Emerging Literacy Analysis
Emerging Literacy begins at birth and continues through the preschool years. During early speech and language development, children learn skills that are important to the development of literacy reading and writing (Roth, Paul, & Pierotti 2006). “Children begin the process of “reading” their surroundings and learning the intricacies of language. This is a part of literacy development, which certainly precedes reading instruction. Becoming literate, in this view, is a dynamic process, through which literacy-related competencies grow and change. Over time and with appropriate stimulation, the competencies required for reading and writing emerge” (Wilson, 2008)
A few critical elements that influencing children’s early literacy are
“Oral Language.
Oral language develops concurrently with literacy development, and it includes listening comprehension, verbal expression, and vocabulary development. Oral language development is facilitated when children have many opportunities to use language in interactions with adults and each other and when they listen and respond to stories. Young children build vocabulary when they engage in activities that are cognitively and linguistically stimulating by encouraging them to describe events and build background knowledge.
Alphabetic Code. English is an alphabetic language, which means that the letters we use to write represent the sounds of the language that we speak. Knowledge of the alphabet letters and phonological awareness (the ability to distinguish the sounds within words) form the basis of early decoding and spelling ability, and both are correlated with later reading and spelling achievement. Young children can learn to name letters and to distinguish them from each other. They can also begin to develop an awareness of the constituent sounds within words, such as syllables, rhymes and phonemes.
Children should be immersed in language-rich environments in order to develop phonological awareness and similarly, it would be difficult to master the ABCs without lots of exposure to the alphabet (in books, on blocks, on refrigerator magnets, in cereal, in soup, in attempts to write, in having their messages written for them, etc.). Knowledge of the ABCs and phonological awareness do not usually just happen from exposure for most children, however. Parents, teachers, and older siblings often intentionally teach children the alphabet, and studies have shown that it is possible to teach phonological awareness to preschoolers and kindergarten children in ways that do not interfere with a comprehensive and rich curriculum focus but do improve later literacy.17
Print Knowledge and Use. Making sense of print involves awareness and understanding of environmental print and an understanding of concepts of print, such as where to begin to read a book or a page and in what direction to read. Each of these is likely learned from interacting with others around print. An early literacy curriculum might include grocery store visits; being read to on a daily basis; having a writing center where children can experiment with written communication, and environmental print that is purposeful such as functional signs, labels and charts. In addition, effective early literacy teachers model the reading and writing processes during shared reading and writing. They explicitly comment aloud about what they are thinking as they read and write so as to make the process transparent to children (Strickland and Riley-Ayers, 2015).
Activities that can be implemented for promoting children’s literacy,
A few critical elements that influencing children’s early literacy are
“Oral Language.
Oral language develops concurrently with literacy development, and it includes listening comprehension, verbal expression, and vocabulary development. Oral language development is facilitated when children have many opportunities to use language in interactions with adults and each other and when they listen and respond to stories. Young children build vocabulary when they engage in activities that are cognitively and linguistically stimulating by encouraging them to describe events and build background knowledge.
Alphabetic Code. English is an alphabetic language, which means that the letters we use to write represent the sounds of the language that we speak. Knowledge of the alphabet letters and phonological awareness (the ability to distinguish the sounds within words) form the basis of early decoding and spelling ability, and both are correlated with later reading and spelling achievement. Young children can learn to name letters and to distinguish them from each other. They can also begin to develop an awareness of the constituent sounds within words, such as syllables, rhymes and phonemes.
Children should be immersed in language-rich environments in order to develop phonological awareness and similarly, it would be difficult to master the ABCs without lots of exposure to the alphabet (in books, on blocks, on refrigerator magnets, in cereal, in soup, in attempts to write, in having their messages written for them, etc.). Knowledge of the ABCs and phonological awareness do not usually just happen from exposure for most children, however. Parents, teachers, and older siblings often intentionally teach children the alphabet, and studies have shown that it is possible to teach phonological awareness to preschoolers and kindergarten children in ways that do not interfere with a comprehensive and rich curriculum focus but do improve later literacy.17
Print Knowledge and Use. Making sense of print involves awareness and understanding of environmental print and an understanding of concepts of print, such as where to begin to read a book or a page and in what direction to read. Each of these is likely learned from interacting with others around print. An early literacy curriculum might include grocery store visits; being read to on a daily basis; having a writing center where children can experiment with written communication, and environmental print that is purposeful such as functional signs, labels and charts. In addition, effective early literacy teachers model the reading and writing processes during shared reading and writing. They explicitly comment aloud about what they are thinking as they read and write so as to make the process transparent to children (Strickland and Riley-Ayers, 2015).
Activities that can be implemented for promoting children’s literacy,