Early Literacy Development

The ability to read is critical for student’s literacy development and is crucial to developing their future learning. Learning is a lifelong journey (Gray, 2012, p.221) and teaching is imperative for reading development. Teaching students to become independent and successful readers is a complex process that requires educators to have explicit knowledge of the six main elements involved in the reading process. It is fundamental for teachers to prepare their students to gain meaning from what they have read. The six main elements for reading development includes oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. A balanced approach to teaching these necessary components for reading instruction will promote effective independent readers (Sperling, Sherwood & Hood, 2013, p.462). Effective reading occurs when educators teach children to read to the best of their ability (Bayetto, 2013, p.20).
Oral language is the first element of literacy development and is vital to the reading process. To understand written language students, need proficient oral language skills as oral language is the foundational layer for all future literacy development. Literacy being the ability to read and write (Konza, 2010, p.1, Konza 2016, …show more content…
Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in spoken language (Learning Point Associates 2004, p.4). Being able to hear each sound, recognise the difference in each sound and replicating sounds is known as phonological awareness (Rog, 2011, p.52). Phonological awareness is the next element in the reading process and is a building block required to develop independent and successful readers. Additionally, educators need to have explicit knowledge of phonemic awareness. Ewing, Callow & Rushton (2016, p.123) describe phonemic awareness as the ability to hear, identify and manipulate sounds in spoken