Theories of Learning & Early

Literacy Learning Theories

 What is Literacy and Emergent
Literacy?
• the ability to read and write
• Emergent literacy is the idea that learning
literacy actually begins at a very early age, long
before official lessons in school. This term is
used to describe the knowledge a child has of
reading and writing before reaching the age
where those skills are taught. Emergent literacy
argues that right after birth, children are already
in the process of becoming literate.
 2 Views on Emergent Literacy
A. Traditional/Readiness View of
Literacy

 Literacy is learned in a predetermined

sequential manner
 that is linear, additive, and unitary.
 Literacy learning is school-based.
 Literacy learning requires mastery of
certain prerequisite
 skills.
 Some children will never learn to
read.
 2 Views on Emergent Literacy
B. Current/Emergent View of Literacy

 Literacy is constructive, interactive, recursive, and

emergent.
 – Literacy is a process that begins at birth and perhaps
before.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

 Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

 Maturation Theory
 Theory of Literacy Development
 Stage Models of Reading, Emergent Literacy
Theory
 Family Literacy Theory
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive

Development
- This theory contends that there are
different phases of intellectual development
and each stage is associated with certain
behavioural activities.
- It is these activities that guide educators
and theorists in literacy on what is and what is
not tenable. Educationalists using this theory
believe that the nature of content that is given
to pupils for learning must relate their level of
intellectual development.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

According to Piaget, there are four factors that affect the

quality of an individual’s thinking: biological maturation,
activity, social experiences and equilibration.
1. Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years of age) – Children
use sensory exploration of the world: They do not use or
have language skills and are dependent on their senses.
Class activities for literacy development in this stage
include:
(i) Board books with brightly colored pictures and
(ii) Books with sound, things to touch, or smell

2. Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years of age) – There is

rapid language development skills in this stage as
children begin to categorize things with words.

Literacy activities include story book reading and

discussing the story
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

3. Concrete Operational (7 to 11 years of age) – In this

stage of development, children use concrete objects to
begin to think about abstract concepts.

Activities for Literacy development include Graphic

Organizers {Venn Diagrams, Flow Maps}and others.

4. Formal Operational (11 years of age to adult) – In this stage, children

use language in an abstract way.

Activities for Literacy include the use of metacognitive reading

strategies helps students to “think about their thinking” before and after
they read.

Examples: Making Inferences and Summarizing information.

Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Maturation Theory
- developed by Arnold Gesell who
constructed a set of behavioral norms that
illustrate sequential and predictable patterns
of growth and development.

-it states that Children would be ready to read when they

have developed certain prerequisite skills and there is little
that teachers and parents can do to hurry the process of
cognitive development.

- advocate for not teaching reading until children were

mature enough for instruction. Scholars for this theory
hypothesized that this could happen when children were at
mental age of 6 1/2.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Theory of Literacy Development

- developed by Holdaway in 1979 and it
states that learning to read was a natural
development that is closely linked to a child’s
natural development of oral language skills.

Holdaway’s theory of literacy further

contends that literacy development begins in
children’s homes and is based on meaningful
learning experiences.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

There are four key components in this theory as itemized by

(a) observation -which demand that children need to have

the opportunity to observe literacy behaviours from others.
For example, parents and siblings to read for them.

(b) Collaboration – this require that children need to interact

with others who provide encouragement and help with the
reading process.

(c) Practice – children need the opportunity to practice alone

in order to self-evaluate, make corrections and increase their
skills independently.

(d) Performance – children need the opportunity to share

their new reading skills with those who support them..
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

The classroom application or characteristics of natural

literacy development include;

i. Rich home literacy environment

ii. Parent – Child interactions of modeling literacy behaviors

iii. Rich literacy classroom environment by

 Labeling key items around the room

 Wide variety of high quality reading materials
 Meaningful language experiences
 Use of big books and shared reading
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Holdaway highly recommends the use of big books and

shared reading to foster natural literacy development.

He believes big books can create the same positive feelings

about story time that children have when they read at home.

He believes that these natural storytelling times build

student’s oral language, print tracking, concept of letters, and
words
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Stages Model of Reading

Stage Model theorists such as Frith (1985),
Ehri (1991), and Gough, Joel & Griffith (1992),
believe that children’s reading is in stages of
word identification and that students increase
the number of strategies used during reading
as their reading skills develop.

Lower staged reading strategies remain

available to a reader as they incorporate more
difficult reading skills in later strategies.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

The four stages of word identification as discussed by have been

expanded in detail:

(i) Pre – Alphabetic Stage {Logographic Stage}.

This stage is associated with a number of feature which include the
following:
(a) Visual cues are primary method of word identification
(b) One might memorize words by their shape or “look”
(c) Use of environmental print and logos
(d) Word Identification is not yet related to
letter – sound knowledge.

Class activities for Literacy in this stage include

collecting samples of Environmental Print to
display in the classroom.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

•(ii) Partial Alphabetic Stage.

This stage according to Godwin etal (2013) uses “Phonetic Cue

Reading” which further demand the use of some letter – sound
cues. First letter of the word and then use just a letter or two as
children develop

•(iii) Full Alphabetic Stage.

–In this stage students relies more on letter – sound knowledge.
Student tries to process all the letters in a word and a child may
become tied to letter-by-letter reading which slows down the
reading process.

–Class activities for Literacy here includes: Puzzles, Word Card

Games, Magnetic Letters, Alphabet Books. Magazine Search,
Letter Bingo and Word Sort: Beginning, Middle, and End Sounds
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

•(iv) Consolidated Alphabetic Stage.

–Here there is automatic knowledge of sound – letter

relationships. Students read letter patterns within words and
they use word family knowledge to aid the reading process.

–Activities for Literacy include word Wheels, Word Family

Sorts, Poetry, Flip Books
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Family Literacy Theory

contended that family literacy refers to a series of ideas that

researchers share, including the design, implementation, and
evaluation of programs to help facilitate literacy development of
family members; the relationship between family literacy and
student achievement; and the ways in which literacy is naturally
used in the home.

This theory stresses the importance of family involvement on student

achievement. The actions to encourage Family Literacy include;

i. Create a two – way street between parents and teachers in order

to gain information about literacy in the home.

ii. Teach parents about the school culture and necessary skills for a
student to be successful.
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

iii. Help parents understand what they can do at home to help

support and encourage their children’s academic success.

Many studies have been done on parent and child reading

interactions to support the importance of the connection between
home and school.

iv. Parent Volunteers Reading in the Classroom

Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

Emergent Literacy Theory

- states that there are levels of literacy behaviours which

children acquire before they formally get into classroom
which facilitates the acquisition of reading and writing skills
at a conventional level.

- Emergent literacy theorists believe that literacy

development starts in the maternity ward and is
continuous and ongoing.

- Theorists believe that children’s development in the areas

of listening, speaking, reading, and writing are all
interrelated
Theories of Literacy and Literacy Development

In other ways, Emergent Literacy Theorists believe that

children’s listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills begin
at birth, it also emphasizes the importance of a literacy rich
home environment.

Components of a literacy rich home environment include;

 having large number of books available in the home,
 Newspapers and Magazines,
 Parents read a variety of materials and
 Reading is associated with pleasure,
 Parents frequently read to children.