Early Child Development and Care

ISSN: 0300-4430 (Print) 1476-8275 (Online) Journal homepage: https://tandfonline.com/loi/gecd20

Literacy and language: new developments in

research, theory, and practice

Olivia N. Saracho

To cite this article: Olivia N. Saracho (2017) Literacy and language: new developments in
research, theory, and practice, Early Child Development and Care, 187:3-4, 299-304, DOI:
10.1080/03004430.2017.1282235

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EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CARE, 2017
VOL. 187, NOS. 3–4, 299–304
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2017.1282235

EDITORIAL

Literacy and language: new developments in research, theory, and

practice

The importance of the early years in the young children’s lives and the rigid literacy achievement
inequality among all children (e.g. different economic levels, ages, abilities, disabilities, cultures)
that presently exist provide both a stimulating and amazing time for Early Child Development and
Care to publish a special issue on research in young children’s language and literacy and develop-
ment. The present period of accountability in the early childhood classrooms with the No Child
Left Behind Act (2001) places a perplexing amount of demands on early childhood education teachers
and a transformation in disseminating information, using computers, and social media technologies
that have gained access to all segments of society makes this issue essential. Many perceive that the
early childhood classroom is a weak substitute for the world of games, chat rooms, virtual worlds, and
other electronic media. Social and sociological energies persist to rise from contemporary types of
media, diverse cultures and languages, concerns about security, instabilities in the global ecology,
unreliable economies, and conflicts. Research motivates early childhood education and other disci-
plines (e.g. child development, psychology, educational psychology, other related fields) to continue
changing. These disciplines need to sustain their scientific reliability in the constant challenges of the
modern time. It is essential that these disciplines examine, improve, and refine theories related to
research in young children’s language and literacy development. Early childhood education settings
are complex, which require them to have an easy stability between the methodological rigour in the
research designs and studying children in natural, acceptable, and valid learning settings. Some inter-
disciplinary teams conduct early childhood education studies that deviate in methodological pro-
cedures among disciplines. Nevertheless, each scientific undertaking has both a resilient empirical
groundwork and a persuasive analytical rationalization for research and practical applications.
Throughout the evolution of the special issue of Early Child Development and Care, all of these prin-
ciples were kept in mind. The manuscripts reported new data and empirical analyses that advanced
theory of language and literacy. Researchers used different methodologies in conducting their study,
but they had both a sound empirical underpinning and a captivating analytical rationalization of the
results. Researchers used several methodological methods (e.g. quantitative, qualitative) that fully
described format (1) ‘the complete concept of the study, (2) the achievement of the study, and (3)
the description of the study’ (Jalongo & Saracho, 2016, p. 134) in an appropriate manner based on
the study’s methodology. The manuscripts included a range of topics such as dual language learners,
second language learners, Latino immigrant children, children who have hearing disabilities, parents’
and teachers’ beliefs about language development, early literacy skills of toddlers, shared book
reading, language and literacy interventions, multimodalities in early literacies, writing and early lit-
eracy development, Reggio Emilia, family literacy, and many others. Studies were conducted in
various early childhood settings such as child care, nursery school, Head Start, kindergarten, and
primary grades. The subjects in the studies represented the pluralism of the globe – it is a pluralism
of language, backgrounds, ethnicity, abilities, and disabilities.
Gathered in this volume are results of studies and researchers’ ideas that describe how (1) the chil-
dren acquire language and literacy and (2) their knowledge in language and literacy progress from
infancy through the preschool years and to the early years of school. Based on the results of the
studies, all authors offer research and practical applications in early childhood education. Researchers
can use the studies in the special issue to conduct future studies that contribute to theory, while
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
300 EDITORIAL

practitioners can use the studies’ results to promote and support the children’s language and literacy
in their classrooms.
This special issue of Early Child Development and Care was a joint effort of an editorial team
working together to develop a high quality special volume on research in language and literacy.
The team consisted of the journal’s (Early Child Development and Care) editor, Roy Evans; Guest
Editor, Olivia N. Saracho; and reviewers. Both the editor and guest editor supervised the manuscript
review and revision process to ensure that the studies were based on a sound theoretical framework.

