Should parents whose English is not their first language read to their child in English?
People ought to be able to do what is natural for them, and speaking and reading to their young child in the language they feel most comfortable in should be the most obvious. What is important is not to ‘manufacture’ a false situation between parent and child – children see through it and no one benefits from it. In addition, it can cause a lot of stress, whether the parents’ English is strong or not. Otherwise, how do you laugh and play naturally with texts with your child? Reading and communicating should not become a chore.
How about setting a daily English reading time?
One shouldn’t impose a daily reading time, whatever the language. One reads together when parent and child want to read. The parents’ responsibility is to make sure the home has ample opportunities for the child to see reading as a natural activity – something that is enjoyable, for example by having a lot of books (no matter the language) and sitting close to them while reading. Discussion around the text should be encouraged – for example around how it relates to events in their own lives. If these things are natural, then the child will most certainly take up the reading independently – sitting down with a favourite book and pretending to be the parent or teacher reading aloud to them. They might read to their toys, for example. Whatever the language the books are in, this is the “joy” of sharing books and that is how reading is developed.
What should be the role of the teacher in the context of parents not reading to their child in English?
In this context, teachers need to think carefully about how they interact with print texts in the classroom so that meaning is made clearly and through multiple means. Meanings in the text should be accessible to the child learning English. If they have engaged with books at home in their first language, they should be positively disposed to print texts and understanding (implicitly) some of the strategies for making meaning out of the text, for example by using all the visuals on a page to make meaning and predict, understanding that there is a sequence, understanding that the letters are connected to the meanings and that they can sound them and trace them with their fingers.