Reading to Older Kids

Vocal heroes: how children of all ages benefit from being read to 

Reading aloud to older children allows them to experience what fluent reading sounds like, and they carry that fluidity into their own reading

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 January, 2016, 12:16am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 January, 2016, 12:16am

Annie Ho
life@scmp.com

I recently read an article about a woman whose marriage improved after her husband read aloud to her while she was sick in bed. Everyone loves being read to, no matter one’s age.

Hong Kong has an emerging read-aloud culture. In the beginning, parents and teachers only read to children who were learning to read, to help them sound out words and decipher new vocabulary. There wasn’t much reading aloud to children in the early and toddler years, and even less reading aloud to children who had already learnt to read on their own.

In the past decade, through the efforts of both government and non-governmental organisations in Hong Kong, parents and teachers have embraced the ideal of reading aloud from birth. This ideal is so important that the American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a policy stating the three essential things that every baby needs: to be vaccinated, to be breastfed, and to be read aloud to.

In order to further develop a strong culture of reading aloud, parents in Hong Kong need to continue reading aloud to children who can easily read by themselves. Modelling best practices is the greatest benefit of reading aloud to “big kids”. When you read, you allow your child to experience what fluent reading sounds like, with different voices, changes in speed and emphasis on certain words. In time, he will carry that kind of fluidity with him to his own reading, whether silently or aloud. When you pause to consider certain plot developments, dialogue or descriptions, you are highlighting the parts of the story that require examination or contemplation. You are modelling reading comprehension.

A Little, Aloud by Angela Macmillan.

If pausing to discuss the book seems contrived and too much like teaching, don’t do it. In fact, research studies show a strong correlation between the quality of voice fluency and silent reading comprehension. So long as you help your child develop a fluent read-aloud voice, you will necessarily improve his reading comprehension.

Reading aloud to your child will also help to demonstrate humanity. When you show empathy for a character or share your awareness of a situation in the story, you are giving your child an opportunity to understand the world around him.

A Necklace of Raindrops by Joan Aiken.

Any story that you think your child may enjoy will make good read-aloud material. If you worry that Harry Potter will challenge the stamina of both reader and listener, then you can consider stories in smaller doses. A Little, Aloud, by Angela Macmillan, is an anthology comprising both prose and poetry, with royalties from sales donated to The Reader Organisation, a UK charity that promotes the connection between reading and well-being.

Joan Aiken was a wonderful author of children’s literature, and A Necklace of Raindrops is a collection of eight of her short stories.

Teachers can also play a part in this, especially language teachers. Dr Stephen Krashen, the leading authority on second-language acquisition, has extensively researched this area, and all his findings point to the conclusion that we acquire language by input, not output. What this means is that speaking more will not make us more fluent. Therefore, rather than asking students to take turns reading aloud from a shared text, teachers will go far in helping students develop language skills simply by giving students ample opportunity to listen to the language in a sustained and engaging manner. Simply put, the most effective language teachers are those who read compelling stories out loud to their students.

The start of the new year is as good a time as any to re-establish the habit of reading aloud at home and in classrooms. Not limited to babies and toddlers, this can also be a cherished and enriching ritual for loved ones aged between seven and 107.

Dr Krashen will be giving talks on language acquisition and free voluntary reading on February 19 and 20 at The University of Hong Kong. For more information, visit www.bringmeabook.org.hk.

Annie Ho is board chair of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong (www.bringmeabook.org.hk), a non-profit organisation advocating for family literacy

Language and the Brain

Between the lines: why bilingualism is child's play

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 10:04am

UPDATED : Tuesday, 25 March, 2014, 10:04am

Annie Holife@scmp.com

A power couple in neuroscience, professors Patricia Kuhl and Andrew Meltzoff were in Hong Kong recently to give a talk on their respective areas of expertise - emotional quotient and intelligence quotient - and the role of each in language acquisition.

