Promoting Chinese Young Learners’ Early Literacy Development in English Language Learning

【Abstract】Compared with early native language literacy development， early English literacy development may encounter greater challenges. This paper aims to explore the challenges faced by Chinese children in their early English literacy development and to present a learning activity， thereby promoting their early English literacy development.

【Key words】English； Early Literacy Development； Chinese Learners

【作者簡介】陈毅华，香港浸会大学。

1. Introduction

English， as a second language for Chinese learners， its early literacy development seems to meet more challenges than that of native language due to the differences between Chinese and English language systems. The paper will identify the challenges in early English literacy development among Chinese children and introduce an activity to improve their early English literacy development.

2. Literature Review

Early literacy refers to pretending to read and write and is a process of becoming literate， which occurs in early childhood （Bardige &Segal;， 2005）. Some researchers found that environmental print has a positive and sustained influence in young learners literacy development （Kuby &Aldridge;， 1996）.

Early literacy skills are essential for the development of reading and reading comprehension， so it is necessary to facilitate childrens early literacy development before entering formal schools.

3. Challenges Faced by Chinese Young Learners

In Chinese learning， children are often taught to use the shape-to-meaning connection to facilitate the understanding of pictographs. For example， the pictograph水is similar to the shape of a river， which helps children identify the character and refer to its meaning. Many other pictographs can be recognized and expressed through connecting the shape with its meaning （Yin & Anderson， 2005）. Since English words are alphabetic orthographies， there is little correlation between the shape and itsmeaning， and it may hinder childrens early English literacy development.

4. A Learning Activity to Improve Chinese Young Learners English Literacy Development

An activity， called “Use Environmental Print to Make a Dictionary”， is designed to promote young learners English literacy development. The target group is the third grade of kindergarten children. According to Goodman （1986）， 80% of five-year-old children have the ability to read environmental print in its certain context， such as popular logos of food and drink or clothes brands.

Before launching this activity， some materials are needed to prepare beforehand. The first step is to ask children to collect five favorite environmental prints a booklet， which will be used to make the “dictionary”. In the class， the teacher asks children to form a learning group and give them certain time to share their environmental prints with their partners. Every child needs to introduce his/her print cut to their group mates， including explaining “what is it” or “what can we find it”. The teacher will supervise and give them possible help. In this way， children may have more opportunities to be exposed to English input through sharing. After the sharing session， children will be encouraged to paste each environmental print in each page of the booklet to form a “dictionary”. They can draw something relevant to the certain print. The teacher collects all the dictionaries and put them in the reading corner. Children can read other “dictionary” during the class break. Gradually， it will enhance their English language input and trigger childrens learning interest， which will lay a foundation of their English literacy acquisition.

5. Conclusion

Although this activity may still have shortcomings， similar activities can be applied to enhance the development of childrens early literacy. Teachers should adjust the activity properly according to childrens actual situation. Based on the availability of environment prints surrounded by children， teachers should take the advantage of these worthy resources to carry out relevant activities to fulfill this language gap. Childrens early literacy acquisition cannot be neglected as it has significant effects on their latter academic performance.

References：

[1]Bardige，B.，&Segal;，M.Building literacy with love[M].Washington， D.C.Press，2005.

[2]Kuby，L.，&Aldridge;，J.Leaning about environment print through picture books[J].Early Childhood Education Journal，1996，24（1）：33-36

[3]Goodman，Y.M.Emergent literacy： Writing and reading[J].Norwood， NJ：Ablex，1986.

[4]Yin，L.，& Anderson，R.Stages in Chinese Childrens Reading of English Words[J].2005.