Cookies policy

Conference report

8 September 2001

English lessons

DESPITE being the world’s lingua franca, English is the most difficult
European language in which to learn to read. Children learning other languages

In the most extensive cross-national study ever, Philip Seymour of Dundee
University and his team compared the reading abilities of children in 15
European countries. They found that those learning Romance languages such as
Italian and French progressed faster than those learning a Germanic language
such as German and English. “Children do seem to find English particularly
complex and problematic though,” says Seymour.

The team focused on the earliest phase of learning to read. They tested the
children’s ability to match letters to sounds, their capacity to recognise
familiar written words, and their ability to work out new words from
combinations of familiar syllables. The Germanic languages are tricky because
they have more words that contain clusters of consonants. The word “sprint”, for
example, is difficult because the letter p is sandwiched between two other
consonants, making the p sound difficult to learn.

Another feature of English that makes it difficult is the complex
relationship between letters and their sounds, says Seymour. Unlike Finnish, for
example, where the relationship between a letter and its sound is fixed, in
English a letter’s sound often depends on its context within the word. For
example, the letter c can sound soft (as in receive) or hard (as in cat). Many
words, like “yacht”, don’t seem to follow any logic at all.

Seymour’s findings might explain why more people are diagnosed as being ...

To continue reading this premium article, subscribe for unlimited access.

Quarterly by Direct Debit

Inclusive of applicable taxes (VAT)