Your Child Speaks English Fluently, So Why Are They Struggling at School?

A situation I see quite often with international families is this: their child’s school report says English needs improvement, but the child speaks English confidently and may read aloud fluently.

So the parent is left wondering:

What exactly are they struggling with?

The problem is that being fluent in spoken English tells us very little about some of the academic English skills schools are assessing.

Reading fluently is not the same as understanding deeply

A child might read a passage smoothly but find it much harder to answer questions such as:

• Why did the character behave in this way?
• What does this phrase suggest?
• What evidence supports your answer?
• What impression does the writer create?
• How do you know?

In these cases, reading the words is not necessarily the problem.

The difficulty comes when the child has to interpret, analyse and explain what they have understood.

A student can therefore look like a strong reader but still find comprehension much more difficult.

The same thing can happen with writing

I often see students who can explain an idea clearly when speaking to me but struggle to communicate the same idea on paper.

Their spoken answer may be detailed and thoughtful.

Their written answer might then be much shorter, less precise or contain grammar errors that affect its clarity.

This can come from several different areas:

• vocabulary
• grammar
• sentence construction
• written organisation
• difficulty explaining ideas in enough detail

Those are very different needs, even though they might all appear on a report under the broad heading of “English”.

Vocabulary can affect several areas at once

Vocabulary is one area I am focusing on particularly with many of my international students.

A limited vocabulary does not only affect creative writing.

It can make comprehension harder because the student misses the precise meaning of a word or phrase.

It can make verbal reasoning more difficult.

It can result in vague written answers.

And it can make it harder for a student to communicate an idea at the level they are actually capable of understanding.

This is why simply telling a child to “read more” or “work on their English” is often not specific enough.

Finding the actual gap

When I begin working with a student, I want to separate the different parts of English rather than treat it as one skill.

For example:

• Spoken English: Can they express their ideas confidently in conversation?
• Reading fluency: Can they read accurately and smoothly?
• Comprehension: Do they understand what they have read?
• Analysis: Can they explain deeper meaning and support an answer with evidence?
• Written expression: Can they communicate their ideas effectively on the page?
• Vocabulary and grammar: Do they have the language needed to express those ideas accurately?

A child can be very strong in some of these areas and much weaker in others.

That is why two students who both “need help with English” might require completely different tuition.

A poor mock can still be useful

No parent wants their child to receive a disappointing score a few months before an important entrance exam.

But identifying a weakness now gives us time to do something about it.

A mock should not simply answer:

“Is my child good enough?”

A much more useful question is:

“What has this result shown us, and what should we work on next?”

The score matters, but what we do with the information afterwards matters more.

School reports tell us where to look

Private-school reports can provide very useful information.

The difficulty for parents is often knowing what to do with that information.

If a report mentions comprehension, grammar, vocabulary or written expression, the next step should be to identify what that looks like in the child’s actual work.

Once I know where the difficulty actually is, I can make the tuition much more specific instead of simply giving the student more general English work.

Current international availability

I currently have limited weekday daytime availability for international students who would benefit from individual English support.

If your child attends an English-speaking school and their English results do not seem to match how fluent they sound in conversation, you are welcome to get in touch.

The first step is identifying which part of English they actually need support with.

Looking for Individual English Support?

If your child attends an English-speaking school but their English results do not seem to match how fluent they sound in conversation, I can help identify the specific areas holding them back.

I currently have limited weekday daytime availability for international students needing support with comprehension, writing, vocabulary, grammar and academic English.

Complete a short expression of interest form to tell me about your child and what they are currently finding difficult. I’ll review the information and let you know whether I can help.