Sorry I don't know any first-hand approaches, but I know that this is a serious problem for the children of Chinese (mainly from Taiwan), Japanese, and Korean parents who come to the US for graduate study. They are hopelessly behind their peers when they return to their countries, and cannot simply be placed at grade level. There is probably some literature (likely in Chinese and Japanese) on how they are treated on return. The problem is much less for Koreans, since they have a unique phonemic alphabet. I think the Japanese have developed special classes for such students, but I don't know any more about the issue.

Thanks a million for this first very interesting input!! Greetings from Munich, Birgit

Birgit--Grüß Gott! While my experience in the primary levels is limited, I found a paper that might help you with some insight. I find a lot of information on the university and adult level but the primary school seems more precious. If you have trouble retrieving the article, let me know.

References 

Moon, J. (2008). L2 children and writing: a neglected skill? ELT J,  62 (4): 398-400. doi:10.1093/elt/ccn039

http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=9f83257e-2ecd-4029-9bd0-31b80c4fcdf1%40sessionmgr113&hid=106

Dear Linda, fantastic, thank you so much for your help! Greetings from Munich and Graz, Birgit

Birgit,

    Re-reading your question, I realized that research definitely supports developing reading skills in the native language prior to introducing reading in L2. I realize that this is a somewhat separate issue from more advanced 'text competence", but the latter clearly cannot be attained without prior literacy. One of my former students wrote his dissertation confirming my hypothesis that children who developed basic reading skills in Spanish in Mexico prior to coming to the US had better achievement in school in English overall than their younger siblings who started school in the US and had no opportunity to learn to read in Spanish (and learn all basic skills through Spanish).

   Although my visits to Graz were brief, I still have very fond memories of the place.

   Rudy

Dear Rudy, thank you so much for your second answer. Unfortunately here in Austria and Germany the children with migrational background do not learn their L1 in writing and reading anymore. They speak it at home but they get literacy only in German. So actually, they cannot build on anything (text understanding, reading) from their L1. And this completely blocks them in Primary School and as a consequence it Secondary School. Greetings from a beautiful and sunny Graz and thank you once again :-)

Birgit--I found this article that I hope might help in your research. As I am considering the thoughts addressed on p. 36 of Barkaoui's writing, I am reminded that the L2 learner is going through a restructuring of identity. In that you are not able to utilize L1 knowledge or at least are restricted from emphasizing their L1 writing skills, the next best thing to me seems to be to accent the worthiness of their culture, heroic personalities, and cultural contributions in the writing expressed in the L2. Many L2 learners lose interest or become discouraged if they sense their cultural existence is not presented on an equal par with the L2 culture. Baraoui notes, although briefly, this transformation of identity. Even if you can't teach them to write totally in their L1, it would be beneficial to teach aspects in the L2 writings about their L1 culture. I believe, you will at least be able to keep their attention better. What do you think? I can also provide research that shows this identity problem but was not able to put my hands on it in time to respond.

Dear John, that sounds very, very interesting to me - we are always teaching the L2 culture in L2 writing but you are right, teaching L1 culture topics would be a motivating factor in L2 learing. I would love to try this out with my pupils in the coming school year, I will let you know the reactions and outcome. If you can share any of your research in identity matters, I would be very, very thankful. Thanks again for this great help! Greetings from Graz, Birgit

Hi again Birgit! Ich kann ihre Situation schon mitfuehlen. I'm not sure if I can agree with Rudy 100% because between the year 2012-2014, while teaching at the Al-bukhary International university, I worked with Chambodian students. These are smart students who have been awarded scholarships to pursue their studies at the university. I did a research on their writing and reading difficulties, and found out that it has a lot to do with their deficiency in the  oral production of the EL. They are competent writers and readers in their L1, but they still have massive difficulties to master the EL. I found out that the wide differences between the EL and the Khmer language are the main reasons that hinders these smart adult students to master the EL. Khmer is an Austroasiatic language strongly influenced by Sanskrit and Pali. It is primarily an analytic language without inflections, conjugations or cases. Auxiliary words replace particles to show grammatical relationship. So, it was very common to catch them writing a sentence with the omission of the "to be" verbs. So being competent L1 is not a factor to master L2 writing and reading, at least not for adult EL learners. In your case, i would suggest these two links:

These links address teaching reading comprehension from PreK - 2 graders.

I hope that helps.

http://www.readingrockets.org/article/seven-strategies-teach-students-text-comprehension

https://www.teachervision.com/tv/tvsearch/site=TV&type=graphic-organizer&termname=reading-comprehension

Norehan's experience and analysis is very valuable, and I appreciate his contribution to the discussion. I recall a comment by one of my Chinese colleagues when I was teaching in Taiwan at the National Teacher's University, that those students who wrote best in English were also those who wrote best in Chinese. Many languages, e.g. Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, do not regularly use a copula ("be") in sentences, so learning to use this peculiar European feature is a significant issue for many L2 students. One strategy for this is to focus on developing self-editing skills. There is a reciprocal relationship between oral and written learning -- when studying Hmong refugees in Thailand, Barbara Robson found that those who learned English fastest were those who could read and write in their own language. Robert Allen many years ago found that when international students at Columbia University were given a semester of reading instruction before starting to work on oral production practice, they performed better at the end of the year in speaking/writing than a comparison group who spent the first semester on oral production before being introduced to reading/writing. I should add that for native speakers of English, the more widely read they are, the better they write. So I would suggest that emphasizing wide reading, with accompanying focus on bringing attention to grammatical features, combined with structured translation exercises concentrating on points of difference between the L1 and L2, would be an efficacious way to go.

    --Rudy

Dear Norehan, very, very interesting Input! Thanks a Million for your thoughts and the links! Kind regards from Austria, Birgit

Dear Rudy, I like your part of concentrating on points of difference between L1 and L2 very interesting and motivating. My pupils love to compare differences beween Italian, their mother tongue, and German. Also, I let them read a lot and then make them aware of grammatical points. We also practice critical literacy by ussing texts of their daily lives such as toy packaging, Advertising posters, etc. All material with just a few text lines but enough to analyze. I also experience that these pupils who have an active literate environment at home, are much better in meta language thoughts than pupils with a lower literate activity at home. Thanks for your Input and valuable thoughts. Greetings from Austria, Birgit