the very tip of his nose out of the mink (we put the tip of the tongue between the teeth). At first he said softly [θ], and then loudly [ð].

s, d, n, t- [s], [d], [n], [t] - remember the Yeralash series about English pronunciation? “You need to talk like you have a hot potato in your mouth,” is the best explanation for the baby. When you make these sounds the tongue touches the hard palate and alveoli, a little further than in Russian.
r- [r] - the English "r" is not like ours. In Russian, the tongue seems to tremble in the mouth. In English, language "wraps up" tip back to the soft palate.
w- [y] / [v] - there is no such sound in Russian either. First, we stretch our lips, trying to say "y", but then the lips should, as it were, "spring" without closing and returning to a smile. Remember how you say "Wow!".
e- narrow [e] - similar to the Russian "e" without "th". When pronunciation, open your mouth quite a bit.
ə - deaf [e] - a deaf, slightly "stifled" sound, very short and almost indistinguishable. When you say the word "m about loco", then you pronounce this sound in place of the first "o". The symbol is called funny– "seam".
ɜ - middle [e] - reads like the letter ё in the word "ice".
j- [th] - very important not to be confused with the letter Jj ("jay")! In transcription, this symbol does not mean at all what the letter means.

To make things even easier, we have drawn the main characters of the English transcription with the appropriate sounds of the Russian language.

Tip site: tell your child that he can handle sounds brilliantly. Indeed, at this stage, the baby should feel relaxed and not be shy to experiment. Otherwise, the child will think it looks funny and will refuse to continue.

If lessons at home do not bring the desired results, come to us. Educators of the site will always find an easy way to even the most complex knowledge 📚 free!

When you study a foreign language, you are not only studying a set of vocabulary and grammar, but in any case, you are faced with the culture and mentality of the people who speak this language. The best way to learn about language and culture is reading in original. And to read in a foreign language, you must learn to read in that language first .

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.

You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. You can just get people to stop reading them.

But, if at school or university you studied German or French, or your school base turned out to be smaller than you would like, and now you decide to learn English, then let's start with the most primary and basic and learn a few techniques where to start in order to master reading rules.

English alphabet

I think you know that English is different from Russian and German, in which we mostly read and write. In English, the system is a little more complicated. The very first thing we need to do is to learn the alphabet.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet, of which 21 are consonants and 5 are vowels. Knowing the letters and the ability to pronounce them correctly is the key to successful and competent reading in English.

English alphabet with transcription of the names of the letters.

A very easy way to remember letters visually and aurally is with the help of a song. Watch the video and sing the song until you remember the letters of the alphabet.

You can use the same method to teach the alphabet to your children, and sing a song with your little ones.

Reading rules in English

After studying the alphabet, we will begin to study the combination of letters and read short words. In English, there are a number of rules that you need to learn, practice and remember if you want to read English words correctly.

Rules for reading English consonants

Many consonants read similarly to Russian consonants, such as letters m, n, l, b, f, z. You can see it in words like mom, lemon, finger, boy, zebra .

Letters like t and d sound similar but are pronounced with aspirated. For example words table, teacher, dad, dirty.

Letter c has two readings. Before letters i,e,y it reads like [s]- city, face, cyber. And before the rest of the vowels it reads like [k]- cat, cake, factory.

Rule with vowels i,e,y works with letter g. Before them, it reads as - gym, George, giant. Before other consonants, the letter is read as [g].

Letter q always found in a combination of letters qu and reads like - quick, queen, square.

Letter j always read as - jacket, jam, joy.

Table of the ratio of consonants and sounds in English.

How vowels are read in English

In English, a word can end in an open or closed syllable, which affects pronunciation. For example words cat, pot, sit end in a closed syllable and have vowels a, o, i give sounds .

Words such as name, home, five end in an open syllable, since the word ends with a letter e, which is unreadable. But, thanks to her, the vowels in the middle of the word are read exactly the same as they are pronounced in the alphabet, that is, the word name is read.

Types of reading English vowels in stressed syllables.