The US researchers, who have accumulated a vast amount of data on how babies learn, have presented their findings not only to the Education Bureau, but also to the Clinton and Obama administrations, as well as governments and school boards across Europe and the US.

Language is not the same as communication. Babies can cry to communicate their needs, but until they are able to think about, play with and use words, they have no language skills. Language allows us to talk about the past and project our thoughts into the future. Language acquisition is the most complex brain process.

It is difficult to acquire language later in life because the brain loses its elasticity. In terms of learning new languages past the age of seven, Kuhl posits that the "window of learning" stays open longer for children who were exposed to different languages as babies.

In theory, a 15-year-old growing up in a bilingual environment such as Hong Kong will learn any new language more readily than one who has only ever been exposed to one language.

Meltzoff's leading research supports a growing body of evidence that bilingual people have an advantage when it comes to executive functions, specifically inhibitory control and task switching. Greater task-switching skills can be explained as a natural extension of bilingual people's ability to switch between two languages.

It is difficult to acquire language later in life because the brain loses its plasticity

More interesting is inhibitory control, or better self-control, and the ability to delay gratification. Meltzoff found bilingual people tend to have a highly-developed medial prefrontal cortex - the area of the brain that deals with inhibitory control. We use executive functions when we perform activities like planning, organising, strategising and paying attention to and remembering details.

Using sophisticated brain scans and a wide range of laboratory experiments, Kuhl found early language skills predict future reading abilities, and skills not developed early are difficult to remediate later on.

To support children's early language skills, parents are encouraged to speak clearly, age appropriately and frequently to their children. If the best students are those who exhibit strong language skills and inhibitory control, then bilingual students will have a better chance of success in school. For a more in-depth study, The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind by Alison Gopnik, Meltzoff and Kuhl sets forth their detailed studies and findings.

During their visit to Hong Kong, Kuhl and Meltzoff were amused by the contrast between attitudes toward bilingualism in this city and those in the United States, where they are based.

In the US, many parents and educators worry about introducing a second language before a child has mastered his first language. "Won't early bilingual environments confuse the child and cause language delay?" they ask.

In Hong Kong, parents and educators ask these two experts for advice on the best way and a time frame to introduce third, fourth and even fifth languages to children.

Annika Bourgogne's newly published Be Bilingual - Practical Ideas for Multilingual Families dispels concerns about premature second-language acquisition and provides useful tips for parents, including those of us who already embrace multilingualism. Keen parents can go even further, like d'Armond Speers who spoke only Klingon, the invented language from Star Trek, to his son from birth to age three.

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them. Visit bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Why bilingualism is child's play

Books Transform Lives (1)

Between the lines: reading together helps families bond and grow

Annie Holife@scmp.com

I regularly venture into parts of Hong Kong I would never see were it not for my work with Bring Me a Book. I visit kindergartens, primary schools and community centres.

When I see the sweet and earnest faces of the children, I can't help but wonder about their future. How many of them will break out of their economic class and stop the poverty that often gets passed from generation to generation?

Many parents in these communities can barely make ends meet, yet they will spend what little they have on after-school tutorial classes for their children. They do so in the misguided belief that more tutorials lead directly to better school grades and, ultimately, success in life.

The after-school classes to which I refer are not the fun-filled and stimulating activities that middle-class children enjoy. Tutorials in these communities often involve paying HK$50 for a child to sit silently for one hour, among rows of students, watching an instructor with a wireless microphone expounding academic theories.

This learning environment is hardly helpful for a child who is already struggling at school. Most parents want their children to read well, yet many are sceptical about their ability to help their children develop a lifelong love of books. Some parents don't believe they are educated enough or have sufficient language skills. Others blindly follow the masses; if the whole neighbourhood has signed up for English flashcard classes, they feel compelled to do the same.

I tell parents in these communities to save their money and take their kids to the public library instead. Through our read-aloud training workshops, they come to understand the tangible and intangible benefits of parent-child read-aloud sessions.

And after they put what they've learned into practice, they become true believers that something so simple as reading stories together can have a big impact on their family life and their children's development.