Theoretical frameworks transformations

This special issue is grounded on the profound transformations that have occurred in the fields of
early childhood education, child development, psychology, language arts, emergent literacy, and lit-
eracy education. Initially, the conservative understanding of the field was that children under six years
of age should not be provided with formal reading instruction. Currently, as suggested in this special
issue, research and theory propose that from the beginning, young children need to actively be
involved in language development experiences that will ultimately guide these children to
become proficient readers. Instead of delaying instruction until young children mature, they can
be provided with developmentally appropriate instruction that corresponds to the children’s devel-
opmental level that helps them acquire new proficiency in both oral and written language.
Reforms in the sources of early childhood practice have modified the field of early childhood edu-
cation. They involve transformations in (1) developmental theories associated with language, literacy,
and cognition, (2) children in early childhood settings, and (3) the nature of language and literacy
instruction. Each of these is briefly described in the following sections to provide a perspective for
the contents in this special issue.

Developmental theory
Initially, early childhood education teachers were frequently forbidden to offer any print material in
the classroom, because it was assumed that this material would only pressure children to start
reading prematurely or frustrate the children who were not yet ‘ready’ to read. The traditional knowl-
edge of that period was that children would only be prepared to learn how to read when they
reached the mental age of six- and one half years. This was based on a classic study of the 1930s
by Morpell and Washburne (1931) and Arnold Gesell’s (1940) theories on a maturationist view of
development. Throughout his professional life, Gesell (1940) searched for the children’s progressive
norms that would explain the progression of their development. His theory indicated that develop-
ment depends on maturation. Effective instruction should follow this developmental sequence. Any
type of instruction that is introduced prematurely would cause the children to be disillusioned and
frustrated. The children’s readiness for learning needs to be identified prior to presenting instruction.
Based on the results of these studies, before beginning formal reading instruction, the children’s
readiness was assessed through several reading readiness tests and direct observations.
Prior to the 1960’s, limited studies had examined pre-first grade literacy. Then in the 1960s studies
started to surface addressing the reading readiness paradigm and the outdated belief that literacy
development occurred through formal reading instruction in school. Later, Durkin’s (1966) study
showed that children were reading earlier than first grade and that the reading readiness paradigm
was theoretically and rationally inappropriate. Other researchers supported Durkin’s results. Clay
(1975) was one of the researchers who supported these results and proposed that the term ‘emer-
gent literacy’ be used rather than ‘reading readiness’ (Clay, 1966). She stated that no result ‘suggests
that contact with printed language forms should be withheld from a five-year-old child on the ground
that he is immature’ (Clay, 1975, p. 24).
The 1970s and early 1980s groundbreaking studies were conducted to examine the children’s
early language and literacy development as well as the reassessment of the concept of reading
 EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CARE 301

