Taiwan HomeEnglish. Everyday.
Reading
Waterford gives students the tools to become fluent English readers through:
- Rich natural English language
- Hundreds of songs, books, nursery rhymes and chants
- Simple, repetitive English instruction
- Systematic phonics lessons that develop a deep understanding of the English alphabet code
- Lessons in reading expression and intonation
- Explicit vocabulary lessons
- Frequent assessment with instruction tailored to student performance
Waterford is about more than memorizing words, and it does not merely teach conversational English. Waterford establishes a foundation from which students can continue to grow as readers and learners.
View Reading and Writing Scope of SkillsReading the Right Way
When we learn to read in English, we learn to map the sounds in oral English to written characters: the alphabet. Our goal is to memorize how English sounds are encoded with the alphabet so that we can decode new English words.
When we learn to read in Chinese, we also learn to map the sounds in oral Chinese to a written phonetic alphabet:
. We use this phonetic alphabet, as a tool to memorize the Chinese characters.
When the are removed, we no longer have a way to decode new Chinese characters.
Many programs teach the English alphabet in the same way as —the
letters are only a tool to help children memorize words. This limits the number of English words a student can read because students
can only read words that have been memorized.
Rather than memorize lists of words, Waterford students learn to decode all words. Waterford teaches multiple spellings for all 44 sounds in the English language. Students can use this knowledge to decode nearly every English word.
Waterford also immerses students in a rich English environment—helping them to build the vocabulary they need to make meaning of what they read
