how do i teach a six year old who doesnt attend school presently nor is his mother tongue english to read?

Question

his mother is visiting his father who is in the middle east and the children have to go back for their exams by march..their mother approached me for help and i tutor the two brothers the elder one is in 4th grade and not much of a problem but the younger one is awful i taught him the alphabet and he knows the spelling of some words but he cant read ,i know he can but he just isnt trying how do i make him try,and what are the correct and the effective methods of teaching a kindergarten 2 to read,he is good at math

Answer 1

I was an "accidental" K2 foreign teacher in Thailand, and teaching daycare - k2 kids are quite a pain, however, in my experience, the best way to teach those kids is to enrich their English vocabulary, first-and-foremost and then phonetics.

Practical tip:

Picture words; point to a picture of something such as an apple say "apple.", let the kid pronounce the word again, then read out the word phonetically.

Learning English as a secondary language takes a lifetime, so, a little patience is the key.

Answer 2

Most 6 year olds should be able to read some. Of course it depends... is she going into first grade? Recently turned 6? If so, she may only know some sight words and other small things. Reading will come in time. If she's not reading on or above grade level by the end of first grade... that's a concern. What she should know right now is all of the alphabet, and their sounds. That is learned in Pre-K/Kindergarten. In Kindergarten children often learn sight words. As for being bilingual that shouldn't impact her ability to read if she is bilingual in English and another language and she has the chance to read and look at books in both languages.

Answer 3

Can he speak english? Because he isn't going to be able to read if he can't speak. Maybe you should focus on conversation skills first, by playing games, learning vocab etc.