English Sets High Hurdles to Learning ABCs

THE GIST:

• English is a difficult language to learn because of its inconsistent letter-sound relationship.
• Parents should try to read to their children for at least 20 minutes three times a week.
• Computer reading programs can supplement at-home learning.

At-home reading instruction benefits any young child, but it makes a bigger difference to those learning in English, according to a recent study in Learning and Instruction.

Since letters in the English alphabet can sound different from word to word, it's a harder language to master than Greek or Finnish, for instance, which have more consistent letter sounds, or phonemes.

For that reason, English-speaking parents should promote literacy development through actively teaching children letter names and sounds -- not just reading stories aloud.

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"It's not only purchasing the book and perhaps reading to the child, and the child having a passive role in this interaction," said George Georgiou, an educational psychologist at the University of Alberta who contributed to the study. "It should be very active. You should be asking questions to your child: Would you change the title of the book? What do you think about the character names? What about the events of the story?"

These kinds of challenges, however, don't just affect children studying English. Children learned to read Chinese also have to grapple with an inconsistent letter-to-phoneme relationship and, consequently, start learning to read earlier.

"The paradigm of Chinese, we know, is that because of the extreme difficult nature of the language, the kids go to school earlier," Georgiou said. "They start teaching them these simple characters early on."

For English-speaking children, extra instruction at home can jump-start reading skills.

"If you can afford to spend 20 minutes with your child, that would be extremely helpful," Georgiou told Discovery News. "I don't think there's a single parent who can't devote reading 20 minutes to their children, and it doesn't even have to happen every single day; it could be three times a week."

Time-strapped parents can also turn to educational computer reading programs to supplement at-home learning.

"We've found that (computer reading programs) help increase all aspects of literacy and concepts of print for very young children if they're using software that's interactive and not just something they're sitting there listening to," said Linda Robinson, assistant director of Center of Best Practices for Early Childhood at Western Illinois University.

But Robinson also noted that while beneficial, technology can't fully replace the interface value of an adult and child reading together, a theory underscored by Georgiou's study.

"I think it's more the physical presence of the parents and the natural interaction with them that makes the difference," Georgiou said.

Cristen Conger is a writer for HowStuffWorks.com.