The Importance Of Literacy And Language Development In The Primary Grades

Learning provision for literacy development is important for pupils for several reasons. When pupils are developing their language skills they are learning to communicate with others in a variety of ways through speaking reading and writing. The three areas of language interact with each other to promote the child’s self expression and imagination. Children need to be given opportunity’s to use and extend their language in all subject areas so they can develop higher level thinking. [ Louise burnham, Brenda Baker,2010,pg206]

In this task I am going to identify 2 different theories of language development I am going to be doing, Naom Chomsky and Jean Piaget.

Rayen enjoys listening and participating in literacy activities. He often makes personal connections to shared experiences and takes risks by sharing them in the large group. Rayen writes in a small group that focuses on sounding out words and recording ideas in ways that make sense. He has demonstrated growth this term in being able spell some high frequency words and uses them in his writing. Rayen is able to communicate his ideas and experiences through illustrations and oral discussions. He uses sentence starters to organize his ideas and produces simple sentences with support. Also with support, he is able to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. Rayen continues to work on consistently using finger spaces in his writing for

Misty Adoniou, associate professor in Language and Literacy, tutor’s schoolteachers on how to appropriately educate children when it comes to literacy and using distinctive languages. Adoniou’s reading “Improving kids’ literacy - a little knowledge can go a long way” is about informing teachers on how to accurately demonstrate the parts of learning and developing all the right reading and writing skills to be intellectual and socially capable, as language is used to communicate.

Since literacy evolves with changes in cultural communicative practices and technological developments, so too do definitions of what literacy is. There is some agreement on what literacy involves, and most definitions include reading, writing, speaking and listening, and sometimes viewing or visual literacy. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia [EYLF] (DEEWR, 2009, p.38) defines literacy as “a students’ capacity to access, manage, interpret and reflect on written texts in order to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate effectively in society”. But why is literacy so important? Research shows that people with good literacy skills are more likely to have greater self-esteem, improved health, better jobs and higher wages than those with poor literacy skills. They are more able to take advantage of the opportunities that life may offer them. In order to acquire and share an important text, teachers need to consider a number of variables relating to students’, as according to Larson and Marsh in Making Literacy Real (2014) “literacy is grounded in social, cultural, historical and political practices”. In addition to appropriate literature, the NRP (National Reading Panel, 2000) noted that phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension are crucial for effective reading instruction. The recommendations were that all students be explicitly and systematically taught these five key components.

In primary schools, literacy is taught through things such as Phonics. In 2012, The Department for Education (DfE) introduced a phonics screening check for pupils at the end of year 1. The check asks pupils to read 40 words, of which 20 are pseudo-words. This allows teachers to identify which pupils have a genuine grasp of decoding and which pupils are in need of further support. “Since 2012, the proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard has increased from 58% to 74% in 2014”. Literacy enables children at a young age to understand how the alphabet works and concentrates on speaking and listening skills, phonological awareness and oral blending and segmenting. Additional activities that can be done to help with literacy are drama, guided reading, peer work and talking in groups. Children with good literacy skills are abler to take advantage of the opportunities that they may come across as they would be literate in a subject area. A child should have good word recognition and language comprehension in order to be successfully literate. Furthermore, Literacy skills can be developed outside of the school environment. DfE found that “research has shown that children’s motivation and achievement improve when their parents or carers are involved in their education”.

The development of literacy has taken a number of years. The effort to explain how people have improved on their education using universal formulas has become useless. The growth of literacy is similar to designing a car. Many people with distinct elements are involved, and some of the factors might or might not be done in our control. There is no clear process of improving a person’s education. Therefore, it requires the efforts of those who are specialised in different phases of this development. There are those who help learners perform well in the lower levels while others offer their expertise in later stages of education. In addition to this, if all the people play their roles in the best possible ways and be able to learn from other

Literacy is the most important skill when it comes to children’s personal growth, culture and development. Literacy is the ability to read and write, and is tied to everything children do, including their social interactions with others. When children don’t develop strong literacy and language skills in their early years, the impact on future educational attainment and employment outcomes are significant, (King-Smith, 2015, p. 5). It is crucial to help young children be ready for school by working with them to develop the necessary early literacy and learning skills, to become confident and involved learners. Educators are in charge of creating literacy rich environments for children, where children will experience effective teaching

