Literacy Teaching Environment & Experience

The Literacy Teaching Environment & Experience (reference 2017)

Introduction Engagement with language learning. It’s probably a no brainer, however, M.A.K. Halliday suggests that learners need to be:

1. Engaged in the learning of language and literacy.

2. Learning through language and literacy for learning.

3. Learning about language and literacy, contextualised.

4. Here is a link below, related to the Halliday reading, although some of the references are over a generation old, it's useful because it describes the same concepts which could probably be transferred/updated concerning learning styles with digital literacies. The terminology for ‘engaging’ is different, called ‘Learning Language’ (reference n.d.).

How do people engage in learning a language? Chomsky posited the innate hypothesis and I believe this is true that people are born with a natural ability to learn language (reference 2017). However, there are other affective influences that govern language learning. If we compare someone who was raised by dogs from the age of 2 for a few years like Ivan (reference 1998) as opposed to someone who was raised by a heterosexual couple in a nuclear family, we can see that obviously there are language limitations. In an ideal situation where children are raised by loving parents and go to kindergarten and primary school their L&L ability by the age of 6 is quite good, although they obviously need more development with the fundamentals.

State University wrote that: “In their early years, children are learning both spoken and written language. They are developing use of complex grammatical structures and vocabulary; communicative competence (rules for the appropriate and effective use of language in a variety of social situations); comprehension of spoken and written language; and ways to express themselves” (reference 2017).

For example: Going back to the beginning of language acquisition. I have a daughter who is now 6 going on 7. She was born after I had already taught English as a second language for children (5-11) overseas for a number of years, and adults. Therefore I have advanced skills for helping her. We always talked to her and sang to her getting her involved with new sounds every day, and that creates interest for a baby who can’t do much. Slowly we progressed with ‘carer talk’ as you do and just made sure she felt safe, secure and happy. After about 1 year we started to introduce her to words. We ordered a DVD package from America designed by a PhD in linguistics, because the brain is adaptable (reference, 2017). By the time she was 1.5yrs old she could read more than 100 words from flashcards; e.g. animal words with more than one syllable as long as hippopotamus and one and two syllables, such as cat and tiger.

Flashcards There is some debate as usual about flashcards, but they are great for taxonomy (reference, 2017) and I’ve used them professionally for years, albeit in many different interactive ways; e.g. at Super Simple. As our daughter got older we found she even remembered the words on the other side, so memory is great at a young age, ‘like a sponge’ as we say- although memory doesn’t always work for language acquisition.

Furthermore, we bought a whiteboard with magnet alphabets for constructing words, as you do. After a while we worked more with her reading connecting the dots, playing with rhyming words, instruments and so on, and slowly she started to read herself. Because my partner is Chinese I do the English reading and she does the Chinese (symbols, picture-flashcards and matching) readings due to pronunciation errors. Her mother stopped teaching her Chinese but I’ve asked her to continue. It’s important to keep embedding this into her schema, the same way a second language is- see Krashen (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition here:

Thus, our daughter could read and loved to read before she started prep school. She has so many books in her personal library, and she belongs to a book club receiving book in the mail. We sent her to a kindergarten with a great teacher, and then a multicultural preschool, and now she is at primary school. This year graduating from grade 1 she received all high grades. Although I provided some extrinsic motivation, I think that because of our input and her interest for learning we picked up on, she has achieved this through her own natural instincts and curiosity with discovery and attention to detail via her love of painting. She is at a level she should be at and we don’t push her. This year she has explicitly discovered DL. We worked on the meaning of comprehension checks (CCQ's) via reading and basic math with Turtle Diary, and vocabulary games. Learning addition and subtraction are the first steps for numeracy and this usually starts in the home; e.g. food and toys.

The Internet and technology We give our daughter about an hour a day of free time (with some protest) and she watches girl stuff, mostly from America, and I have noticed that her accent has been Americanised due to her time with YouTube videos and other educational games and television programs e.g. ABC for Kids. Consequently, learning another language with children's resources is beneficial when starting out. Moreover, our daughter's been grounded with rules about digital citizenship education. We’ve also introduced her to lots of different activities for day and night; e.g. play areas, feeding the chickens, bike-riding, collecting eggs, jig-saw puzzles, reading, painting, swimming classes, band practice, interacting with adults and other children in our family and at church, building Lego’s and so on, which builds her confidence and inquisitive nature. She has developed into a lovely person who understands life and respects others around her. Language and literacy have a habit of being everywhere, so I believe this is how language and literacy is engaged.

Digital Literacy So, recently, due to her love of computers we have introduced language learning via Web2 tools with Byki Mobile, and supported with open education learning resources. Babbel, another LL application is also good but it doesn't have Chinese, yet. For those who need to justify language queries and write Chinese characters I have found that Yabla is useful, and an authentic way to study Chinese. Skritter is also good for Japanese and Chinese mastery.

Finally, we don’t believe that home schooling is the best option, unless it is absolutely necessary. Why? We discussed by ourselves and with other family friends. We believe it's due to the loss of interaction and collaboration, and the process of negotiating meaning. These elements contribute to intellectual growth and emotional intelligence. We have pointed out that as part of her routines, she is required to practice language learning, which has proven to enhance dynamic cognitive processes via linking the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Starting with 15 minutes per day, at present, she is learning Chinese mandarin guided by the accuracy and fluency of her mother who is also fluent with Cantonese. Next year we will travel to China for two months to meet up with family and friends but to also integrate our cultural learning capabilities in context via culture with sociolinguistics.

Summarising So, this is effectively a one scenario advantage; however, I think this is a good example of how children learn a language by engaging with different contexts in the real and simulated worlds where electronics seem to be changing the way we think about stuff and the way we do things. Moreover, the collaboration with her class and teacher has been invaluable; especially as we have engaged with her doing homework, and that includes extensions such as applying it to the real world when we are out and about; e.g. shopping and nature.

Unfortunately, the digital environment is also capable of time wasting; e.g. Facebook and other social media applications. It has the ability to dumb down society via agendas that are non transparent; e.g. that could be hegemony, fake news or even an elitist agenda with false consciousness. There are many people walking around like zombies these days with their heads down looking into a cyberspace hand held device that gives them access to simulated reality. Hence, as people grow into adults, they are exposed to all kinds of influences that regulate their perceptions of the world. Parenting should provide more input collaborating with a child’s learning and move away from the stigma that: ‘it’s the teacher’s job’ in defence of keeping up with financial obligations. There is a danger of oversupply in comparison to neglecting the very core of their values.

That’s where education with digital citizenship comes into play and where it’s managed appropriately. Although some people may possess learning difficulties, a ‘flipped classroom’ approach is helpful. By the time people mature into adulthood they have a wide variety of differences that determine: who they are, how they communicate, what they know, how they’ve learned, and importantly how well they can communicate with LLN and digital literacies. Therefore, there is justification/truth in what Halliday says about the three ways of LLN and learning. Although, I find it challenging not to include them with each other, due to the ever-changing dynamic relationship that language has with itself and the world we live in.

Other References

Halliday, M.A.K., 1975. Learning How to Mean, Edward Arnold, London https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-in-society/article/div-classtitlehallidaym-a-k-learning-how-to-mean-explorations-in-the-development-of-language-explorations-in-language-study-series-edited-by-doughtypeter-and-thorntongeoffrey-london-edward-arnold-pp-x-164div/DC02337E81774B353A1DA5B810A9AC37

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