Both reading and writing involve an interaction of bottomup and top-down skills. Bottom-up skills for reading include recognising letter shapes and knowing sound–spelling relationships. For writing, they include the motor skills involved in forming letters, and an ability to spell and use punctuation. Top-down reading skills include knowledge of different text types and how they are organised, as well as using graphic content and background knowledge to help construct meaning. Top-down writing skills include knowing how to apply awareness of audience, style, genre and register in order to communicate meaning.

There are no right answers about when to introduce reading and writing in English. This depends on the age, context, number of teaching hours, language background of children and the approach to literacy in the mother tongue.

In some contexts, early foreign language programmes include phonics. Although phonics can be helpful, there is a ‘health warning’. Most children learning English as a foreign language do not have the extensive vocabulary that phonics assumes in order to be able to identify patterns across words. There is also a danger of children being taught words because of their form rather than what they mean. If you do include a focus on phonics, it is advisable to make sure that children use the language in meaningful contexts first.

My key tips for reading and writing are:

• 85 Share and model the process

• 86 Encourage reading for pleasure

• 87 Don't make writing a chore and a bore!

• 88 Use reading to support writing

85 Share and model the process

Shared reading is a technique that can be used at any age or level. Big books or texts projected on screen are particularly suitable. The objective is to read a text aloud with children, rather than to children, and to scaffold interaction in order to collaboratively construct meaning and comprehend the text. As you read, encourage participation and ask questions to build up understanding of the content, language, structure and organisation, including features that you wish children to notice, such as onomatopoeia, alliteration or repetition in a story. Talk through strategies that help children to decode and make sense of the text, for example, predicting words, or noticing pronominal reference. Encourage children to express personal responses to the text and give reasons.