Summary EML1501 STUDY NOTES

An introductory orientation to the study guide THE AIM OF THE UNIT The aim of Unit 1 is to introduce you as a student teacher to the concept of emergent literacy or pre-literacy and to explain how a child’s language acquisition develops from early childhood babblings to language that has the same meaning as that of adults. LEARNING OUTCOMES After studying this unit, you should be able to: • Define emergent literacy using own words. • Outline the stages of language development from infancy to 5 years. • Discuss the acquisition of listening, speaking, reading and writing. • Name and indicate the significance of emergent literacy skills. • Describe the role of teachers in fostering emergent literacy skills. • Discuss play as a pedagogy in the early learning stages. KEY CONCEPTS • Language as a concept • Emergent literacy • Emergent speaking • Emergent skills • Emergent writing • Emergent reading • Language acquisition • Children’s literature • Play as a pedagogy for language learning 1.1 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the module on Emergent Literacy and we trust that you will enjoy and find it interesting as much as we do. Unit 1 introduces you to the concept of emergent literacy. It provides a cross-section of the content of the study guide in brief but with clarity. The purpose is to guide you through all the units of this study guide so that you become a well-grounded, knowledgeable and reflective teacher who will lead pre-schoolers to the development of full literacy. ........... 2 Unit 1 explains how skills needed for the development of oral language, reading and writing skills are acquired. Although the emphasis of the module is on the Grade R child, we deemed it necessary to trace the development of literacy from the age before Grade R for you to better understand the child’s journey to literacy. The study guide elaborates on the role that teachers can play in supporting young children to develop literacy skills. The content of this study guide is simplified by a number of practical examples including illustrations that further clarifies the topic under discussion. You will learn about the concept “language” so that you develop an in-depth understanding about language as a phenomenon and language as a factor in literacy development. We start by presenting case studies to capture the different contexts in which teaching and learning occurs. Defining emergent literacy and explaining its components in detail follows next. The importance of a knowledgeable and reflective teacher and the teacher as a pedagogical leader are discussed. Stages of language development are also discussed as precursors to the section on ‘emergent speaking’. A brief reference is made to theories that explain how language is acquired. Full detail about theories of language development is given in Unit 2. Emergent reading and emergent writing skills are mentioned in this unit (Unit 1) but explained in detail in Units 3 and 4 respectively. Play as a popular pedagogy in early learning is discussed in detail in this unit (Unit 1). 1.2 LANGUAGE AS A CONCEPT Definitions of language vary from author to author partly because language is studied from different angles. A study on the development of cognition, for instance, will explain language differently from a study on communication. According to Gordon and Browne (1996), language is an inborn characteristic of humankind. In other words, it is acquired naturally and is not taught. It comprises of sounds put together in a meaningful way or pattern. Language can be receptive, that is, listened to and understood or it can be expressive, that is, one can express oneself using words or vocabulary. The four parts of language are listening, speaking, reading and writing. Although language is not learned as four separate parts, it is convenient to adopt such an approach for purposes of promoting your understanding. Language is central to literacy and should therefore be integral to emergent literacy. This means that children must be taught to listen and to speak by exposing them to spoken language and encouraging them to speak, to read and write and by exposing them to written texts. Children must hear and relate stories, touch books and simulate reading and must view letters and understand that a group of letters have meaning. The following picture shows the alphabet in capital and small letters that the Foundation Phase classrooms should have on display: STUDY UNIT 1: An introductory orientation to the study guide ........... 3 EML1501/1 Before you read how emergent literacy is explained, please read the following case studies and answer questions that follow. 1ACTIVITY CASE STUDY 1 Sooraya is a 3-year-old little girl who lives in Lenasia in a small house. Her parents make a living by selling fruit at street corners and Sooraya goes along because they cannot afford preschool fees. She does not have toys and so plays with her imaginary son pretending to be the mother. She instructs her son to do his homework the same way her mother does with her older brother. She grabs the imaginary book from her son and ‘reads’ her son’s book. With a smile she congratulates him on the work well done. CASE STUDY 2 The 5-year-old boy Tommy lives in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg with his parents. Every morning he is driven to a well-resourced preschool and back. Upon his arrival at home, his mother asks what he did for the day at the preschool. He is able to relate the events of the day and ‘reads’ the ‘letter’ (scribbles) to his mother. ........... 4 CASE STUDY 3 Matome is a 4-year-old boy who lives in a remote village in Limpopo with his mother and two elder brothers. His brothers dropped out of school to look after the family cattle since their father had died. Matome is given the chore of herding their goats from the veld into the kraal. Every time he leads one goat into the kraal he uses the stick he herds the goats with to make circular marks and straight lines on the sand. When he is reprimanded not to play with sand before leading all the goats into the kraal he explains that he is recording those that are in. He points to the circles with lines diverging from the circ