Emergent Literacy: An Early Reading and
Writing Concept
Carl B. Smith, Director of ERIC/RCS, University of Indiana, Bloomington, Indiana
Emergent literacy refers to an increasing awareness of the print world and is usually associated with young learners observing and experimenting with the reading and writing process. More important than the label is the attitude behind it. It is acceptable for learners to experiment, stumble, self-correct, and figure out gradually that print communicates.
Through reading and writing associations with adults, asking questions about print, observing print in stories, and experimenting with writing, the learner gradually sees the relationship between the spoken and written word. Through this natural, emerging process, the young learner gains the confidence needed to participate in the real word of print.
In preschool, kindergarten, and first grade class rooms, opportunities exist for children to experience print in their environment as well as in books. Read-along-books, writing tables, and bulletin boards for displaying dictated stories are examples of activities that fit with the emergent literacy concept. These classroom activities are appropriate means for children to grow naturally into print.
Most early childhood authors agree that the most successful early readers are those who have had contact with written materials in their home. Book handling and scribbling may begin earlier than the mastery of speech skills.
During these early literacy experiences, children need to make meaning out of print with little intrusion from adults. In nursery school and preschool, for instance, children may learn from each other that there are relationships between the print in books and the visual symbols such as logos and advertisements that they see around them. Those initial personal experiments will stimulate interest and understanding in the more formal aspects of reading and writing (i.e., graphic symbols).
What do these theories and studies about emergent literacy mean for teachers? It has been suggested that handling books, letter recognition, and simulated writing or scribble writing seem to be more important in developing literacy skills than working on shape and color recognition or motor skills.
Advocates of emergent literacy development suggest a close link between early experiences and the actual behavior of reading a book. Just as children pretend or act out in their play many of the life adventures they observe in the adult world, so they will model their early literacy behavior on what they perceive adults doing with regard to reading and writing.
Following this line of reasoning, then, preschool, kindergarten, and first grade teachers can do more than simply surround the children with books and other print materials. They can read aloud and encourage children to read aloud to each other. They can use tape recordings (and videotapes) in read-along book corners or centers, and ask children to use those same books as they read to one another.
In these ways, children see reading and writing as something people learn and use to communicate. Establishing the purposes for reading and writing may be as important as teaching any set of skills during this early reading, or emergent literacy, period.
-Adapted from an article by Carl B Smith, published in the ERIC Review, Vol. 1, Issue 2, April 1991. For more information on how to obtain a copy of the complete article, see the ERIC/RCS reference in the Resources section of this Bulletin, page 22.