Understanding How a Child Becomes Literate - Literature review Example

being a child, being an adolescent and, indeed becoming literate, have changed in some fundamental ways. The tool kit that served many of us so well in the1950"s is inadequate today" - Literate Futures Report, (2000) p.7 The term literacy is facing many challenges in the form of changing culture, growth of media, changing the structure of the family etc. Defining Literacy Foley (1994): "for the purposes of this discussion, the term 'literacy' will be used broadly to refer to the mastery of language, in both its spoken (or augmented) and written forms, which enables an individual to use language fluently for a variety of purposes, there is general agreement today that spoken language abilities are closely related to the development of literacy skills in the normal population, linguistic ability, as opposed to speech production ability, appears to be the more critical factor". Steelman, Pierce, & Koppenhaver, 1994, (p. 201), "To be literate is to be able to gather and to construct meaning using written language" . In earlier times, literacy means the ability to read and write. The growth of the word literacy has been phenomenal.Human beings, in addition to language, have found variety of means to express their inner feelings. Art, Music, Movement, computer games and other forms of expression are so appealing today. In modern times, the term literacy includes literacy by media, visual literacy, computer or technical literacy, structural literacy, financial literacy and many other forms. The meaning of literacy has different meanings for different groups. The term literacy may not mean the same for a school going child when compared with the beliefs of parents. Thinking of literacy as part of social entity can be revolutionary and can bring out much needed change. Language over the years has developed and evolved because of a group process rather than an individual process. A single person alone cannot initiate and keep the process of communication continuing.( M. A. K. Halliday (1975)) Children, in the modern day, have the opportunity for learning not only in the form of reading and writing but also in the form of visual literacy also. The literature reviewed should raise important social issues and should be of multi cultural in nature to make reading relevant in modern era. (Harste, et al., 2000;Leland, et al., 2002).The author maybe raising issues on a biased format. It is the duty of the literate person of the twentieth century to understand, take an identity and position based on the issues raised in the literature. Since a long time, Literacy has been confined to reading properly and writing without spelling and grammar mistakes. In order to survive in this era, one should also have the ability to read critically. Bill Green (in Comber & Green, 1998) calls this “instrumental literacy”. That helps to develop the skill needed to understand the text and what it does on the mind of the reader. For example a word “he” can be safely interpreted that the author is referring to male person. If the word has been written as “others”, then it may or may not refer to a male. If we read “Iraq Bombed”, we can safely decipher that no group has yet taken responsibility for the bombing of Iraq. Students need to be linguistic detectives to understand the various meanings of the phrases used in everyday writing. There are lot of arguments that people or students are learning more from outside the school rather than from it ( (Nixon, 1998). The term critical literacy should be understood in the context of the power of the language, access of the language and durability of the language.(Hilary Janks(2001)). Lot of opportunity should be there for the students to inquire about everyday problems and come up with innovative solutions. The modern day child will be more of generalist type in knowing how to use various forms of communication and specializing in one of it. It is a concrete method of gathering information, understand the perspective and changing it, and make concrete efforts for social action. The concept of the curriculum in schools has to be changed in context of the modern era. The disciplines are being taught in the school in a manner leaving for no additional inputs from the students. Donald Graves (1994) called this “the cha cha-cha curriculum.” The thrust forward is to change the concept from what kind of persons should live in the 21 st century to what kind of people should everyone become and what kind of lives everyone should live? It is a case of informational literacy. Understanding the need for information is the primary step to begin with. In this era information is available in books, reference works, journals, magazines, newspapers, as digital material on CDs or DVDs, internet, search engines, e-mail query, forums, chats and many other methods including the Wikipedia. The information available should be used well. That depends on the age and the ability of the person to think critically. For example, a child of five years may have to take permission of parents and teachers in accessing information through internet or using library, but a child of 15 years may not have to wait for this. The information may not be fool proofed from biased reports. The bias can be spread across newspaper and web media. An information literate person will have the ability to see through the bias and also should have the ability to know when to stop searching. The other form of literacy in this era is visual literacy. Everyone should have the ability to understand the message spread by images and should have the ability of communicating the message using image to others. It can be termed as visual decoding and visual encoding. The students of this generation should or develop the ability to learn and appreciate photographs, develop and improve observational skills, and increase critical skills. This form of visual literacy can be temed as"The image survives the subject and becomes the remembered reality." - John Szarkowski (Director of Photography Department, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1962 - 1991) Understanding how a child becomes literate The basic assumption is that the child understands grammar and has some speaking and reading knowledge before entering the school. Changing populations has meant that there is challenge for the teachers