Literature is at the heart of the Australia English Curriculum and is integral to the teaching of language and literacy. How can children’s literature be used to develop an understanding of the components of language?
Books are alive! Children’s literature in particular is at the heart of the Australian English Curriculum and is integral for teachers to use in teaching language and literacy. Teachers must use children’s literature to enhance the understanding and development of the various components of language? How can books make stories come alive? What is children’s literature? What are some of the components of language? And, how can teachers effectively impart understanding with the aid of children’s books in teaching? Firstly, this
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21,45) state clearly throughout the book, Language and Learning, that children’s literature is an effective ‘tool’ in developing language. There are many books ‘that fit with the themes of language and literacy’, ‘doing things with language’ and ‘grammar’. This means that literature starts with oral language as a base and the stories heard can be added to with pictures initially, then the written word forms a readable language. Talking about stories makes them come alive. Using pictures creates a sense of intrigue in the reader to help bring the story to life. Thus, the doing things with language fits the story. Next, grammar used in the literature can be expounded on in greater detail so as the co-relation between what the students read and what they can write is expanded on. Practice in doing both is an effective way of learning the skills. Learning the components of language leads to greater understanding when a student is asked to make their own …show more content…
Understanding the meaning of grammar then is crucial. Traditional grammar is seen as the parts in sentences taught more than thirty years ago. An example of this is the learning of the writing conventions such as punctuation or abbreviations. Functional grammar is seen as the ‘knowledge of language’ (Emmit et al., 2010 pg. 92). Grammar is the set of rules by which we use language. These rules change as the language changes and it is necessary to keep learning as language evolves. Children’s literature uses functional literacy to relate the knowledge of grammar to three functions of use. Using actions, reflection and connection teachers can teach the skills of proper usage of functional grammar with texts of varying interest to the students. Thus opening up the student’s world to connecting everyday knowledge to their writings, reflecting on how it affects their experiences and in turn using that learnt language in the real
Critique of Nell K. Duke and Victoria Purcell-Gates' Genres at Home and at School: Bridging the Known to the New Nell K. Duke and Victoria Purcell-Gates insightful article, "Genres at home and at school: Bridging the known to the new" reports on genres found at home and at school for two groups of young children from low-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Duke and Gates identify genres commonly found in both settings, as well as those commonly found only in one setting or the other. Children encounter many different kinds of text in their daily life. There are many different kinds of written language used for many different reasons, especially at home and at school. This article suggests ways that being aware of genres young children encounter at home and at school offer opportunities to bridge home and school literacies and enhance children's literacy development.
Mrs. Hamm discussed that she actually uses three different programs to help teach language and literacy to her students. The first program, which is actually her favorite of the three programs, is called “Read Aloud Library”, the second program is called “Language for Learning” and the third program is called “Reading Mastery”. Mrs. Hamm discussed the programs as being very helpful tools in helping children develop their reading skills. Mrs. Hamm integrates literacy in her classroom in many different ways. In the different programs, the students read one book together in which they work on for the week by breaking down the chapters so that children can retell the story and learn th...
Throughout the chapter the need for a variety of early year’s experiences is highlighted as been crucial when embedding language, therefore creating the foundations for the early acquisition of literacy. The importance of play in which to do this permeates throughout the chapter, as Avril and Rankin describe in detail scenarios through role play and stories within which the child can become immersed, while also promoting mark making/writing for a purpose.
1. Introduction In our lifetime we go through various amounts of different types of texts. We start at a young age with texts such us nursery rhymes and as we get older, we learn to develop our literary and linguistic abilities, progressing to short novels, fiction and even educational reference materials necessary to complete our education.
Conclusion: Contemporary Australian Children’s Literature The black pony picked his way across Currawong Creek as delicately as a ballet dancer, and the girl sat on his back like a princess (97). The quote from the Bonnie and Sam series’ second story, The Circus Pony, highlights some of the feminine markers which function to constrain the representations of gendered behaviours and actions, in contemporary Australian children’s literature, to the boundaries of traditional understanding of gender.
As a child, it was critical to learn how to read and read a lot in order to fluently learn english and be able to read and write. But, as you get older, reading becomes less of an everyday thing and more of an if I have to, i’ll do it. Honestly, I did not even want to read the articles I have to include in this paper, but since it is in the prompt i have to. However, that does not mean that reading becomes less important in teens lives. “Aside from introducing children to a love of literature and storytelling, reading exposes them to written language, which differs from the spoken word.