The teacher provided the children to identify some letters in the print but does not provide opportunity for all the children to become engaged in the activity. The teacher did take some opportunity to draw the childrens attention to the sounds in words but the children were not motivated to complete the activity. The activity seemed rushed and the children seemed to think the activity was drawn out. Some other activities that were observed in the classroom seemed to promote letter recognition. Children were encouraged to identify letters on their mat and match them to their lower-case letters. Although the activity had a goal in mind there was no opportunity for the children to discuss and there was little opportunity for the activity to be extended. Another activity available was a drawing activity where the children were able to draw a picture of their favorite animalsThe teacher shared that they can use their mouths and lips to say each word to help them identify the beginning letter sounds. After discussing with the teacher the activities in the classroom she shared that she has been incorporating an abundance of fine motor skill activities and has found that language activities are provided but not on a consistent timeline. Home school projects were also discussed and she shared that activities were sent home monthly to encourage parents to have a much more hands on role in their childs literacy skills. Newsletters are also sent home monthly

Through this week learning resources, I have learned that there are evidences that demonstrate that when a child has limited experiences he or she is more likely to have difficult comprehending what is read. It is why early childhood professionals affirm that oral language is the foundation for literacy development. Everything that children learn about speaking and listening they use for writing and reading and what they learn from writing and reading they use in listening and speaking. In other words, oral language and literacy develop simultaneously. When parents provide rich language and literacy reinforcement at home, children do better in school than those who do not. It is also known for early childhood professionals that for a child with limited experiences is more difficult comprehending what is read. For example, a child who has being exposed to many environments like a farm or like a museum will have more mentally engagement in classrooms activities about things he or she already know that children who have not had experience in those environments. Many researches showed that children that have not have a literacy development or an oral language development years before formal schooling, are less likely to be successful beginning readers, opening an achievement lag that might last through the primary grades. Some of the reasons why parents are not actively involved into their children’s educations are their socioeconomic or legal status. For example, in an immigrant family sometimes both parents have to work and sometimes they have to work two shifts. I have known families where children are the whole day in school and with nannies. Those children do not develop any skills that help them to succeed at the time of attending forming school.

A teacher’s learning instruction is essential and paints the picture for a child’s success in society. A teacher’s literacy instruction provides children with the needed skills to be fluent in reading, writing, phonemic awareness, and math. Phonics and phonemic awareness also help with reading comprehension. Preparing a child for fluency and comprehension means doing the basics and leading up to the high expected skills. Each step in developing reading and writing is built off the other; for example, cause and effect. What is an affective comprehensive literacy instruction? Is one better than the other? This essay will define comprehension literacy instruction and explain how to scaffold a child’s literacy development.

Reading is a skill often taken for granted but it is essential in order to progress in life. For a child being able to read well helps them learn new things, give ideas and enables use of imagination. National literacy trust (2015) suggests that children’s early language skills can have a major impact on a child’s development of literacy skills. Five-year olds with poor language and literacy have a higher risk of underachieving at age seven and beyond. Reading skills encourage more opportunities in life and it can affect a child’s wellbeing if they do not achieve this effectively (Finnegan,2015).

My philosophy of literacy is centered on providing a learning environment rich in authentic literature, instruction that is engaging, fun, and balanced, collaborative, and also involving families in the child’s education. My ultimate goal of literacy instruction is to help children become lifelong readers and writers by providing the skills necessary to comprehend, construct, and make meaning of text, speak, and write. (Torgesen, 2002). According to the National Reading Panel, there are five essential components that must be taught in effective reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. (Reading Horizons). According to Konza (2014), reading instruction should be changed to six foundational reading elements, adding oral language and early literacy. I also believe that early literacy should be

The United States is further behind in education than many other countries. They are lacking behind in math and science compared to Asian countries. They are more below in arts than European countries. They are also further behind in foreign language than the rest of the world. Children are more receptive to learning when it begins at an early age. To obtain a positive and better quality of learning, foreign language should be considered in being implemented in primary school.

Entrepreneurship is regarded as one of the most important determinants of the industrial growth of the country.The dearth of the entrepreneul and managerial skills is one of the most common problems being faced by all under developed economies.Moreover,the potential for the employment of students graduating from professional colleges is enormous,but one major handicap which many of them face is poor communicative ability in English.Proficiency in English is recognised globally as a pre-requisite for entry into the work place.Since English plays a key role in the domains of entrepreneurship,corporate sectors and international business,its use has to be standardised,simplified,made more functional and intelligible. Students of professional colleges need a great deal of help in improving their ability in English language proficiency so as to entrepreneur and obtain easier entry into the corporate world.Proficiency in communication skills develops ability to grasp opportunities to offer economic advantages, maximising gains and above all building confidence in every individual that one could make things happen.