Diana Hughes
VP of Product Innovation and AI
The Science of Reading is a body of research outlining the major factors involved in learning to read, and evidence-based practices for helping students do so. But if you clicked on this article, I am guessing you already know that. What you may be less familiar with is that the Science of Reading isn’t just about English – it describes learning to read in any language that uses an alphabetic writing system! Today we’ll focus on Spanish, and the similarities and differences between English reading and Spanish reading.
In this piece, we’ll learn about:
- The case for teaching Spanish literacy in the US
- The major similarities and differences in the Science of Reading in Spanish as compared to English
Teaching Spanish Literacy in the US
Spanish literacy instruction is on the rise. Six states now have required or recommended guidelines for providing bilingual instruction (including a literacy component). In states like California, Texas, Illinois, New Mexico, and Colorado, Spanish Language Arts its own subject with state-provided guidelines and required standards.
You may be wondering: the US is an English-speaking country, so why would we be teaching students to read in Spanish?
As it turns out, research suggests that learning to read in your first language (L1) greatly improves your ability to learn to read a second language (L2). So for example, because I can read English (my L1), I have an easier time learning to read my L2 (Spanish) because I already understand concepts like “words are made of sounds” and “sometimes sounds are represented by more than one letter.” The same is true in reverse: a child who speaks Spanish at home will have an easier time learning to read English if she also learns to read Spanish. Just as there are cognitive benefits to learning to speak more than one language, there are benefits to learning to read more than one language.
But why Spanish? In the US, by far, the non-English language with the most speakers is Spanish (an estimated 42 million speakers as of the 2019 census). This of course carries over into school: Spanish is the most commonly-reported home language other than English among US students – Spanish speakers make up 76.4% of the English Learner population, which means they comprise 8.4% of all US students. So this is a massive population that schools need to support, and in this context, “support” should include Spanish literacy instruction.
The Science of Reading: English vs. Spanish
The major topic areas for learning to read in Spanish are not so different from those in English. Where the two practices differ are in the nuances.
Quick refresher for those who need it. If you already know this part, skip down to the 👋
The Science of Reading focuses on several critical content areas, including:
- Phonemic Awareness – The ability to hear and play with the individual sounds in spoken words. Example: Knowing that the word “cat” is made up of three sounds: /k/, /a/, /t/.
- Phonics – Understanding how letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. Example: Learning that the letter “b” makes the /b/ sound, or that “sh” together make a single sound.
- Vocabulary – The words we know and use in a language. Example: Knowing what words like “enormous,” “ecstatic,” or “peculiar” mean and how to use them.
- Fluency – The ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression. Example: Reading aloud smoothly, without stumbling over words, and with the right inflections (raising the tone at the end of a question, etc.).
- Comprehension – Understanding and making meaning from what you read. Example: Being able to summarize a story, answer questions about it, or explain its main idea after reading it.
👋 Hey skimmers, welcome back! Let’s talk about how each of these domains compare in English vs. Spanish.
Phonemic Awareness
As described above, phonemic awareness deals with the individual sounds of a language – the building blocks you use to make words. Students learn to break words out into individual sounds, and they also learn to manipulate them. Think about turning cat into mat, or in Spanish, pato into gato – that’s phoneme substitution.
Now, here’s where things get interesting. Spanish and English are very different when it comes to how complex they are. Spanish keeps it simple with 5 vowel sounds and about 20 consonant sounds (give or take a few, depending on the dialect and who you ask). English, on the other hand, has a whopping 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonant sounds (again, expert- and dialect-dependent). It’s no wonder learning to read English is such a long process!
So, what does this mean for budding readers? Well, Spanish learners have it a bit easier. In fact, Spanish takes an interesting approach to phonemic awareness. Instead of focusing only on individual sounds, it embraces syllables – short combinations of consonants and vowels. For example, think about a child learning the /p/ sound in Spanish. They wouldn’t just practice the “p” sound in isolation; they’d learn and experiment with a set of related syllables: pa, pe, pi, po, pu.
This syllable-centric approach has two big advantages. First, it mirrors how we actually hear sounds in words – not in isolation but combined with other sounds. Second, it sets the stage for understanding spelling patterns. Which brings us to…
Phonics
In phonics, we’re dealing with how the sounds of a spoken language map to written letters or sets of letters (think “b” or “th”). As with phonemes, Spanish readers have a much easier time with this process than English readers do, and for good reason.
Consider the following English words: play, weigh, shea, convey, cliche, gourmet. Notice anything? That’s right, they all end with the long ‘a’ sound, but look at that spelling variety! There are many fascinating historical and linguistic reasons for the lack of consistency here, but suffice to say, English is a hot mess.
In Spanish, by contrast, a similar set of words might look like this: se, hable, noche, grande, and so on. Notice how much more consistent the spellings are? This consistency is a Spanish reader’s best friend.
The result? Learning phonics in Spanish is a much more straightforward process. There are some outliers that need to be explicitly taught (the letter x can make multiple sounds, for example), but they are in the minority. For the most part, the language’s consistency means phonics doesn’t dominate the “learn to read” process in Spanish the way it does in English.
Vocabulary
Let’s talk vocabulary (ha). The science of reading emphasizes vocabulary development because a strong vocabulary helps children understand what they’re reading more easily. As texts become more complex in later grades, having a rich vocabulary becomes even more important. Unlike phonemic awareness and phonics, this is an area that is equally important for both English and Spanish!