I hope that you were able to look at literature in a different light and that you were able to explore my thoughts, experiences and opinions on literature and literacy. To conclude this paper I would like to say my literacy journey has been a long one and one that will continue to grow and develop as time passes. Speaking, reading and writing is a part of our daily lives and that is why it is so essential and necessary to learn the basics and then continue to foster your skills and abilities. Not everyone will place the same amount of importance on literacy as I do and that is
Winch, G. J. (2001). Literacy: Reading, writing and children's literature (Vol. 4th Edition). South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Oxford University Press.
Nassaji, H., & Fotos, S. (2011). The role of context in focus on grammar: Teaching Grammar in Second Language Classroom (pp.121-134). New York and London: Routhdge
‘Literature provides wonderful source material for eliciting strong emotional responses from our students’ (Lazar, 1993: 3). By using literature in the language classroom, is a way of letting learners getting involved as whole people and provides them a lot of opportunities where they can express their feelings, personal opinions and reactions. Additionally, Kramsch (1993) argues that teaching literature reveals ‘its ability to represent the particular voice of a writer among the many voices of his or her community and thus to appeal to the particular in the reader’ (pp. 130 – 131 cited in Carroli, 2008: 8). Nevertheless, as teachers use the literature as an authentic text, learners immediately show their interest, as it is not an ordinary reading text which is found in the textbook. Thus, students from higher level can easily be absorbed by the plot and characters, as a result to acquire the new language at its best form. ‘The literature then becomes an important way of supplementing the inevitably restricted input of the classroom’ (Lazar, 1993: 17). Consequently, learners benefit from such authentic text, especially in linguistic areas such as grammar, syntax and vocabulary. Furthermore, the students will be encouraged to expand into political, historical and social aspects. Such aspects will form the cultural background of a particular play or novel. In addition to that, learners will have the opportunity to exchange their opinions and ideas of a poetry, novel or play. At first, it should be best for the learner to understand the language in order to appreciate the literature. The students should also be able to let the teachers help them with the most important features of interest in the text. Nevertheless, the main aim ...
It is not uncommon to say that grammar instruction plays an important role in language teaching. Regarding the status and importance of grammar teaching, a variety of opinions have been made. Batstone (1994) states that “language without grammar would be chaotic: countless words without the indispensable guidelines for how they can be ordered and modified” (p. 4). More vividly, Wang (2010) makes two similes. She compares grammar to the frame of a house, which is a decisive factor to ensure the solidness of it. Additionally, she regards grammar as a walking stick, whose function is to help and support students to learn English. Thus, the nature of grammar instruction manifests its own significance as it helps students enhance their overall language proficiency by integrating grammar into other aspects of learning, like listening, speaking, reading and writing.
Few would be encouraged to say that literature is not important in the development of individuals or society in general. However, the reality is that reading is an activity relegated to leisure time, at least for a lot of people. TV or video games, for example, may be more attractive. The importance of poetry goes beyond preferences, there is something concrete: literature is important throughout life. Is important in the development of the child, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Experts do not hesitate to enumerate several reasons that certify this question. The first thing to note is that reading is a habit. Therefore, it is learning that joins our behavior. Hence the need to bring children 's literature to smaller, approaching them first and then by reading their first books for them for later to read on their own . Poetry is an influence for people, in different ways and methods depending on their age, but simply for entertainment and growth.
With a child, I conducted a one on one reading activity which involved asking six questions (before during and afterwards). The book I chose was ‘Who Sank the Boat’ written by Pamela Allen. I chose this book because it allows the reader to predict who sank the boat. This allows the reader to make a prediction at the start of the book, which can change as they read on further. Rhyming and repetition, and because the book can be used in regards to other activities, all supported my decision to choose this book. The use of repetition and rhyming encouraged me to use expression when reading to the child, as I was able to memorize the ending sentences in the story, which were repeated on each page. Activities based upon Allen, 1998 can be created for other literacy activities including: debates, recounts, and also in Numeracy lesson’s which involve weights and sinking and floating. These activities can be conducted practically to engage student’s within their learning.
In the article, “Current Developments in Research on the Teaching of Grammar” by Hossein Nassaji and Sandra Fotos two main issues had been discussed. The first one is whether grammar teaching make any differences to language learning where the questions raised are whether grammar should be taught or not. The second issue is what kinds of grammar teaching have been suggested to facilitate second language learning. If grammar should be taught, how much and should it be implicit or explicit grammar teaching? Lastly, the article discussed on the current approaches to grammar teaching in which formal instruction can be integrated with communicative activities which are processing instruction, interactional feedback, textual enhancement, task-based
* English literary heritage * Texts from different cultures and traditions * Printed and ICT-based information texts * Media and moving image texts But getting children interested in reading at a young age is seen as key to raising