The term “literacy practice” refers to the application of written language in people’s normal lives. Although it entails reading and writing, its development is based on different aspects which emerge from the social and developmental perspectives. The practice usually begins at an earlier age when children are about six months after birth and continues henceforth. At the earlier stages, children only develop literacy through observing written materials, especial those containing attractive content. According to researchers, the earlier form of literacy practice comprises of the social aspect whereby young children interact with adults such as their elder siblings or parents who introduce them to written materials through narrating to written stories to them. Besides, children are introduced to their culture through narrations, and as time goes by, they develop the skills of leaning on their own.

However, literal practices, especially those taught to young children depend on the environment where children are born. For example, children born in households where books and other written materials are unavailable tend to develop literacy skills through spoken language. However, it takes time for them to understand the written language. Mostly, they learn how to read and write when they are taken to elementary classes. On the other hand, children born in households with plenty of written materials tend to develop literacy practices through learning alphabets, reading, and then writing (Benavot, 2015 p. 281). This is because they come in contact with the written materials regularly, and so they can learn concepts contained there from time to time until they become conversant with reading.

Literacy practices are continuous in life such that they trend from simple to complex. After introducing children to the literacy practice at home, they are then taken to schools where teacher equip them with further reading and writing skills. Most of the teachers are equipped with skills in teaching literacy practices. Among the practices taught in schools include group reading, singing, writing alphabets, and even engaging in visual forms of learning. Since growth and development occur in milestones, children tend to develop more cognitive skills as they grow older and this substantiates their understanding of the visual practices. Besides, the developed minds enable them to learn new concepts and languages even when they had not been introduced to them before.

Even at the later age, individual apply the literacy practices learned in their entire lives analyze situations and make conclusions critically. Besides, learning is continuous, and this shows that gaining literacy skills is also continuous. Therefore, literacy practices are part of human life in the current society and people tend to live according to how they have what learned through reading and writing. This also confirms that people’s social values and practices are related to the literacy practices they learned during the growth process. In essence, literacy practice is universal, and all those who access written material at home or in learning institutions have high chances of passing through it. As such, it is important to let children go through elementary education to access literacy practices.

The Universality of Literacy Practice

            Universality in literacy practice refers to the different views and approaches applied in different countries in the world to enhance learning among preschool children.In English-speaking countries such as the United States, early childhood learning is encouraged whereby children are exposed to written materials while still at home (Dobinson, 2019 p. 218). As such, they become aware of some reading and writing skills while before attending school. Since almost all learning takes place in English, they found it easier to cope with the new learning. However, some countries do not encourage preschool learning such that children are rarely exposed to written materials while at home. They wait to join elementary schools before learning literacy skills such as reading and writing. In such cases, teachers are given the burden of introducing children to early literacy skills including learning to read and write the alphabets.

In Singapore, teachers think that teaching young children literacy skills should begin after they have learned about their culture. According to them, children should be taught about their cultural roles and native language before enrolling for formal literacy skills. Even at school, teachers tend to focus on teaching children about their culture and tradition instead of teaching new literacy ideas such as new languages. Due to this teaching approach, teachers developed varying opinions concerning their roles in teaching student. Another different approach of teaching young children literacy skills is in Norway. Unlike in English-speaking countries, Norwegians discourage teaching children literacy skill before they join schools.  Instead, they encourage social pedagogy whereby they focus on teaching young children on social skills depicting their traditions.

Besides, there exists a difference in how different countries assess literacy practice in young children. In most countries, observational assessment tools are used to determine the level of understanding of children. Teachers observe how children carry on their activities including speaking, reading, and writing. On the other hand countries such as Australia, Germany, and England use tests and other direct assessment tools to measure the performance of young children attending the literacy practice classes. The different assessment approaches depend on the beliefs of their teachers whereby some teachers believe tests are complex for underage children while others believe that exposing children to tests improves their thinking and cognition.

Another aspect that has led to the spread literacy practice worldwide is the ideas of multilingualism. In this case, children are taught more than one language. For example, English-speaking children may be taken through French or Spanish lessons (Trainin, Wessels, Nelson, and Vadasy, 2017 p. 655). Those children who understand the two or three languages will be in a position to interpret the other languages into their first language. However, there exists a difference between those who learn a language from the young age and those who study it in institutions. The pronunciation of words, the accent of speaking and consistency of words differentiate them. Besides, other factors such as religion, age, schooling, and social roles affect the use of language,especially among those people speaking more than one language.