An important area for vocabulary development is domain-specific vocabulary – words used in particular subjects or areas of study. In English, words like “photosynthesis” in science or “democracy” in social studies are examples. In Spanish, that’d be “fotosíntesis” for science or “democracia” for social studies. Understanding these specialized words is crucial for grasping concepts in different academic subjects.
Another important area is morphology, or how words are formed and structured. In English, this means learning about things like prefixes, suffixes, root words, and plurals – like how “un-” changes “happy” to “unhappy” or adding “es” to “sandwich” makes “sandwiches.”
Spanish has a lot of this sort of thing – there are the famous verb tenses (hablo, hablas, habla, hablamos, hablan) of course, but also things like adjective/noun gender agreement, as in “el gato es bonito” vs. “la niña es bonita”. Understanding how these building blocks can be used to consistently and predictably change the meaning of words makes it easier for learners to both decode and understand unfamiliar words.
Fluency
When it comes to reading fluency, Spanish and English have different challenges and advantages. Let’s look at two key aspects that impact fluency in Spanish reading:
Accent Marks
Unlike English, Spanish uses accent marks to explicitly show pronunciation. This is a huge advantage for Spanish readers! In English, words like “record” (like “I record a song”) and “record” (like “she set a world record”) are spelled identically, leaving the reader to figure out the correct stress from context. Spanish, however, uses accent marks to eliminate this ambiguity.
For example, consider these Spanish words:
“papa” (potato) vs. “papá” (dad)
“esta” (this) vs. “está” (is)
The accent mark tells the reader exactly where to place the stress, making it easier to read words correctly and fluently, even on first encounter. This explicit guidance on pronunciation is a significant aid in developing reading fluency in Spanish.
Syllables
In both English and Spanish, syllables play a crucial role in fluent reading, but their importance is even more pronounced in Spanish.
Remember how we talked about Spanish’s syllable-based approach to phonemic awareness? This focus on syllables carries through to fluency development. Spanish words are often taught and read in syllable chunks, which aligns nicely with how the language is naturally spoken.
For instance, a Spanish reader might break down a word like “mariposa” (butterfly) into syllables: ma-ri-po-sa. This syllable-by-syllable approach helps readers tackle longer words more easily and read more fluently.
In English, while syllables are important, the irregular nature of the language means readers often need to recognize whole words or use more complex decoding strategies. A word like “butterfly” doesn’t break down as neatly into syllables as its Spanish counterpart.
The regularity of Spanish syllables and their clear pronunciation (thanks in part to those handy accent marks!) means that once a Spanish reader masters syllable reading, they can often read even unfamiliar words with good fluency. This is a significant difference, and advantage, in developing overall reading fluency in Spanish.
Comprehension
Because decoding and fluency in Spanish are relatively straightforward, we often see an interesting issue: the “word caller” phenomenon. While this is a hotly debated concept when it comes to English reading, it’s more often true in Spanish reading. “Word callers” are students who can read Spanish text aloud fluently and with perfect pronunciation, but may not understand what they’re reading. Unlike in English, where a child who has difficulty decoding probably also has difficulty understanding, Spanish readers might sound really proficient while struggling to understand. I myself am a word caller in Spanish! I learned Spanish in my teenage years, and not even close to completely – the result is that I can correctly pronounce most of the words I read, but don’t know what most of them mean.
The upshot is that educators need to be especially vigilant about assessing and developing comprehension skills in Spanish readers, emphasizing strategies like summarizing, self-monitoring, and making connections from the very beginning of literacy instruction.
For students learning to read Spanish in the United States, where the dominant culture is not Hispanic, culturally relevant texts are crucial for supporting comprehension. When students consistently encounter texts that don’t reflect their experiences or cultural background, they may lose interest in reading altogether – the “this isn’t for me” problem. Interestingly, cultural relevance also aids comprehension by reducing cognitive load. A student familiar with the cultural context of a text can focus on understanding the story, while a student unfamiliar with the context must simultaneously decipher cultural signals while also following the narrative. To address this, Spanish literacy programs in the US should include diverse texts reflecting various Hispanic cultures and the experiences of Hispanic Americans. This approach not only motivates students to read but also supports deeper comprehension by allowing students to connect with the material more easily.
Bringing It All Together (Tl;dr)
As we’ve seen, the Science of Reading isn’t just applicable to English—it’s a powerful framework for understanding how children learn to read in any alphabetic language, including Spanish. Let’s recap what we’ve learned:
- Teaching Spanish literacy in the US is crucial, given the large and growing Spanish-speaking population.
- Learning to read in one’s first language supports second language literacy development.
- The Science of Reading applies to Spanish, but with some key differences: Spanish has a more consistent phonics system, making decoding easier. Spanish literacy instruction often takes a syllable-centric approach. Accent marks in Spanish provide explicit pronunciation cues, aiding fluency. The ease of decoding in Spanish means extra attention must be paid to comprehension.
- Culturally relevant texts are vital for motivation and comprehension in Spanish literacy instruction.
The Science of Reading, with its focus on phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension, provides a robust, evidence-based approach to teaching reading in Spanish. By leveraging these principles and adapting them to the unique features of Spanish, we can effectively support Spanish literacy development. This not only honors the linguistic diversity of our students but also equips them with crucial skills for academic success and lifelong learning. As we continue to embrace multilingual education, the Science of Reading can and should play a vital role in shaping effective literacy instruction for all learners.
If you’d like an on-rails, evidence-based way to provide Science of Reading instruction in Spanish, consider My Reading Academy Español.
This article was edited in collaboration with Claude, an AI language model developed by Anthropic.