How to help your child read English when it is not your first language

Simple steps you can use tonight, whatever your English.

You can help your child read English even if your own English is weak. Keep talking and reading in your home language, share English books as a calm game, and listen to recordings for the words you cannot say.

Start with your own language

Talk with your child, tell stories and read books in the language you know best. Do this every day. The words and ideas your child learns in one language help when they meet them in English.

Family reading guides recommend this, for example this Colorín Colorado article on reading in your home language. If you have no books in your language, use English picture books and tell the story in your own words.

A ten-minute routine for tonight

  1. Choose a calm time, when your child is not tired. Sit side by side.
  2. Look at the cover and the pictures first. Talk about them in any language.
  3. Find two or three new words. Listen to them, then say them together.
  4. Read the book together. Point to each word. Let your child join in when they are ready.
  5. Stop and ask questions in your language: “What happens next?” “How does she feel?”
  6. Stop while it is still fun. Read the same book again tomorrow.

It is a shared game, not a test. Praise effort, such as “You remembered that sound.”

When neither of you knows a word

Say “I don't know. Let's find out.” This shows your child what readers do.

  • Hear it. Use a read-along book or audiobook from the library, a dictionary app with a sound button, or a recording from the teacher.
  • Sound out only simple words. Words like “cat” and “sun” follow the rules. Common words like “said”, “you” and “was” do not. Learn those as whole words.
  • Use the picture. It often shows what the word means. Translate it into your language if you need to.
  • Keep it. Write the word on a card and practise it next time.

Make English part of the day

  • Read signs, shop names and food packets together.
  • Sing English songs and rhymes.
  • Turn on English subtitles for a show your child likes.
  • Visit the library and let your child choose books.

Work with your child's teacher

  • Tell the teacher which languages you speak at home.
  • Ask for the new words in this week's book, and how to say them.
  • Ask whether the school uses British or American English, and how it teaches letter sounds.
  • Ask for an interpreter, or for letters and books in your language.

Colorín Colorado's reading tip sheets give one-page tips for babies to grade 3 in 13 languages.

Common questions

Should I read to my child in my language or in English?

Both are useful. Read, talk and tell stories in the language you know best, every day. Share English books too, and talk about them in your own language.

What if I cannot read the English book myself?

Talk about the pictures in your language. Ask your child to tell you the story. Use a recording, a read-along book or a dictionary with sound for the words you do not know.

Does my accent matter?

You do not need a perfect accent to share a book with your child. For new words, let your child also hear a recording, in the British or American English that their school uses.

How Anga can help

Anga: Reading for Kids is a reading app for children aged 4 to 7, on iPhone and iPad. It is free to download.

  • Word help for both of you. Your child taps any word to hear it, then keeps reading. You hear the word at the same moment.
  • The English your school uses. Library books come in British or American English.
  • Stories written in your language. With Anga Plus, you write each page of a family story in your own language. Twenty languages are listed, and you can choose another. Anga AI turns your page into simple English at your child's level.
  • Private. No ads and no tracking.

Read the short facts about Anga or why shared reading matters.