Hi Jason,
Let me elaborate on the same message I conveyed repeatedly from our very first chat in Dec — Yixin needs to build reading habit, which requires, among other things, a much bigger vocabulary.
A student’s vocab and amount of English reading form a virtuous circle — the more he reads, the more words he knows, and the more he will be able to understand and absorb, and the more content “varieties” he is likely to explore and discover.
My own experience helping him read is partially successful. For many years, my wife and I would read him stories before bed time, but mostly adults reading to him. After 5 (or maybe 4), we started asking him to read aloud but he had lots of difficulties, and read very slowly, even though not a complete failure.
Some of the teachers we engaged suggested simpler books with simpler words, but I don’t agree. I did try. It did nothing to improve vocab or interest.
The ultimate, conclusive, in-depth experiment I tried more than 20 times was reading on (less crowded) MRT train or fast food restaurant. The book would be one he picked. The environment is a bit distracting but enjoyable in my opinion. There’s no younger sister to distract him. At home, even mom and grandma could become sub-conscious distractions at home, but they aren’t there on the train. In this more conducive setting, he was more willing to read under persuasion, but only for a short few minutes. I often spent half a day bringing him out, and induce about 30 – 60 minutes reading time. I concluded that there’s no reading material that could engage him for more than 10 minutes, like television or digital games can. Many kids of his age could read some story book or newspaper for more than 10 minutes without adult supervision. Yixin would not.
Not to worry too much. I realize my sister was not interested in reading, not a top student, but now a successful finance manager in a big MNC. Everyone learns important skills that leads to their core competence. She learns not by reading. (I also know people — myself included — who learn a lot of skills by reading but lack some very important skills because no book can teach those.) Yixin shows signs of this personality. Maybe he will never enjoy reading and learning-from-books as some kids do.
Writing is another skill soon to be developed. Writing depends heavily on reading and imitation. Without going into details, I will just point out that people like my sister were not top writers in school but they learn thousands of words and useful ways of speaking by … talking to people! They may end up pretty good at written communication too, although they might have a writing vocab of 3000 words, much smaller than professional writers. By the way, these people are often great at verbal communication. I’m the opposite — i write better than I speak.