A deeper look at early literacy

Building young children’s oral language is a central goal during the preschool and kindergarten years, and continues as a component of language and literacy development throughout the grades. For young children, oral language occurs through hearing language from strong adult models and having opportunities to produce language through exploring and learning about the world. As children get older, structured opportunities to talk build knowledge of vocabulary, awareness and practice with the phonemes, syntax, and language structures. Oral language supports a child’s ability to recognize and understand the words they will later encounter in print. It is the foundation for learning to read, write, and reading comprehension. For MLs, developing oral fluency in English is particularly important as a means of internalizing the sounds, structures, syntax, and vocabulary in a new language.

Vocabulary knowledge is a key component and a primary determinant of reading achievement. To create meaning, readers must understand the majority of words in the text. Vocabulary plays an important part in word recognition and learning to read. Beginning readers use their knowledge of words they hear and say to make sense of words they see in print. Children work to connect the pronunciation of a sequence of sounds to a word in their vocabulary whenever they decode a word. If they find a match between the word on the page and a word they know, and it makes sense to them, they will keep reading. If a word is not a match with their vocabulary comprehension is interrupted and they do not recognize it as a word with meaning. This is the case even when they generate the correct pronunciation through the decoding process! Vocabulary is important for reading to learn as well as learning to read. For MLs, vocabulary development is one of the greatest challenges to reading instruction. Extensive and varied vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly and integrated throughout the full curriculum.

The journey begins in the preschool years with establishing the precursor skills for literacy and early engagement with texts, and creating active engagement and positive attitudes about text and print. In a developmentally-appropriate approach, what is generally thought of as “reading instruction” does not start in the preschool years. Rather, the emphasis for young children is on building a strong base of oral language. The more oral language a child has, the stronger the foundation for learning to read and write. Through hearing and producing the language in the context of relationships and interaction, while exploring and learning about the world, children build vocabulary and internalize how language is structured – essential precursors to reading and writing. The foundation for later literacy is further built through a focus on phonemic awareness, positive exposure to books, basic concepts of print, skills of memory and visual recall, and awareness that there are multiple languages and cross-language connections (including for MLs, awareness of their own multiple language-ness).

Readiness to attend to print varies among young children, but discovering the purposes of print, and motivation to engage with print develops in the early years. This is why a key condition of early language/literacy development is a classroom environment that is rich with books and print (for example, classroom libraries, labeling, and posters) coupled with an environment of exploration, play, manipulatives and visuals that provide meaning and context. Seeing text and print in the environment underscores the purposes of print, and provides opportunities for children to become familiar with text and how it works. Interactive read-alouds provide exposure to the language of books, socialization into the joy and purpose of books, and opportunities to build vocabulary. The more opportunities children have for interacting with print, the stronger their skills become and the more engaged in acts of literacy even before they have learned to read.

Preschool print exposure accelerates later literacy development and significantly predicts later reading comprehension. Children from homes and/or preschools where there is extensive access to and interaction with print (e.g., through adult read-alouds and class libraries) prior to the start of formal schooling have a 4-year head start in literacy socialization compared to children who have had less opportunity to interact with print during their early years. The causal relationship between early print access, literacy engagement, and literacy achievement holds for both native speakers and second language speakers of the school language. For MLs, it is important that this immersion in print occurs in all of their languages.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate separate phonemes, the smallest units of sound in oral language– including segmenting and blending those sounds. The ability to use the sounds of the language is a precursor to word-reading ability. Teacher modeling, chants, songs, rhyming and playing with sounds, choral response, rhyming, and repetitive books all provide the instructional means for phonemic awareness. For MLs, phonemic awareness is connected to an awareness of the different language systems in their own emerging bilingualism.