Reading vowel combinations in English

There are certain combinations of letters that have established reading rules, although English is the language of exceptions, and when reading more complex words, you should consult a dictionary. The table below shows combinations of english vowels with examples how they are read and what sound they make.

Table of combinations of vowels in English.

And of course, there are exceptions to all rules. However, do not worry and think that you will never be able to learn it. Everything can be understood, you just need to try a little and practice.

English diphthongs with transcription

When you learn the basic rules of reading, you will see that in English there are diphthong sounds that are quite difficult to reproduce, especially if you start learning the language not from childhood, but as an adult.

Table of English diphthongs with transcription.

Transcription of sounds in English

Practice shows that when children learn a language, they must necessarily study transcription, while adults do not want to learn it, and for them it can be difficult.

If you still want to learn how to write and read transcription, then great! And if not, then you can use online dictionaries where the word will be pronounced for you. One of the best dictionaries today is Multitran and the online dictionary Lingvo.

Important!

Remember that it is necessary to use dictionaries, not translators!

Here is an example of reading short words with transcription:

English vowel table and transcription.

The fact that we live in the age of the Internet has some advantages. Sitting at home, you can learn different knowledge online. For your attention video lesson which explains the basic principles of reading. However, even after gaining knowledge through an online lesson, they need to be consolidated in order to form a skill.

Learn English tongue twisters

Here tongue twisters can help you, which are often aimed at practicing one sound. Here are some examples you can use.

English tongue twister	Translation into Russian
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.	The weather will be good or the weather won't be good. The weather will be cold or the weather will be hot. We'll weather any weather whether we like it or not.
three swiss witch-bitches, which wished to be switched swiss witch-bitches, watch three swiss Swatch watch switches. Which swiss witch-bitch", which wishes to be a switched swiss witch-bitch, wishes to watch which swiss swatch switch?	Three swiss bitch witches wishing to change their gender, looking at the three buttons on the Swatch watch. Which one of the Swiss bitch witches wishing to change their gender, looks at which button on the watch "Swatch"?

Don't worry it's tongue twisters! At this stage, when you are just learning to read and practicing sounds, it is important to pronounce them correctly, albeit slowly. You can always speed up.

Learn to hear English speech

After learning the basic, basic rules of reading, you can use the method of repeating after the announcer. Your auditory memory will also work and you will hear how words are pronounced correctly and what intonation is in sentences.

To do this, you can use small dialogues and audiobooks for beginners. At this level, it will be ideal if the text is in front of your eyes, you listen, read and repeat at the same time!

You can use such a great resource as Oxford Bookworm Library, which features audiobooks for all levels. You can download the library for free

For those who continue to learn English, we recommend learning the language from films, which you can read about in the article

Work on your pronunciation

Reading is only the first step in learning a language. As well as learning grammar and vocabulary, learning how to pronounce and hear correctly is very important if you want to understand what is being said to you and say it so that you are understood. Especially if you're talking to a native speaker.

As we said a little above, one of the best ways is to listen carefully to native speakers and try to copy their pronunciation and intonation .

Particular attention should be paid to sounds that are not in your native language. Often, English learners have a problem with the 'r' sound, as in Russian it is hard, while in English it is more guttural and growling.

There are also difficulties with the pronunciation of two sounds, which gives combination of letters 'th'. Students stubbornly pronounce it as 'c' and 'h'. Although it is worth paying attention that in such words as this, that, there this sound is said as between 'z' and 'd'. And in words like three, think, thief, it is pronounced as a sound between ‘f’ and ‘s’.

This may seem strange to you, since there are no such sounds in Russian, but if you listen to native speakers, you will understand that this is what they say.

Don't worry if you can't get these words right the first time, it takes a little practice. But, try to learn correctly from the very beginning, because it will be more difficult when you are forced to relearn.

Learn to pronounce phrases in English correctly

In English, words in sentences are not pronounced separately, they often merge, as if into one whole, especially if it is a combination of vowel and consonant letters. Look and practice on these transcription examples.

The same applies to phrases where one word ends with the letter 'r', and the next word begins with a vowel. In such cases, the 'r' sound is pronounced. Here are some examples.