STORYBOOKS, SONGS, AND GAMES CAN BOOST EARLY LITERACY DEVELOPMENT IN PRIMARY ENGLISH CLASSROOMS

Abstract

In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified five components of effective literacy instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. To realize these literacy components, NRP underlines phonemic awareness and phonics to be practiced more extensively at early grade levels. The present article is prepared for English language instructors teaching English at early grade levels, specifically at pre-primary and early years in primary education (Grades 2, 3, and 4 for public; Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 for private institutions) as a reference to utilize when practicing phonological and phonemic awareness with young learners of English. The study is an instructional, pedagogical, and linguistic resource for teacher trainees and in-service instructors who are new to the concepts and instructional designs tapping into phonological and phonemic awareness, and putting phonics instruction into practice in early years of literacy education. The paper has two major parts: in the initial section, phonological awareness types are explicated, operational definitions are provided and classroom activities for each are presented.  In the second part of the study, storybook and song integration for a linguistically-rich early literacy acquisition in primary English classrooms with young language learners are further discussed.