Alphabet and letter knowledge is the knowledge of individual letter names, sounds, and shapes– and the awareness that letters and groups of letters represent sounds of spoken language. Teaching letter and sound knowledge in context includes: pointing out letters and print in the environment, talking about letters and their sounds when encountered in everyday activities, providing opportunities to play with letter shapes and sounds, explicitly referencing letter names and sounds in shared reading and writing activities, and explicitly modeling and emphasizing sounds and letters throughout the day. Children acquire a working knowledge of the alphabetic system through reading and writing. For MLs, knowing that a letter has different sounds in different languages is important. Naming these differences, and helping children develop cross-language metalinguistic awareness is an essential literacy skill.

Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between phonemes (the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language). Readers use these relationships to recognize familiar words and to decode those which are unfamiliar. Phonics instruction stresses how to use knowledge of letter-sound correspondence in reading and spelling. For MLs, it is important to recognize that phonics is language-specific. Letters can often make different sounds in different languages. Helping MLs recognize this lowers the chance of negative transfer of phonics skills.

Concepts of print refers to understanding ‘how print works’. This includes understanding the function and purpose of books, print, and written language. It supports the reading process with the basic understanding that print conveys a message. Every time a teacher says a word and writes it out while saying the word, reads out loud and models that books are read from front to back, or turns a page, children are helped to understand how print works in English. Being read to and watching teachers write are ways that children orient themselves to the process of reading. This work continues as they move through the grades and are introduced to various genres and disciplinary texts. For MLs, it is critical to know that writing systems differ across languages. In English, concepts of print include the knowledge that text is read from left to right (directionality) and proceeds from the top of a page to the bottom (sweep).

Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and quickly. Reading fluency is a critical factor in reading comprehension. If children read out loud with speed, accuracy, and proper expression, they are more likely to comprehend and remember what they have read. Various instructional approaches to teach fluency include: modeling fluent reading (in expressive read-alouds or with audiobooks), practicing sight words so students can automatically recognize words, and designing partner and class activities with choral, echo, and repeated oral reading. For MLs, an early challenge with fluency is that they are less likely to recognize English words. Learning to speak English prior to engaging in reading instruction in English contributes to eventual fluency in English reading. If possible, MLs should first learn to read in their first or strongest language. If this is not possible, students need to see and hear literally hundreds of books over a school year in order for fluency to be adequately modeled for them.

Building young children’s oral language is a central goal during the preschool and kindergarten years, and continues as a component of language and literacy development throughout the grades. For young children, oral language occurs through hearing language from strong adult models and having opportunities to produce language through exploring and learning about the world. As children get older, structured opportunities to talk build knowledge of vocabulary, awareness and practice with the phonemes, syntax, and language structures. Oral language supports a child’s ability to recognize and understand the words they will later encounter in print. It is the foundation for learning to read, write, and reading comprehension. For MLs, developing oral fluency in English is particularly important as a means of internalizing the sounds, structures, syntax, and vocabulary in a new language.

Vocabulary knowledge is a key component and a primary determinant of reading achievement. To create meaning, readers must understand the majority of words in the text. Vocabulary plays an important part in word recognition and learning to read. Beginning readers use their knowledge of words they hear and say to make sense of words they see in print. Children work to connect the pronunciation of a sequence of sounds to a word in their vocabulary whenever they decode a word. If they find a match between the word on the page and a word they know, and it makes sense to them, they will keep reading. If a word is not a match with their vocabulary comprehension is interrupted and they do not recognize it as a word with meaning. This is the case even when they generate the correct pronunciation through the decoding process! Vocabulary is important for reading to learn as well as learning to read. For MLs, vocabulary development is one of the greatest challenges to reading instruction. Extensive and varied vocabulary needs to be taught explicitly and integrated throughout the full curriculum.

Comprehension of text relates both to understanding language structures and background knowledge. The knowledge a student brings about a topic correlates to the success they will have engaging with the text. Comprehension also involves use of metacognitive strategies. For example, students need to question themselves as they read and discern the meaning of words and concepts they encounter in print. To make further meaning of text students need to talk about what they read, make connections, learn to summarize what they have read, and predict or infer what will come next. These habits are cultivated in well-planned literacy instruction.

