Broadhurst, D

Krieg, Susan

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Archived at the Flinders Academic Commons: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/ ‘This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:  Broadhurst,Donna, G & Krieg, S 2001, 'Children learning to read Not quite so simple!', Every Child, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 12-13. which has been published in final form at http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/our-publications/every-child-magazine/every-child/Copyright © 2001 Early Childhood Australia.  Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher.”�::.,.:� ";h-·:;.·. ��t:.:. ·:· I I ! I! j ! l :, .' �., . · · . .. ; ·I· ·· · u -�· "-"·c...· • ._· ·:.:..'·::... ,.::..,· __ c:.:.-· >..;.;· ;;..,..::,..:a.· . .,.;;·,.s.:,1·•.;.;.., ..... · -�- .;;,;_-.-�-·.;.:...;.;-·=· .-�--c.,;. Children learning to read Not quite so simple! The following article was written lry Donna Broadhurst andSusan Krieg in response to Mimi Wellish's article, Should we teach young children to read? which appem-ed in Every Child Summer 2000 (Vol. 6 No. 4).I n the Summer 2000 issue of Every Child (Vol. 6, No. 4), Mimi Wellisch called for the teaching of literacy to young children to begin earlier. Wellisch begins her article by asking a question that is at the heart of education. Why do many children never learn to read well? This question and others like it have baffled committed and reflective educators for years and prompted much research. Wellisch proposes a simple solution-:ine that seems to take little account of the wealth of literacy research into this question. Her response expresses her opinion that three taboos, assumed to be widely held by early childhood educators, are responsible for the failure of children learning.to read.successfully. We suggest that the view presented by Wellisch does not cake account of macro factors impacting on children's literacy development. Is her definition broad enough to include Donny's culture, where both mum and dad could not read? Wellisch suggests 'in our culture, one important adult activity is reading'. Whose culture is defined as 'ours'? Is her definition broad enough to include Donny's culture, where both mum and dad could not read (Purcell-Gates, 1995)? Does it include Sean's culture, where the need to read is overwhelmed by the need for him to cope with emotional disruption ac home, or Reena's culture, where Indigenous people's treatment at the hands. of dominant institutions and subsequent mistrust of those institutions means attendance at school is not a priority {Hill, Comber, Louden, Rivalland & Reid, 1998)? Has Wellisch fallen into the trap of assuming her cultural practices are the norm­whatever chat might be? Research has shown that the literacy practices in some homes are similar to school practices, but others are widely divergent (Heath, 1983; Purcell-Gates, 1995). Some children therefore may find school complementary to their early experience, while others do not experience such congruence, and consequently. may find their skills under-recognised.The Bristol study (Wells, 1986) demonstrated that prior to school, there was a range of literacy experiences that children were exposed to in their homes. Once they began school, children who grew up in homes where they were read to, who saw adults reading and writing and where adults owned more books, were advantaged when they began school. Making the connections between children's existing knowledge and experiences and the relevance of literacy for their own pwposes is an important motivator for children's literacy achievements at school (Purcell­Gates, 1995). Leaming a language is a different process from learning to read Wellisch confuses learning to speak with learning co read and suggests there is a 'window of opportunity' for language acquisition and hence learning to read. Leaming a language however, is a qualitatively different process from learning to read. We agree with Wellisch that some analogies can be drawn between the two processes; however, they are not synonymous. They don't occur together and this is evidenced worldwide across many cultures. Leaming co talk does appear to have a critical period, as the famous case of Genie ( Cuniss, 1977) illustrates so well. However, is there evidence of such a critical period for learning to read? In Denmark, children do not start 'school' until age seven. Prior to chat time their education is focused on the social and aesthetic aspects of development and avoids formal cognitive and linguistic training; including formal early reading instruction (Lundberg, Frost & Petersen, 1988). Phillip Gammage, Chair of Early Childhood at the de Lissa Institute in South Australia, notes that in Finland, many children do not begin school until age seven, but by age nine are amongst the highest achievers in literacy internationally. Paulo Freire's (1972) work in South America, teaching illiterate adults to read, demonstrates that there is not a critical period for learning to read. He taught adults co read in a short time-implying chat the skill was easily acquired. 