Supporting Language and Early Literacy Practices
Supporting Language and Early Literacy Practices
Supporting Language and Early Literacy Practices
learning guideline
Professional development | Resources
Contents
1. A conceptual framework for supporting language and early literacy learning and
development
This section identifies key characteristics of learning environments that promote language
and early literacy learning and development and includes questions that teachers can use
as a starting point for critically reflecting on their practices.
2. Strategies for language and early literacy learning and teaching
This section provides advice for teachers planning a balanced approach to supporting language
and early literacy learning and development. It describes a range of strategies teachers can use
to develop social relationships and focus on socially appropriate communication in context,
promote vocabulary development, develop phonological awareness, develop alphabetic and
letter–sound knowledge (phonics) and provide a rich literacy environment in which literacy
is purposefully used and discussed.
3. Snapshots of a balanced language and early literacy program in kindergarten
This section shows snapshots of how teachers promote language and early literacy
learning and development within their kindergarten programs.
Appendixes
a. An integrated approach to supporting early literacy development in kindergarten
b. Learning and teaching language in kindergarten
1
B Raban, M Brown, E Care, F Rickards & O’Connell, T 2011, Young Learners — Learning and Literacy in the
Early Years. AARE International Education Research Conference, 29 Nov – 3 Dec 2009,
r1061 Rebranded July 2014
www.aare.edu.au/09pap/rab091255.pdf.
1. A conceptual framework for supporting language
and early literacy learning and development
As an experienced kindergarten teacher I often find myself having to justify why I teach the way
I do through play-based learning. Increasingly, there has been pressure from parents, who connect
commercial phonics programs with becoming literate and ready for school, to teach differently. Media
pressure that devalues the place of play-based learning and promotes the need for ‘school readiness’
contributes to parent confusion about how best to help their children. I find I often need to explain how
I promote children’s literacy learning, including phonics, within my program.
This teacher’s predicament is a common one faced by early years professionals working in prior-
to-school settings and in the beginning years of schooling.
Early years teachers are faced with challenges such as:
• a range of viewpoints about the best ways to support children’s literacy
• media focus on literacy results and the perceived need for educational systems to improve
children’s literacy
• questions about the value of play as a powerful context for learning over more formalised
and directed approaches to teaching children
• the promotion of phonics based materials as ‘the answer’ to ensuring that all children
become literate
• fears of curriculum ‘push down’ amongst early years educators
• diversity of parental and community expectations.
Dealing with these challenges in early years education while sustaining a rich literacy program
for young children requires a positive and proactive approach.
2
B Raban & H Coates, 2004, ‘Literacy in the Early Years: A follow up study’, Journal of Research in Reading, 27,
1, pp. 15–29 (quote from p.16).
3
J Hamer, 2005, ‘Exploring Literacy with Infants from a Sociocultural Perspective’, New Zealand Journal of
Teachers’ Work, Volume 2, Issue 2, www.teacherswork.ac.nz/journal/volume2_issue2/hamer.pdf, pp. 70-75
(quote from p.70).
4
I Siraj-Blatchford, 2009, ‘Curriculum, pedagogy and progression’ in Early Education, Sustained Shared Thinking,
Spring, p. 6.
5
J Lynch, J Anderson, A Anderson, & J Shapiro, 2006, ‘Parents’ beliefs about young children’s literacy
development and parents literacy behaviours’, Reading Psychology, vol. 27, iss. 1, 1-20.
6
M Hyson, 2008, Enthusiastic and engaged learners: Approaches to learning in the early childhood
classroom. Early Childhood Education Series, Teachers College Press: Columbia University.
Using language to communicate in socially appropriate ways that fit varied contexts is an
important skill for young children to begin learning. Kindergarten is a time to learn the social
conventions for communicating, e.g. to take turns when talking with a partner, to stay on
topic, to listen and to wait, to ask questions, to make requests and to use social language
vocabulary such as ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. As children learn to communicate with peers
at kindergarten, their communicative competence has a significant impact on their developing
social relationships and their acceptance by other children. Recent studies by Bonamy 10 and
7
D Konza, 2011, Supporting Oral Language and Reading development in the Early Years. Spotlight research into
practice: research monograph 5, Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, February, p.2.
8
Learning Together Research Program, 2007, Investigating children’s early literacy learning in family and
community contexts: Review of the related literature, Commissioned for the Government of South Australia, p.6.