Home Literacy Practice in relation to Mainstream School Literacy Practice

            Home literacy practice refers to the form of learning that preschool children undergo while waiting to start actual schooling. On the other hand, mainstream school literacy practice involves the assembling of children from different households who come together to seek common knowledge. As such, teachers tend to teach children using the same approach with similar teaching tools without realizing that they come from different homes whereby some undergo home literacy practice while others do not. As a result, learners who do not undergo home literacy practice are more disadvantaged since they lack background knowledge. Such cases have been common in countries with diverse cultures and social classes, including the United States.

In the United States, the homes of European-American children are more connected to schools than other children. Such students have English learning materials such as books, magazines, and novels which they review even before joining school (Kale, and Luke, 2017 p. 13). Since they speak a similar language to that used in school, it is always easier for them to link home literacy practice and school literacy practice. Besides most of the European-American children attend school while already possessing background knowledge of what will be taught by their teachers. Thus, it is always easier for them to understand the concepts learned. As a result, they tend to impress even during assessments.

On the other hand, children coming from African-American homes always have a problem with integrating classwork. This is because most of them do not have reading materials at home, and so they rarely undertake home literacy practice. Mostly, they engage in other activities such as playing around only to wait for the appropriate age to join the school. Besides, their language contradicts with that used in schools, and this also makes it hard for them to match with the European-American children. As shown earlier, teachers rarely consider if learners engage in home literacy practice. Instead, they move with the pace exhibited by the European-American students. Since most of the teachers in American schools are from European-American homes, they understand little about the students from other cultures. Therefore, they ignore their problems instead of helping them understand the mainstream school literacy practice like European-American children.

According to Heath (2017 p. 221), communities have different ways of introducing children to literacy practice. Some, like the European-Americans, do so by introducing children to written materials so that they can learn to read and write at an earlier age. On the other side, children from other communities which do not have access to written materials tend to engage in other activities such as children games to avoid idleness. Therefore, teachers should not blame children who report to school without any background knowledge. Instead, they should understand that they come from a different culture and so they should be assisted to reach levels of others who come from homes that have home literacy practice. Lacking ideas about school literacy does not mean that they are not capable of understanding it. It only shows that they have not been exposed to such knowledge and skills

Shirley Brice Heath’s Perspective on Social Literacy

            Heath is a well-known ethnographer who contributed highly in the field of literature. Besides, her study is much appreciated since it links literacy practices to the social construction of children in the United States. In one of her studies, she focused on the relationship between home environment of students and their performance in school. The study involved picking children from working-class, middle-class, and others from African-American families. In this case, she aimed to determine their home literacy practices and relate them to their performance at school (Heath, 2017 p. 223). After analyzing her results, it was realized that children from working-class families had many printed materials displayed in their rooms. However, they did not engage in direct reading with their parents. Most of them used those reading materials when they reached school-going age.

On the other hand, the study done among middle-class families showed that they also had some reading materials and they readily exchanged knowledge in those materials with their parents. As such, most of those children spent their childhood reading and understanding some important concepts which helped them perform better thereafter at school. Lastly, the study done among African-American families showed that they barely had written materials in their homes. As such, most of their social and language skills came from oral narratives, and this made it difficult for them to understand written language like the other children. Heath used this study to elaborate on the way the performance of these children differed at school. Those who had engaged in childhood reading and writing performed better since they had gained background knowledge before joining schools. Also, those from working and mid-class family understood the English language better than those from the African-American families. Thus, they reported better performance at school.

Apart from relating home literacy practices among children from different social classes, Heath also focused her studies on the relationship between school and socialization. According to her people who had undergone school teaching were likely to socialize better in the outside world than those who did not taste school learning. This is because schools teach children new language skills applicable in different situations. Some even study new languages enabling them to communicate with people from other parts of the world. Moreover, Heath related how the youth from different social classes behaved in the outside world after finishing school. Most of them engaged in community projects irrespective of their social classes. In this case, Heath concluded that social interaction between children in schools enabled them to develop similar ideas that were applicable in the outside world. Therefore, she concluded that school literacy practices were influential to the social lives of children from other communities.

 Reference

Benavot, A., 2015. Literacy in the 21st century: Towards a dynamic nexus of social relations. International Review of Education, 61(3), pp.273-294

Dobinson, T., 2019. Literacy Unbound: Multiliterate, Multilingual, Multimodal. Springer.

Heath, S.B., 2017. Language Socialization in the Learning Communities of Adolescents. Language Socialization, pp.213-226.

Kale, J. and Luke, A., 2017. Learning through difference: Cultural practices in early childhood language socialization. One child, many worlds (pp. 11-29). Routledge.

Trainin, G., Wessels, S., Nelson, R. and Vadasy, P., 2017. A study of home emergent literacy experiences of young latinoenglish learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(5), pp.651-658.

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