to understand how a child learns things. (Browne, 2001). A clear idea should be there to the extent of the time needed for language instruction. It has been thought that the child will learn the language from the mother .That can be generating a feeling of linguistic deprivation as the child may be fluent in native language but the school may not be following the language of the child. This can happen in English schools of USA where immigrant children from other countries will be learning in schools. That can lead to a conflict as the child may take time to learn the new language. There is other belief that the parents’ class may be influencing the learning ability of the child. But it has been proved that the child was not deprived of any linguistic barriers in homes just because they belonged to a lower class. Children will grow up and move forward in the path of literacy if they get the basic of learning to talk in the school in the early days itself. The right way of transferring the message should be taught from early days of schooling. That does not mean that the role of family should be neglected. The parents should develop the value of listening and speaking in home also. Various methods like telling story, using cartoons for teaching the children, flash cards, taking the child for sightseeing, and activity based learning can develop literacy in the child. Various methods like telling story, using cartoons for teaching the children, taking out the child for sight seeing that can develop literacy in the child. The value of story can be understood by the success of Harry Potter and various other stories that have changed the life of young generation. World Wide Web do have format in which the literary works will be in digitalized format and that can go a long way in changing the concept of learning. Electronic media have changed the way stories are told.(Hunt,2000,1111)Video games are the new way of telling story but that has not replaced the books.(James,1999) Socio-cultural view of literacy. The teachers would have to develop strategies for making sure that the child during his or her early days, develop a interest for reading and writing, and improve children skills. The teacher should develop programs where by the Childs strengths and weakness in reading can be understood. Theories The maturational theory believes that growing Childs behavior follows a set of pattern. The theory gives more importance to heredity than the environment. The psychological ripening of the nervous system. This is the concept of the theory of American psychologist Arnold L.Gesell. Learning theory says a child's development has two parts, reward and punishment to grow. The child will be learning the basic of speech, manner and attitude from the adults. The principle of reinforcement takes it into the mind. That can be said when a teacher smiles at good thing done by the child and child starts doing the same thing again and gain and that becomes a good habit. Freire critical theory is a message to the teachers on how to pass the knowledge to students. It should be done in such a way that students understand the world and the knowledge transfer process should take place on that. For example in primary class the student may know that dogs bark but may not the real reason of doing it. If the teacher can show the practical side of it, then student can add to the knowledge already has. Piaget's approach is central to the school of cognitive theory known as "cognitive constructivism" which says that other people role and language skills are needed in shaping of career. The main part of the theory is that child goes through certain stages to learn new things though in reality it is not fully correct. In primary school we can see the learning process of child being influenced by good teacher. A good maths teacher can produce a lot of engineers than a bad teacher. The difference in intellectual ability, the way habit are formed, the positive effects of practicing, the value of learning by rewards, the value of studying one subject for the other subject, and how the student can overcome tiredness all these are possible with Behaviorist theory of (Edaward Thorndike). The role of the teacher is to make sure that the interaction with student is done till it meets the expectations of the teacher. That is the basics of Social constructivist theory (Vygotsky)  References: 1) Halliday, M. A. K. (1975). Learning to mean: Explorations in the development of language. London; 2) Harste, J. C., with Breau, A., Leland, C., Lewison, M., Ociepka, A., & Vasquez, V. (2000). Supporting critical conversations in classrooms. In K. M. Pierce (Ed.), Adventuring with books (12th ed., pp. 507– 554). Urbana, IL: NCTE; 3) Comber, B., & Green, B. (1998). Information technology, literacy, and educational disadvantage. Adelaide: South Australia Department of Education, Training, & Employment. 4) Janks, H. (2001, May). Critical literacy: Models, methods, and motivations. Keynote address given at the co-sponsored IRA/NCTE Critical Perspectives on Literacy Task Force Preconvention Institute, Annual Meeting, International Reading Association, New Orleans, LA. 5) Graves, D. (1994, July). Inviting diversity through writing. Keynote address given at the 4th Annual Meeting of the Whole Language Umbrella (audiotaped), San Diego, CA. 6) Nixon, H. (1998). Fun and games are serious business. In J. Sefton-Green (Ed.), Digital diversions: Youth culture in the age of multimedia. London: UCL Press. 7) Browne,A(2001)”Developing language and literacy “,pp3-8,London; 8)Hunt ,P(2000),”Futures for children literature,evolution or radical break”, Cambridge Journal of Education,30(1),111-119. 9) James,R(1999),”Navigting CD ROMs, An exploration of Children reading interactive narratives”,Children literature in education,30(1),47-63. 10) Foley, B. E. (1994). “The development of literacy in individuals with severe congenital speech and motor impairments”. In K. G. Butler (Ed.),  Severe communication disorders: Intervention strategies  (pp. 183-199).  Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen 11) Steelman, J. D., Pierce, P. L., & Koppenhaver, D. A. (1994). “The role of computers in promoting literacy in children with severe speech and physical impairments”. In K. G. Butler (Ed.),  Severe communication disorders: Intervention strategies (pp. 200-212).  Gaithersburg, MD: Aspen. Read More