9
J Dockrell, K Sylva, L Huxford, F Roberts, 2009, Oral language skills in the early years, pp.3-4.
10
RO Bonamy, 2011, ‘Social cognition and conduct problems: a developmental approach’, Journal of the
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 50, issue 4, pp. 385–94.
11
M Leonard, et al. 2011, “The role of pragmatic language use in mediating the relation between hyperactivity and
inattention and social skills problems”, Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, vol. 54, pp. 567–79.
12
J Dockrell, K Sylva, L Huxford, F Roberts, 2009, Oral language skills in the early years, p. 4.
13
Scarborough (2001, “Connecting early language and literacy to later reading (dis)abilities: Evidence, theory and
practice”. In S Neuman & D Dickinson (eds) Handbook of early literacy research. Guilford Press, New York, pp. 97–
110) cited in D Konza, 2011, Supporting Oral Language and Reading development in the Early Years. Spotlight
research into practice: research monograph 5, Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, February, p.2
• Use specific words to talk about language and literacy concepts (metalanguage), such as:
− concepts of print: when reading large print and writing, talk with the children about the text,
identifying and using the terms such as: ‘letters’, ‘words’, ‘full stops’, ‘spaces between
words’, ‘reading from top to bottom’ and ‘left to right’; referring to ‘print’ and ‘pictures’;
referring to the title on a book cover or the title of a song
− concepts of digital literacy: e.g. ‘scroll’, ‘mouse’, ‘menu’, ‘icon’
− language: when developing phonemic awareness, listen for and use the terms ‘sound’,
‘word’, ‘pattern’
− text types: refer to ‘stories’, ‘songs’, ‘signs’, ‘name-cards’, ‘labels’, ‘recipes’, ‘lists’,
‘instructions’, ‘webpages’, ‘magazines’, ‘catalogues’, ‘maps’, ‘diagrams’
− text purposes: refer to why we read or write particular text types, e.g. explain that ‘the website
will tell me how to make a kite’; or ‘I’ll write a list to help me remember what to buy’.
• Introduce mathematical vocabulary when talking with children about learning experiences
(see table below for examples).
Shapes Recognising shapes, e.g. when playing card Small group game
games with shapes, naming the shapes that
match.
• Organise small group or one-to-one experiences with a supportive adult to increase the
quality of the interaction, the variety of words children are exposed to and the number of
words that they are likely to hear
• Share quality texts. It is important that children engage in focused interactions and
conversations about the texts, their meanings and purposes. Quality literature provides
opportunities for children to build a rich vocabulary by learning unfamiliar words such as new
descriptive vocabulary, e.g. bird movements can be described as ‘flutters’, ‘floats’, ‘flaps’.
Phonological awareness
‘Phonological awareness is the ability to focus on the sounds of speech as distinct from
its meaning; on its rhythm, the patterns of intonation and most importantly on the
individual sounds.’ 14
Phonemic awareness is a part of phonological awareness and is the ability to segment words into
phonemes (individual sounds). Phonemic awareness is a prerequisite to learning the alphabetic
code because children need to be able to hear the separate sounds in words in order to relate
these sounds to the letters of the alphabet. However, young children find it easier to hear
syllables in words before they can hear the sounds of individual letters because speakers do not
normally break spoken words into separate sounds.
The earliest phonological skills children begin to develop are an understanding of the concept of
rhyme. When children learn to recognise, match and then produce rhyming words they are
demonstrating initial phonemic awareness because to produce words that rhyme, (e.g. ‘cat’, ‘fat’,
‘bat’) they are actually deleting the first sound in a word (the ‘onset’) and replacing it with another.
This is an essential foundational skill that is built on in the Prep Year.
The introduction of rhyming games is an important first step in helping children to develop
phonological awareness. Intentional teaching strategies that support phonological awareness
include:
• encouraging children to play with rhymes and rhyming sounds
• playing games where children match objects that rhyme; then progressing to card games
where children match picture cards
• segmenting spoken words in different ways, e.g. clapping the syllables in their name: ‘Clar-a’,
‘Ben-ja-min’
• reading quality picture books and computer games with rhyming text; on subsequent
readings, listening for the rhyming words; children saying the rhyming word when the adult
pauses.
