di: Language for Learning/Thinking/Writing vs Direct Instruction Spoken English

[Christopher Duss]

Dear DI List,

I have a 7 year old ESL student in Japan who is preparing for international
school interviews. He is applying for entry to the second half of first
grade. He has to answer questions - for example "What did you do last
summer" - and read and write simple words and sentences - for example,
"write dogs".

Over the past year we have been working through *Language For Learning* and
are now through lesson 40. I have to confirm if there has been a formal
diagnosis, but there has at least been some speculation that he has
Asperger's. If he does, it hasn't impeded his English acquisition, and the
main tweak I have had to use with the program is to be more careful about
number of consecutive mistakes. He often becomes frustrated to the point of
tears before the prescribed 7 mistakes, and it is difficult to bring him
back after that happens.

He has no reading experience but knows the alphabet letter names and the
main phonetic sound for most letters. I have been tasked to bring him up to
the above level in speaking/reading/writing in the next 6 weeks. I will
have him for an hour a day most weekdays, so around 40 sessions until the
interview. My current plan is to continue with *Language For Learning* to
build speaking skill and use* Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons*
to build reading and writing. I also own* Horizons Fast Track A-B* and have
been wondering whether it would be better to use that than* Teach Your
Child*.

Does anyone have thoughts on how to better structure a program to build
these skills in the specified time period? Or thoughts on which reading
program to use?

Thanks,
Chris
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