Middle-class families tend to spend quality time together and live in homes containing at least half a dozen books. This is not the case in lower-class families.

One parent told me that, before she started reading with her son, their interaction usually involved berating him about school homework and household chores. This parent went from a long day of work to an evening of cooking, cleaning and childcare. Her eight-year-old son rarely spoke to her, preferring to spend his time playing video games in his room.

Our training workshops comprise two classes one week apart. At the end of the first class, we give parents two books to take home, and ask them to read aloud to their children every night for one week.

By the time the parent with the eight year-old son returned for the second class, she was a devotee of reading aloud.

She revealed that her son was at first reluctant to sit down and listen to his mother read a picture book. When they finally sat down and read the story together, she suddenly realised that she hadn't cuddled with her son, not in months, but years.

By the end of the week, mother and son were having meaningful conversations, including her son sharing that a friend was being bullied at school.

She began to see her son in a new light, as the labels of irresponsible, ill-mannered and unresponsive melted away, and his sense of humour and endearing perspective on life came to the foreground.

By the end of the second class, she knew that their lives had been transformed.

This parent was aware that this transformation would improve the relationship, but what she had yet to learn was what had happened would lead directly to her son's improved cognitive and non-cognitive ability.

In the next column we will find out how. 

Annie Ho is board chairwoman of Bring Me a Book Hong Kong, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving children's literacy by reading aloud to them bringmeabook.org.hk

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Reading together, staying together

Dr Stephen Krashen - Second Language Acquisition

Between The Lines: Language Acquisition

Sunday, 25 November, 2012, 12:00am

Annie Hofamilypost@scmp.com

Once in a while, I meet someone who turns my long-held beliefs on their head. Dr Stephen Krashen is one of these people.

Krashen, the author of more than 350 academic papers, developed the first comprehensive theory of second-language acquisition. He could have a spectacular career as a stand-up comic if he ever runs out of serious topics to write about. I attended his talk for educators and it was inspiring to see more than 120 teachers and librarians from international and local schools gather on their day off to hear Krashen speak. Most were familiar with his work and were eager to learn more from him.

The foundation of his theory is that "learning" is a conscious effort to try to be accurate with rules and grammar, while "acquiring" is subconscious. Second-language teachers who use methods that promote language acquisition will see better results. The best way to achieve fluency in a language is to pick it up subconsciously.

Krashen gave us examples of the different ways in which second-language teachers try to get students to understand what is being said. It showed that immersion in a subject - at the talk, Krashen described the various parts of his face in German - is more effective than rote learning with verb conjugations.

The big revelation for me came when Krashen declared that talking is not practising because we acquire language by input and not output. I have been a lifelong student of languages, from the English I learned when I immigrated from Hong Kong to Canada at age six, to the most recent instance, a six-month course on Italian that I attempted before I had children. When Krashen made his claim, backed by his decades of research, I had dizzying flashbacks of the countless hours I had spent reading foreign sentences out loud. Questo è un libro (This is a book).

Talking is not practising. The ability to speak is not the road to, but the result of, language acquisition. When a baby utters her first words, she has already acquired the language.

A second revelation came when Krashen added that his studies also found that allowing students to acquire a language without accountability or questions at the end of the lesson is the most effective way to achieve fluency.

The two revelations put together mean that children should just be given opportunities to listen to someone speak that language to them, either through play, storytelling or daily routines. Do not pressure children to repeat words or answer questions about what they hear. I have been wrong to gauge my children's language skills by paying attention only to how well they express themselves in that language. They will become fluent more quickly if I simply speak to them in the context of activities they understand.

Despite Krashen's research, language programmes in Hong Kong and throughout many parts of the world continue to focus more on speaking and reading than on listening, with constant quizzing being an integral part of the curriculum of such programmes.

Krashen is an advocate of a new way of teaching second languages: TPRS, which stands for teaching proficiency through reading and storytelling. He also endorses USSR, or uninterrupted sustained silent reading.