14
D Konza, 2011, Supporting Oral Language and Reading development in the Early Years. Spotlight research
into practice: research monograph 5, Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat, February, p. 2.
Adults should also respond purposefully to children’s questions and comments about letters and
their sounds to extend children’s understandings about letter–sound relationships and how letters
and sounds are used; for example:
• if a child asks, ‘What does that number say?’ respond by saying, ‘This is the letter “s”.
I need to write it at the start of this word on our sign about the ‘s-s-sausage sizzle’
• when a child comments, ‘Charlie starts like my name (Cate), but it sounds different,’ you
could respond, ‘Sometimes letters work together and make a different sound. The “c” and “h”
work together to say “ch” in Charlie’s name.’
15
B Raban, M Brown, E Care, F Rickards & O’Connell, T 2011, Young Learners — Learning and Literacy in the Early Years.
AARE International Education Research Conference, 29 Nov – 3 Dec 2009, www.aare.edu.au/09pap/rab091255.pdf.
Most kindergarten children enjoy chanting alphabet songs and rhymes. They may have a general
awareness that letters have names, but they may not necessarily know the name of particular
letters. They may know their name starts with an ‘m’ and notice other words that start ‘like their
name’. They may recognise their name in familiar contexts, usually by noticing the first letter, and
the length and shape of the word. They may see another word that looks similar to their name
and say, ‘That’s my name,’ (e.g. ‘Lauren’ and ‘Laundry’). In Prep, children will continue to develop
their alphabetic knowledge and understandings about letter–sound relationships within play and
active learning contexts.
Pretend reading
Kindergarten children also enjoy pretending to read. For example, they may make up a story to
match the pictures and approximate telling the story from memory.
Reading a familiar book is a regular
choice during outdoor time in this
kindergarten setting. A box of books
that have previously been read to the
children is placed on a rug in an inviting
position. It is a favourite choice of many
children.
Here we see Travis ‘reading’ a book to
two friends. He is reading from
memory, taking his cues from the
pictures. He knows the story so well
that it is almost word-for-word accurate
and he ‘reads’ it with great expression
to make the story exciting for his
listeners.
Using literacy for a real-life purpose; pretend reading
to entertain
Conclusion
During the Kindergarten Year the focus for language and literacy development is on providing a
balanced and rich program through the contexts of play, real-life engagements and routines and
transitions. For instance:
• during play, an adult might model how to find a letter on an alphabet chart when writing a sign
for a block building; a child might create a plan or map as part of a pretend game
• during transitions and routines, an adult might help a child use labels to help put things away
or find a name on a helper’s chart
• during real-life engagements, an adult might talk about the purpose for reading instructions on
the plant seed packet, or talk with a child about the images and letters on the covers of books
or search engines to help them choose the one that might have the information they need for
their investigation.
The role of adults is to support children’s developing understandings about language and its
purposes, to build on existing knowledge and experiences and to nurture their confidence to
communicate through a range of social experiences. Current research indicates that ‘good
outcomes for children are linked to sustained and shared talking time, involving open-ended
Play offers a chance to provide experiences which replicate or approximate the ways literacy is
genuinely used in everyday life, thereby offering children insights into what it feels like to be
literate.
This will be more potent for their developing awareness and understandings than providing
them with decontextualised literacy experiences that they may find bewildering and confusing
in relation to what they see adults around them doing. This is the danger of introducing a formal
school curriculum during the early years, before children have developed a flexible conceptual
framework within which they can use such item knowledge. 18
16
B Raban, M Brown, E Care, F Rickards & O’Connell, T 2011, Young Learners — Learning and
Literacy in the Early Years. AARE International Education Research Conference, 29 Nov – 3 Dec
2009, www.aare.edu.au/09pap/rab091255.pdf, p. 5.
17
S McKenzie 2006, Making Connections to Promote Early Literacy. Literacy and Numeracy
Innovative Projects Initiative: Final projects report for Round Two, Commonwealth of Australia,
www.dest.gov.au/literacynumeracy/innovativeprojects/mckenzie_making_connections/default.htm
p. 20.
18
B Raban, M Brown, E Care, F Rickards & O’Connell, T 2011, Young Learners — Learning and
Literacy in the Early Years. AARE International Education Research Conference, 29 Nov – 3 Dec
2009, www.aare.edu.au/09pap/rab091255.pdf, p. 4.