Language & Literacy in
the School Years
Objectives
1.
2.
3.
You will be able to describe 5 components of
skilled reading.
You will be able to describe and contrast
different approaches to reading instruction.
You will be able to describe and provide
examples of metasemantic, metasyntactic, and
metapragmatic awareness.
Objectives
4.
5.
6.
You will be familiar with features of
narrative development.
You will be able to discuss cultural
differences in narratives
You will be able to describe and provide
examples of several aspects of creative
language use
Language & Literacy
The relationship b/w spoken & written
words
 The relationship b/w spoken language &
reading/writing

Phonological Awareness
Definition
 Development of Phonological Awareness

–
–
Identifying # of syllables
Analyzing syllables into constituents
Significance
 Causes

Later Lexical Development
Relationship to reading
 Size of children’s vocabulary
 Reason for increase

Contextualized v.
Decontextualized Language
Oral Language
Written Language
Contextualized
Face-to-face
conversation
about here & now
menus, labels,
some signs
Decontextualized
Narratives &
lectures
Almost all written
language
Characteristics of
Decontextualized Language
Distance b/w sender & receiver
 Use of complex syntactic structure
 Permanency of the information
 Autonomous (rather than interactive)
establishment of truth
 Explicitness of reference
 High degree of cohesion

Hoff-Ginsberg
Phases in Development of
Early Narrative Abilities

1st Phase - Elicited information
–
Styles of adult support
2nd Phase - Less questioning by adults
 3rd Phase - Include more unique
information

Stages of Narrative Development
Applebee’s System

Stage 1 - Heap Stories
– 2-3 years of age
– Consist of
 labels
 descriptions of events
– Contains no themes
(Paul, 1995)
Stage 2 - Sequence Stories
3 year olds
 Child labels events that involve a key
theme, character, or setting.
 No plot
 Temporal or causal relationships not
provided.

Stage 3 - Primitive Narratives
4 - 4 1/2 year olds
 Narrative contains a core character, object
or event.
 Contains

– initiating event
– an action
– a consequence of that action

No real ending or resolution
Stage 4 - Chain Narratives
4 1/2 - 5 year olds
 Some cause & effect or temporal
relationship
 Weak plot
 Attributes or characters of plot not
provided
 Ending may not be logical

Stage 5 - True Narrative
5 - 7 year olds
 Contains:

– theme
– central character (& motivations)
– plot
Events are logical & temporal.
 Ends with a resolution of the problem.

Narrative Development During
School Age

Types of Narratives/Genres
–
–
–

Personal narratives
Scripts
Stories
Children’s abilities
What Makes a Good Story?
Story Coherence
 Story Grammar
–
Setting
 Place
 Characters
–
Episodes
 Initiating event
 Problem
 Resolution
What Makes a Good Story?
Linguistic Cohesion
 Use of conjunctions
 Pronominalization
–
–
–
Description of individual pictures
Thematic subject strategy
Anaphoric reference
Narratives & Culture

Home/school match/mismatch

Topic-focused narratives

Topic-associated narratives
Metalinguistic Development
Stage 1: Literacy Socialization

Distinguish print from nonprint

Know how to interact with books
Metalinguistic Development
Stage 2: Word Consciousness,
Segmentation, Comprehension
 Recognize word boundaries
 Discuss parts of speech
 Separate words into syllables
 Unable to understand 1 word can have
different meanings
Metalinguistic Development
Stage 3: Segmentation & Comprehension
 Understand verbal humor w/ linguistic
ambiguity
 Understands words can have several
meanings
Types of Metalinguistic
Awareness

Metasemantic
–
Word Awareness
 comprehension of term “word”
 understanding that words are “units”
 understanding that relationship b/w phonemes &
referents are arbitrary
Types of Metalinguistic
Awareness Cont’

Metasyntactic
– correct ungrammatical sentences presented to
them

Metapragmatic
– explain social rules
Review Question
A child who understands the term “word”
refers to units of the language system
has:
 A. Metasyntactic awareness
 B. Metapragmatic awareness
 C. Word awareness
 D. Overcome word retrieval difficulties

Tarzan learns to read

How did you learn to read?
– Is it common to learn to read without
instruction?
– Is it possible to learn to read without
instruction?
More questions about reading
Is it possible to understand a written
language if you have no contact with the
users of the language? Of any language?
 Did Tarzan have metalinguistic awareness?
Can you learn to read without that?

Literacy Experiences at Home
Emergent literacy
 What is learned

–
–
–
Environmental print
Conventions of print
Functions of literacy
Home Support of Literacy
Uses of literacy in the home
 Parental engagement of children in literacy
experiences
 SES differences
 Cultural differences

Literacy in Trackton & Roadville

Similarities b/w communities

Differences b/w communities

Implications for literacy instruction
Components of Reading

Phonemic Awareness

Letter recognition

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence rules
Components of Reading Cont’

Word recognition
– decoding skills
– sight-word vocabularies

Semantic knowledge
– Refers to “all information about a word”
Components of Reading Cont’

Comprehension & interpretation
– Successful comprehension depends on
 automatic word recognition
 vocabulary size
 working memory
 world knowledge
Chall’s Model of Reading
Development
Stage
0
1
2
Age
Features
6 mos - 6 yrs “Pretend” reading
Preschool, K Prints own name
Recognizes some signs
6-7 yrs
Learns G-Ph Rules
Grade 1,
Sounds out 1 syllable words
Beg Grade 2 Reads simple texts
7-8 yrs
Reads simple texts fluently
Grades 2-3 Basic decoding skills improve
Sight vocab & meaning
Chall’s Model of Reading
Development Cont’
Stage
Age
3
9-14 yrs
Grades 4-9
4
5
Features
Reads to learn new
knowledge
Reads info from a single
perspective
15-17 yrs
Reads a wide range of
Grades 10-12
materials from a variety of
perspectives
18 & older Reads w/ self-defined purpose
Integrates own knowledge w/
knowledge of others
Reads rapidly & efficiently
Children with Reading Problems
Diagnosis
 Average - above average intelligence
 No cognitive or social deficits
Dyslexia
 Visual-perceptual deficits
 Linguistic processing disorder
 Single disorder v. cluster
 Difficulties with phonological processing
Writing
Writing is a language activity
 Traditional Approach to writing
 Current/whole-language approach to
writing

Benefits of Early “Writing”
Experiences
Involvement in writing process
 Helps learn relationship b/w speaking &
writing
 Develop alphabetic principle by writing
letters on their own
 Exposes children to relationship between
reading & writing

Writing Development
1. Marks on paper
2.
Controlled scribbling
3.
Scribble stories
Writing Development Cont’
4. Scribbles with letter awareness
5.
Word awareness
ode ef di dit
6.
Inventory writing
I love mom. I love dad.
7. Sentence writing
8. Paragraph writing
Approaches to Reading
Instruction
Reading as decoding
 Phonics methods
 Bottom-up skills
 Teach decoding
 Focus of instruction
Approaches to Reading
Instruction
Reading for Meaning
 Texts as sources of meaning
 Function over form
 Sight vocabulary
 Top-down approach
 Whole-language & language experience
approaches
Whole-Language Approach
Construct meaning from experience
 Language is not separated into parts
 Read aloud to children
 Comprehension & production of oral &
written language are part of one process

Current Reading Approach
Focus on
meaning
Stress oral &
written lang
connection
Integration
of decoding
skills