As soon as he mentioned the acronym USSR, I remembered that I had a daily USSR period in my primary school. We would bring our own book to school and during USSR, each student would take his book out and just sit at his desk and read. Teachers generally didn't interfere with the students' choice of book, the theory being that any subject or format that could keep a child interested for 20-30 minutes should be encouraged.

Krashen's most recent published work is Free Voluntary Reading. In its 90 pages, the book sets forth his voluminous research, all of which points to the finding that more dictation, worksheets and lists of vocabulary to memorise are less effective than reading, a straightforward and rewarding activity.

As for parents who want their older children to become more fluent in Chinese, give them a set of Old Master Q comic books and leave them alone. I'm not kidding: Krashen collaborated on a study with his colleague, Dr Christy Lao, which showed that Chinese-American teenagers who were encouraged to read Old Master Q comic books acquired more Chinese than those who followed the traditional programme of weekly Chinese-language lessons.

Annie Ho is board chairperson of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong bringmeabook.org.hk

Bilingual Children: Patricia Kuhl, Early Language & Brain Development Expert

They're the brainy bunch
BETWEEN THE LINES Annie Ho (familypost@scmp.com) Jun 03, 2012
People raising children in Hong Kong recognise the importance of bilingualism. Local parents hope for their children to speak English fluently, and expatriate parents appreciate opportunities for their children to learn Chinese. We want our children to be bilingual so that they can understand another culture, communicate with a wider group of people and improve career prospects when they enter the workforce. What if I told you that bilingual kids have better brains? This is the finding of cutting-edge research by Professor Patricia Kuhl of the University of Washington who was in Hong Kong last month to talk about how early exposure to language alters the brain. Kuhl is internationally recognised for her research on early language and brain development and on studies that show the unique way young children learn. I found it very reassuring to see scientific evidence back up our general sense in Hong Kong that we should expose our children to different languages. Most of us are aware (perhaps from the painful experience of trying to learn a new language in adulthood) that the ability to learn a new language decreases with age. But what I didn't know until Kuhl's talk is that babies learn a language more easily and more organically than the rest of us because their brains are implicitly and automatically taking statistics of which neural connections to strengthen and which to "prune". Of particular interest is Kuhl's finding that children who are bilingual have greater mental flexibility than those who are monolingual. This translates to the ability to adapt to new situations quickly, to switch from following one set of rules to a new set of rules - even beyond childhood. That said, the big surprise of the evening, which drew gasps from the audience, was Kuhl's finding on the effect of watching television on babies' brains. Using a multimillion-dollar machine that maps out brain activity, she found that watching a television show in a foreign language had absolutely no effect on babies. In short, your baby may be staring at the screen as if they are absorbing every detail from that DVD which promises to make your baby a genius, but there isn't much brain activity happening. Kuhl's recommendations: teach in a social context (children learn from people, not machines); promote mental flexibility through bilingual education; and read to children every day. Many English-language children's books come in bilingual editions. Felicia Hoshino's Sora and the Cloud, in English and Japanese, specifically introduces children to common Japanese expressions. Mantra Lingua, a British publisher, has a number of bilingual children's books in English and every language under the sun. For parents who want to introduce Putonghua stories to their children but are themselves are non-speakers, I recommend the picture books of Lai Ma. Not only do his books come with English translations as well as a CD of readings in English and Putonghua, but he is also my favourite writer and illustrator of children's books in Chinese. Now Do You Know Who I Am?is a story in which 33 animals get ready for day-long outing. Each two-page spread shows all 33 animals in their shared activities, with so much for the reader to explore, from learning to count to finding specific animals. It's a zany and high-octane picture book that my elder daughter asks for again and again. You're welcome to contact me for additional Chinese picture books that comwith English translation as well as a CD of readings in English and Putonghua. Annie Ho is a board governor of Bring Me A Book Hong Kong www.bringmeabook.org.hk a non-profit organisation devoted to improving children's literacy