12 £.very Child, Volume 7, No. 3, Winter 2001 I I I I I I I I I I Donna Broadhurst and Susan Kriegde l.issa Institute of Early Childhood andFamily StudiesUniversity of South Australia1t is therefore not age that seems to beimportant in learning to read; rather itis the purpose that is a motivatingfactor, and context provides amotivation. The context of learning isimportant for young children.ReferencesAdams, M. J. (1990) Beginning to Read:Thinking and Learning AboutPrint.Cambridge: MIT Press.Badian, N. A. (1995) Predicting readingability over the long term: Thechanging roles of letter naming,phonological awareness andorthographic processing. Annals ofDysbia, 45. 79-96.Bernstein, B. (ed.) (1971) Class Codes andConrrol Volume 1: Theoretical StudiesTowards a Sociology of Langtuzge.London: Roudedge and Kegan Paul.Curtiss, S. (1977) Genie: A PsycholinguisticStudy of a Modem~Day 'Wild Child' .NY: Academic Press.Freire, P. (1972) Pedagogy ofthe Oppressed(Myra Bergman Ramos, trans.) .Hannondsworth: Penguin Books.Heath, S. B. (1983) Ways WithWords.Cambridge: Cambridge' UniversityPress.Hill,S., Camber, B., Louden, W.,Rivalland, J. & Reid, J. (1998) 100Children go to School: Connections andDisconnections in Literacy Dwelopment inme Year Prior to Schooland the First Yearof School (Voll). Canberra: Departmentof Employment, Education, Trainingand Youth Affairs.Laso, M. G. & Pumfrey, P. D. (1996) Earlypredictors of later attainment in readingand spelling. Reading (November),5-11.Lundberg, I., Frost, J. & Petersen, O.(1988). Effects of an extensive programfor stimulating phonological awarenessin preschool children. Reading ResearchQuarterly, 23(3), 263-284.Purcell-Gates, V. (1995) Other People'sWords: The Cycle of LowUtera.cy.Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press.Snider, V. E. (l997) The relationshipbetween phonemic awareness and laterreading achievement. The Journal ofEducational Research, 90 (4), 203-21l.Snow, C. E., Bums, M. S. & Griffin, P.(eels) (1998) Preuenting ReadingDifficulties in Young Children.Washington DC:National AcademyPress.Stanovich, K. E. (1992) Speculations onthe causes and consequences ofindividual differences in early readingacquisition. In P. B. Gough,L C. Ehii,& R. Treiman (eds) Reading Acquisition.New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp.307-342.Wells, G. (1986) The Meaning Makers:Children LeamingLanguage and UsingLanguage to Learn. Portsmouth:Heinemann Educational Books.:...::,":' ,~'. ,,- -."We have not taken issue with all thepoints raised by Wellisch. There aremany more we could address; however,in this brief response we have tried toindicate the importance of practicebeing informed by quality research. Bysystematically acquainting ourselveswith the knowledge~base on a topic,we are in a position to present aninformed opinion. In the past 30 yearsthere has been prolific production ofvarious literacy programs, packages,and marketable products, and earlychildhood educators have used thesein the hope of addressing children'sliteracy learning. However, thesesuccessive curriculum reforms seem toprove that education cannotcompensate for society (Bernstein,1971), which we take to mean thattechnical approaches to pedagogy willnot work unless they are based onsystematic analysis of the social andcultural basis of educational issues.Wellisch suggests there is a resistanceto teaching academic subjects in earlychildhood. We would argue that theopposite is the case. Early childhoodeducators embrace the teaching ofliteracy in their programs, but in waysthat engage children in relevant,contextualised learning. Numerousstudies indicate that multiple factorsinfluence reading acquisition. Leaming. to read involves a hierarchy of skills,including phonological awareness,letter knowledge, print and bookconcepts.and reading for meaning.This is supported by a large body ofresearch (e.g. Adarns, 1990; Badian,1995; Lazo & Pumfrey, 1996; Lundberget al., 1988; Snider, 1997; Snow, Bums& Griffin, 1998; Stanovich, 1992).Early childhood educators recognisethis and work to support children'sliteracy development by providingOpportunities to build up this set ofskills and understandings.'.:._T... ... ~~ : ".".' -, /'

Children learning to read: not quite so simple!

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