Emergent Literacy: ELL's Beginning to Write and Read

Emergent Literacy: 

ELL's Beginning to Write and Read

Welcome! This blog post discusses English Language Learner's emergent literacy development. It includes background information about emergent literacy as well as how to create a nurturing environment to allow all learners to succeed in literacy development. Information is from Reading, Writing, and Learning in ESL by Suzanne F. Peregoy and Owen F. Boyle. In addition to this information, this post includes links to Pinterest boards with activities, articles and ideas about literacy development in the classroom and at home. For direct link to this Pinterest board click here.

Background Information About Emergent Literacy

What Does Research Tell Us About ELL's Literacy Development?

• Little research about literacy development in English as a second language.
• Process similar for ELL's and native speakers- both gradually develop language knowledge, world knowledge and print conventions to make sense of text.
• Literacy is a complex, lengthy process for every individual.
• ELL's proficiency and ability to read and write in their native language affects how successful they will be when learning English.
• Literacy skills transfer from primary language to English. 

When Should Children Learn to Read?

Reading Readiness Perspective:

Claims children are not developmentally ready to read until they reach the mental age of 6.6 years, or about first grade. Kindergarten was to focus on socialization and oral language, a literacy should be postponed until first grade. Children needed to be able to perform "readiness subskills" including auditory/visual discrimination and visual/large motor skills to demonstrate maturity needed for literacy skills. Many of these skills turned out to be unnecessary obstacles for literacy development. Nowadays, this perspective seems outdated. 

Emergent Literacy Perspective:

Children begin to develop written language knowledge at a young age when they are exposed to reading and writing at home. Literacy development is parallel to oral language development and children gradually construct knowledge about the forms and functions of print. Explicit instruction about the alphabetic principle develop literacy development and is based on three basic concepts. (1) speech is broken down into sounds or phonemes (2) letters represent speech sounds and (3) letter-sound correspondences allows reader to "recode" words. Explicit instruction in phonemic awareness (speech sounds in words) and phonics (letter-sound correspondences) have led to a balanced approach in teaching. These skills are explicitly taught in an classroom environment rich with a variety of functional reading and writing experiences that help develop understanding about the functions of print.

What is the Difference Between Oral and Written Language Development?

What Are the Stages of Scripting? 

Children experiment with the visual forms of written language from a young age. To achieve accuracy in convention spelling, formal instruction is usually required, but sometimes children can convey meaning in the developmental scripting stages.

What Print Concepts Emerge in Emergent Literacy?

1. Print carries meaning and a message.
2. Oral language can be written down and recorded.
3. Written words can be read aloud.
4. In English, words are read left-to-right.
5. The alphabetic principle explains letter-sound correspondences, or grapho-phonemic units.

How to Nurture Emergent Literacy 

How Do Home Environments Promote Early Literacy?

Families and home-life are crucial to the development of emergent literacy. In a variety of ways, families model how literacy is used in daily life. This could include making grocery lists, reading the newspaper, or printing out directions to a new location. Families can nurture the development of emergent literacy in the home by providing children with literacy materials such as pencils, paper, books as well as reading a loud to children. Multiple research studies show that children who are read to at home perform better at school and having actively involved parents at home lead to a positive impact on a child's education. As a teacher, it is very important to constantly communicate with parents about their student and convey the importance of a positive home environment on early literacy. 

What Classroom Strategies Promote Early Literacy?

Teachers must create a literacy-rich, student-centered classroom environment that promote literacy development and appreciation. This can be done in a variety of ways such as:

• BOOKS! BOOKS! BOOKS!: All different kinds of books such as poetry books, teacher-made books, recipe books, which all contribute to understanding concepts about print and emergent literacy.
• Posted Morning Message and Rules/Procedures
• Reading Aloud to Students
• Dialogue Journals
• Alphabet Books
• Sight Words/Word Wall Words

How Do Students Learn to Recognize Words?

• "Big Books": These large format texts allow children to follow the words as the teacher reads aloud and points to them. Children pick-up new vocabulary words especially in texts that have patterns or lots of repetition. 
• Sight Words: Words that occur frequently in the English language such as a, and, the could be taught with flash cards so students can identify them automatically and do not have to spend as much time decoding these high-frequency words. This allows them to focus on new vocabulary words to add to the student's repertoire. 
• Phonics Instruction: Teaching letter-sound correspondences to students can decode new words.
• Word Families: The initial consonant in a word (onset) followed by a vowel-consonant sequence (rime) can show students how a word/meaning can be changed by altering the onset.

What Are the Developmental Levels in Student Spelling?

1. Prephonetic Spelling: Letters (or symbols) do not look like speech sounds
2. Phonetic Spelling: Letters represent sounds and words look decipherable
3. Transitional Spelling: Conventional spelling is mixed with phonetic spelling
4. Conventional Spelling: Most words spelled correct

How is Emergent Literacy Assessed? 

A portfolio is the most effective way to assess development and chronicles each literacy development level. Portfolios should include both reading and writing samples collected from a variety of exercises and practice. Scales and checklists of reading and writing development are also available and can be included in a student's portfolio.

How Does a Teacher Differentiate Instruction for Emergent Literacy?

Teachers must begin by assessing what each individual student already knows in order to differentiate instruction appropriately. Teachers can use scales or checklists to determine the proficiency level of a student. Such checklists are available at http://teams.lacoe.edu/.Observations and collecting samples also provide evidence of a students proficiency level. After collecting this information, teachers can group students for explicit instruction and effectively address certain areas that need assistance. 

Click here for emergent literacy strategies, ideas and activities. 

Thank you for reading and good luck with all your students!