Studies show that a strong basis in a first language promotes school achievement in a second language. As MLs learn to read they need an intentional instructional focus on cross-language connections. Transfer and contrastive analysis strategies build metalinguistic awareness across their languages, and significantly strengthen reading skills. These include: comparing phonology and morphology and structure across the two languages, recognizing that the same letter may have different sounds in their two languages, and investigating the ways in which the two languages are structured the same in some ways and differently in other ways. Teachers need to incorporate aspects of transfer, contrastive analysis (comparing and contrasting language systems and structures), and cross-language connections into reading instruction for MLs.

Writing is the sister of reading. What can be said orally can be written. What is written can be read. What is read has an author. Both writing and reading involve the translation of words and their meaning into and from print. Children acquire a working knowledge of the alphabetic system not only through reading but also through writing. In preschool early writing, such as drawing and dictation or intentional scribbles, children establish basic concepts of print. They learn alphabetic principles like letters represent sounds, letter recognition, and that oral language can be written and then read (from left to right). As literacy develops, student engagement in genre-specific reading and writing strengthens skills in both.

Print immersion is one of the aspects of early childhood education with the greatest effect size in supporting later literacy skills. A key part of becoming a reader is understanding the uses and purposes of text, and coming to understand the power of text to communicate, to convey information, to narrate, and to entertain. Children become readers and experience books as beneficial or enjoyable, and see print as useful for their own purposes. Key parts of reading instruction are: providing plentiful access to interesting, relevant books; engaging students with interactive or didactic read-alouds; shaping research projects where students turn to books for information; and providing experiences where students come to know the purposes and gifts of literacy and reading. Children who experience ‘literacy saturation’ prior to the start of formal schooling have a 4-year head start in literacy socialization compared to children who have less opportunity to interact with print. The positive impact of print exposure increases over time and accelerates literacy development. The causal relationship between print access and literacy engagement and achievement holds for both native speakers and MLs.

Integrated thematic units are designed with relevant and interesting science and social studies topics in preschool, and later around grade-level standards for science and history-social studies, with language arts and English Language Development standards woven throughout. These units provide the content context for language and literacy development, build background knowledge for literacy, and provide the conditions for MLs to make connections to strengthen both comprehension and literacy engagement with grade-level academic content. Students have the opportunity to work in small groups to hone in on certain literacy skills, and then practice and use those skills throughout the day through teaching and learning centered on a thematic unit.

A content-rich environment offers visual and hands-on experiences to create a context for developing language. A print-immersive environment improves reading performance – with impact on attitudes towards reading, motivation to read, reading behavior, basic language abilities, emergent literacy skills, reading, and writing performance. A language-rich environment offers language resources for children to reference such as labels, sentence frames, and vocabulary supports in a new language. For students who are developing foundational skills in literacy, seeing text and print in their classroom environment underscores the purposes of print and provides opportunities to become familiar with text. A language-rich, print-immersive, and content-rich environment makes language accessible with: labels in the classroom, charts and print resources that capture what the class is learning, regular references to print in the environment, easily accessible books and print materials for students to use, writing centers, classroom libraries, and class-created books. The more opportunities children have for interacting with language, print, and content, the stronger their engagement and skills in literacy become.

The comprehensiveness, relevance, inclusiveness, and accuracy of curriculum content and materials are factors in literacy instruction. Simply put, content matters. The selection of materials must be intentional – multicultural perspectives, and culturally and linguistically inclusive content are an important part of effective literacy instruction. Book selection must provide students with “mirrors, windows, and doors” into diverse experiences, and engage students with high-quality, expressive, complex, and beautiful language. For MLs, it is critical to avoid overly simplified and impoverished materials. Teachers must use strategies to scaffold instruction and engagement with texts that share multiple linguistic, cultural, racial, ethnic, and national identities and perspectives.

