Child Language Acquisition: Reading

Early ready book are important in a childs language development. Introduces children to:              - colour, shapes, numbers, letters, animals and gender. 

Examples of early reading schemes:                                                                                                   - Jolly Phonics, Read Write Inc and oxford Reading Tree

Early reading enables children to begin to see phoneme- grapheme correspondence and the connection between the sounds and written symbols 

First books are not read by children independently but are shared with adults. The process of reading builds relationships. 

The look and sya approach encourages children to identify familiar words and is used along side the phonic approach. 

The phonic approach has two main types: 

Synthetic Phonics

- teaches children the individual phonemes independently from reading. Then they blend the sounds together to produce words- synthesisinng the individual phonemes. 

Analytic Phonics 

- Encourages the breakdown of words into sections- the onset and the rime. 

- onset- beginning of the word, encourages children to recognise patterns. 

Reading is an active process which involes: 

1. Reading the lines: the decoding of the words in order to construct the authors basic message 

2. Reading betweent the lines: the act of making inferences and understanding the authors implied meaning 

3. Reading beyond the lines: the judging of the significance of the authors message and applying it to the other areas of background and knowledge. 

Stage 0: the pre- reading stage 

This is when children begin to gain control over langauge but still cannot read extended text alone. children pretend to read.

Stage 1: Early emergent readers

- This is the initial readering and decoding stage where children begin to associate sounds and symbols 

- Can recognise upper and lowercase letters 

- develope phonological awareness 

- Rely on stong picture support 

- linited text on page, large print and wide letter spacing. 

Stage 2: Early fluent readers 

- Reading is more automatic and approach independance 

- Experiencing a great variety of texts and are able to recognise syle and genres 

- they are able to process longer sentences and acquire richer vocabulary 

- les reliance on pictures 

Stage 3: Fluent readers 

- readers have successfully moved from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn' 

- reading is automatic and is done with expression and proper pauses 

- energy is devoted to understanding 

- they can access more varied topics and coprehend more challenging vocabulary 

Wells researched effect of being able to read and that it can have an effect on a child's linguistic development He stresses the importance of listening to stories as: 

- it prepares children for independent reading and writing 

- it helps children extend their experience beyond their immediate surrounding 

- it helps to start conversation between children and parents 

- it enables children to create imaginary worlds through words. 

Stage: Pre- reading 6 yrs 

- Children still usually read to by caregivers at this stage.                                                                  - pretend to read by imitating the process e.g. turning pages                                                            - They may identify some letters of the alphabet 

Stage: Initial Reading and Decoding 6-7 yrs

- children begin to decode words and understand basic texts                                                          - they may identify whole words or recognise letters and blend sounds                                            - reading process is slow and can hinder understanding 

Stage: Confirmation and fluency 7-8 yrs 

- Reading will become faster                                                                                                               - can decode some words and read with some fluency                                                                      - Reading process is slower but have a greater understanding 

Stage: Reading for learning 9-13 yrs 

- Rather than learning to read, students now read in order to learn                                                   - Accessing a larger range of texts.                                                                                                   - Reading to obtain facts and scanning for the most relevant details 

Stage: Multiple Viewpoints 14-18 yrs 

- Students begin to recognise how meaning can be conveyed in different ways or with a different focus                                                                                                                                                    - become more critical readers                                                                                                           -can recognise bias and inference 

Stage: Construction and Reconstruction 18+ yrs

- Individuals can read a range of sources                                                                                           - Can skim and scan efficiently and recognise what is and is not important to read 

Researched the quality of reading books and found that some are much more beneficial to linguistic development. 

His book discusses why he believes that reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game. The object of the game is not to recognise the letters or words but to make sense of the print, to construct meaning. 

He says that any reading activities that remove the sense of texts will systify rather than help the apprentice reader.