Literacy

In this chapter, the authors consider a recurring theme that draws the material together while reviewing the extensive literature available internationally on literacy. Children use language – spoken or written – to communicate, and this presupposes an audience and a purpose to the communicative acts marked out by both spoken and written language activities. In a number of different ways, adults can support early years learners to use language for a wide range of purposes, while at the same time supporting them to familiarise themselves with the patterns of language that will help them in their later literacy development. Of particular interest in these early stages of writing development is that the activity of writing slows down the whole ‘literacy’ process, with a specific focus on individual letters as they are created and grouped together to eventually form words. Oral language skills make an important contribution to literacy learning, and it is widely accepted that oral language is the foundation for written language.