Journal of Early Childhood Literacy

This review examines patterns found in early (preschool-grade 3) literacy research appearing in English-language publications during the period from 2006 through 2015. It focuses on studies related to early literacy learning and teaching in home and school/school-like environments. The review sought to answer two questions: (1) What has early literacy research focused on over the past decade? and (2) What has that body of research contributed to our enhanced understanding of early literacy development, teaching, and learning? The results report on patterns of publishing early literacy research found in scholarly journals, topics researched, ages of children researched, characteristics of the populations researched, and designs used in early literacy research. In addition, qualitative analyses report on the content and trends of the research for a sample of studies for each of seven facets of early literacy research: phonics, phonological awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, and digital literacies, as well as for the umbrella terms emergent literacy/early literacy/beginning reading. The results found from these analyses are discussed through an historical lens which identified four patterns characterizing early literacy research of 2006–2015: accretion, the influence of "scientifically valid" research, limited response to increasingly diverse student populations, and increased research focus on younger children.

The importance of early vocabulary development to later reading comprehension has been well-established. However, there have been a number of criticisms that the assessments typically used to measure oral vocabulary knowledge do not adequately capture the complexity of this construct. This conceptual review works towards a more robust theoretical framework for vocabulary knowledge, focusing especially on the understudied dimension of vocabulary depth, which can be used to evaluate and design measures for early childhood learners. This framework is then used to review measures commonly used for preschool to 1st grade learners in the context of vocabulary interventions and observational studies. Recommendations are made for the use of existing measures and the design of future measures.

This study investigates how eight public, centre-based preschool teachers working with low-income children are using different activity settings and content foci to support one aspect of academic language: vocabulary development. Findings indicate that, on average, when teachers engaged children in teacher-led, whole group activities, read-alouds, morning meetings and interactions that focused on science content, they provided a relatively dense vocabulary learning experience. However, there were stark differences between teachers in the amount of support they were providing in these activity settings and content foci – some teachers were frequently supporting vocabulary learning, whereas others were providing almost no support. In contrast, during informal activity settings, such as free play, transitions and mealtimes, there was very little variability across teachers – all teachers were providing very little support for vocabulary learning during these activity settings, despite the fact that these activities comprised more than half of observational time. Findings suggest that while some preschool teachers were using certain activity settings and content foci to support vocabulary learning, all teachers in this sample were missing many opportunities to provide support for vocabulary development. Recommendations for early childhood educators and professional development providers are discussed.

Although unevenly distributed, many Australian classrooms are increasingly diverse and include young people from a wide variety of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, young people who speak many different languages and dialects of English. These diverse classrooms offer rich and exciting teaching and learning opportunities and require innovative pedagogies that bolster the abilities of educators to draw upon young peoples' transcultural and translingual competencies. This paper details curricula and pedagogies employed in a classroom with six- to eight-year old children newly arrived in Australia. In this classroom, children were positioned as ethnographers of their own language practices; language repertoires were recognized, validated and treated as resources for learning. Analysis centres on the relevant connections made between academic content, children's experiences and the promotion of children's identities as bilingual meaning-makers.

The growth of literacy in the Philippines is attributed to the formalization of the education system. Learning experiences from formal schooling and the home environmental influence, complement and reinforce the role of the teacher and the parent in promoting literacy. Home literacy practices which are centred on parent-child interaction can promote literacy through the sharing of information. This study examines home practices that are directly or indirectly associated with or promote family literacy. Narratives and stories of participant families about their literacy practices were gathered through naturalistic life-story interviews, observation and participation in selected outside activities. Themes were drawn from the data collected, wherein interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied in the analysis. Four themes were identified which focus on language; home strength and activities; faith, values and aspirations; and home and school connection. Languages used at home by the family serve as a springboard for family literacy, which also supports classroom instructions. Household chores and other home activities are used as a support to learn literacy concepts taught in school, such as science concepts, survival skills, hygiene and childcare. Family literacy practices are anchored in family values and aspirations that enable each family to pursue and sustain their literacy practices. Storytelling and reading are practised at home, which provides opportunities for teaching and learning among family members. Each family in this study found ways to maximize their limited resources to support the literacy of their children for better education. The findings suggest that the economic condition of the family is not a deterrent to family literacy practices. Family literacy practices depend upon the unique dynamics of each family, which are influenced by the languages used at home, household activities, family values and aspirations. Literacy practices are also related to teaching and learning activities at school.

The American demographic is drastically changing from a largely white, European-American population to one that is extremely diverse. This shift in demographics has impacted on state schools. Students often experience a cultural shock due to a mismatched monocultural, monlinguistic curriculum in schools. This qualitative study explored the way four Reading Recovery teachers attempted to make their Reading Recovery instruction culturally responsive for their culturally and linguistically diverse students. Through constant comparative analysis of data collected through pre- and post-interviews, bi-weekly professional development sessions and debriefings, reflective journals, and artefacts, it was found that the teachers' practices shifted in three main ways: observation, conversation and instruction. Participating teachers found ways to utilize students' social, cultural and linguistic knowledge to establish links between the familiar and new to make learning to read and write easier for their students. Thinking intentionally about the tenets of culturally responsive teaching as well as students' linguistic, social and cultural knowledge, participating teachers found ways to enact culturally responsive teaching in their Reading Recovery instruction.

This eight-month study, conducted in a first-grade classroom in the southwestern United States, analyzed young children's playful responses to literature. It focuses on framing a theory that underpins play as a form of reader response, which I term ‘responsive play’. It further aims to answer the overarching research question and the sub-question: What are the affordances of play for responding to text in a first-grade classroom? What are the sociocultural resources that children use to respond to and make meaning with text? Findings suggest that the children in this study created a space for learning and understanding, through their responsive play, that allowed them to think through, demonstrate, and share their experiential knowledge, their funds of knowledge, and their intertextual knowledge – as sociocultural resources – and to connect these to their literacy learning as they cooperatively transacted with and responded to various books. These findings suggest that children's play, language, and literacy are complementary, that children's responsive play should be encouraged in the classroom setting, and that children's experiences and funds of knowledge should be valued as additive to the academic learning context. Implications of this study include that responsive play can be viewed as a generative source of academic learning and that the notion of reader response, in research and practice, can be reconceived to include responsive play.

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways emergent bilingual first-graders draw on multiple linguistic resources during reading assessments and the participation of their Spanish-dominant parents in those assessments, as children engaged in English and Spanish retelling tasks. Informed by a translanguaging lens, sociopsycholinguistic and holistic approaches to reading and critical approaches to family literacy, the analysis centres on assessment sessions with two mother–child dyads whose children attended school in a relatively new migration setting. Primary data were drawn from four reading assessment sessions and audio-recordings over a 7-month period with each child, individual interviews and home visits with mothers, and field notes from research team members. The analysis examined linguistic patterns related to second-language approximations and code-switching in miscues and oral retellings. The analysis also includes coding of strategies and resources children used in their English and Spanish retelling of the same text, using their home language to retell the texts to their mothers. Findings illustrate that while children’s miscues may be shaped by their developing control of syntactic structures and new vocabulary, they draw from multiple language resources in English retellings, conveying their complex understandings of texts. We also found that the children negotiated translating and retelling for their parents in different ways, shaped by their family literacy practices. These involved co-construction of stories, a focus on accuracy and the paraphrasing and embellishing of stories and dialogue. Insights from this study highlight the complexity of pooled language resources in young children’s repertoires. Findings also document the situated nature of oral retelling at home, when parents engage children in the sharing and translating of English books in ways that align with existing roles, practices and goals. Implications for equitable literacy assessment in new migration contexts are discussed.