A basic foundation for learning is a safe, asset-based school and classroom environment, where students can build relationships with teachers and take risks in speaking and engaging with a new language. This is more true for MLs who are often with peers who are native speakers of English. Such a classroom community is also a key context for literacy instruction. Teachers build classroom communities that are respectful and support students in developing a prideful sense of identity and belonging, while promoting respect for others who are different. Students want to see themselves reflected in the curriculum, and their languages and cultures represented in books on the walls of the classroom. This involves establishing norms, careful messaging, and outreach with explicit activities that demonstrate that students’ cultures and languages are valued and affirmed.

Research shows that emergent literacy skills in the home language transfer and can help facilitate parallel skills in English. MLs are more likely to become readers and writers of English when they are already familiar with the vocabulary and content in their primary language. They are developing language as an overall capacity, and are absorbing and internalizing the specific structures, rhythms, sounds, and vocabulary that comprise the language systems of two or more specific languages. This fundamental reality must be understood and responded to in early literacy development, or language loss and interruption can occur. To support children’s home language and bilingual development, teachers include non-English materials and resources in the classroom. They also foster literacy in both languages by promoting metalinguistic awareness. Families are enlisted and supported to engage in language and literacy activities with their children in the home language. Opportunities are provided wherever possible for students to engage in literacy development in their home language.

Not all students develop reading and literacy in the same way or at the same pace.  There is no single sequence, pace, amount of time or duration of focus on any one component of reading and literacy instruction that makes sense for all students.  Teachers need to teach flexibly, based on student need – with a variety of formats. Intentional planning for 1:1, small groups, large groups, and scaffolds propel students along the continuum towards becoming proficient readers and writers. Formative assessment data of multiple aspects of literacy (reading mechanics and foundational skills, engagement in reading, writing, comprehension strategies, etc.) all facilitate appropriate differentiation.

A major goal of dual language programs is biliteracy. Reading instruction happens in both languages in the early grades, with a focus on teaching cross-language transfer. This means that literacy skills do not have to be taught twice in each language. Strategic alignment of instruction across two languages, enabling students to exercise cross-language skills, is more efficient. This alignment can involve simultaneous or sequential literacy skills development, but it always builds across the two-language systems. Lack of alignment and coordination results in wasted time in school, and often narrows the curriculum into two literacy blocks. This is a lost opportunity to build metalinguistic cross-language connections that strengthen literacy. Literacy instruction must be authentic to each language.

The multilingual brain is positioned to make connections across languages, focus on the unique aspects of each language, and form generalizable understandings of what is shared across languages. This awareness results in cognitive flexibility. MLs benefit from having two languages that interact and complement one another. There are universal literacy skills and concepts that transfer from one language to another and do not need to be explicitly taught. This transfer shortens the developmental progression of the skills in the second language. Examples of universal skills and concepts include: alphabetic and orthographic awareness, habits, and attitudes about reading and writing, higher level thinking and metacognitive skills and strategies, and content knowledge. There are other skills and concepts that are language-specific and must be explicitly taught. Examples include print directionality, how different genres work, grammatical structures, vocabulary, and orthography.

In dual language programs students are acquiring valuable literacy skills in two languages. To achieve proficiency and biliteracy in both languages, academic development needs to be assessed in both languages. This way teachers can respond to learning needs in a timely manner. Assessing only in English reveals “half the story.” Dual language assessment requires the use of multiple measures in both languages to determine students’ progress towards meeting bilingualism and biliteracy goals, as well as curricular and content related goals. Teachers, schools, and districts need a clear means of determining whether students are on the appropriate trajectory towards full linguistic and academic proficiency in both languages. Assessment of content knowledge must match the language of instruction.

Because language and literacy develop in the context of learning across a curriculum, and because literacy skills are used and practiced in the course of academic study, dual language programs engage students in the application of literacy in both languages. This is the means for students to become both bilingual and biliterate.