readiness. Language and literacy researchers proposed a reconceptualization of the process that chil-
dren experience from birth to the time when they are able to read and write, which addresses Clay’s
(1966) proposed term ‘emergent literacy.’ The emergent literacy concept extended throughout the
1980s and 1990s as part of developmentally appropriate practice (DAP; Copple & Bredekamp,
2009) that focused on providing young children with developmentally appropriate experiences for
their literacy learning [International Reading Association (now called the International Literacy Associ-
ation (ILA) & The National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1998].
Later developmental theories had a drastic change when researchers began to use Jean Piaget’s
(1947, 1951) research for their theoretical framework. He found that children used their experiences
to construct their knowledge based on several developmental levels, which were greatly influenced
by maturational factors. Instead of offering experiences that would help children progress to
advanced levels of development, it was better to match the children’s experiences to their existing
levels of development. The children’s educational experiences need to be ‘developmentally appropri-
ate’ (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009); they should not be ‘hurried’ (Elkind, 1981). Even when the proposed
instructional approaches for young children might vary, Piagetian theory continued to recommend
that instruction should correspond to the children’s levels of development. Intriguingly, Piagetian
theory drastically influenced early childhood methods in mathematics and science, but it moderately
affected language and literacy instruction. Hence, the ‘reading readiness’ method of the earlier period
continued, but it was later modified with new theories.
During the 1960s and 1970s developmental theories continue to change based on L. S. Vygotsky’s
(1962, 1978) social development theory. The main concept of the theory is that how individuals inter-
act with others and their culture affects their mental abilities. Vygotsky’s work was mainly unknown to
the West until it was published in 1962. He distinguishes between ‘natural’ and ‘cultural’ develop-
ment. Cultural development permits individuals to learn systems of cultural behaviour, including
means of reasoning. Language and literacy development is a structure of cultural development,
which is part of a socio-historic framework. The forms of knowledge that are generated within the
culture contribute to the children’s learning. They are also transmitted from those who are more
refined to those who are less refined in a culture, such as adults transmit knowledge to older children
who then transmit it to younger children.
The ‘zone of proximal development (ZPD)’ is a fundamental concept in Vygotsky’s theory. It is the
region outside of the children’s achievement abilities where children need assistance. This type of
assistance is considered to be providing ‘scaffolding’ or helping children to progress forward. Since
this type of learning is beyond the children’s developmental levels, it expands their development.
Therefore, Vygotsky’s theory improves the children’s development instead of following it. His work con-
tributed to early childhood education, especially in the area of language and literacy. This understand-
ing of development has profoundly guided contemporary interpretations of language and literacy
education, as observed in the articles in this special issue. The children’s language and literacy
emerge early in their lives and continue to develop for an extended period of time. Their early literacy
experiences before formal reading instruction can affect their later reading achievement.
This literacy concept is an evolving practice that is promoted through language and literacy
experiences such as literacy-related play, shared story reading, and other related literacy experiences.
Reading, writing, speaking, and listening need to be effectively merged into the children’s language
and literacy programme.

Populations in school settings

The children in the schools experience an ethnic turmoil as growing quantities of cultural and linguis-
tic diverse children are in the schools. Such children are considered to be ‘at-risk.’ The at-risk term
refers to the children’s problems in practical language competency rather than their lack of ability
to learn linguistic practices. Unfortunately, outdated methods in teaching language and literacy con-
tinue to keep these children at risk of later school failure.
302 EDITORIAL

Several of these young children who first attend school may discover that their language and
culture at home vary from the one that is used by the teachers, schools, and books. This dissimilarity
may cause young children to respond to the instructional situation based on their cultural level

Level 1. (Lowest level): Students become confused when they experience a drastic difference
between the two languages and cultures.
Level 2. Students deny their language and culture, pretending that their language and culture is the
same as the school’s.
Level 3. Students adapt to those new or different customs in the culture in which they perceive to
have more advance patterns. Therefore, children will assess each language and culture to
adapt only the best patterns or customs to make them their own.
Level 4. (Highest level): Students are able to make the transition back and forth from one language
and culture to another language and culture (Saracho, 1986, pp. 53–54).

Young children whose culture and language differ from the ones in the school encounter func-
tional language difficulties, such as differences in using language to communicate for various pur-
poses. Language and literacy methods of instruction need to reflect the children’s language
proficiency to assist them in becoming bilingual and biliterate. Therefore, language and literacy
approaches need to be modified to make them appropriate for these young children when
necessary.

Literacy instruction
Practically from the beginning of formal schooling in America, disagreement has existed on ways to
teach reading. Different reading methods have been used for each time period. Several practitioners
preferred whole word methodology, where children memorized the words and then looked at the
words and identified them. Others preferred the phonics methods where children learned to
sound out each letter in a word to identify the word. Each method had its advocates and its pro-
portion of successes and failures. When some children continued to fail in learning to read, prac-
titioners and criticizers persisted in asking, ‘Why Johnny can’t read’ (Flesch, 1955, 1988).
The concern for improving the success of school children in learning to read has led increasingly in
the last decade to suggestions that formal reading instruction should begin earlier, moving that
instruction from the primary grades down into the kindergarten and preprimary grades, which is
not considered to be developmentally appropriate. The uneasiness for developing the success of
school children in learning how to read has been directed more and more to watering down
initial formal reading instruction to kindergarten and the preprimary grades. This major curriculum
position attracted the attention of various professional organizations such as the International
Reading Association (now International Literacy Association, LRA) and National Association of the
Education of Young Children (NAEYC). These organizations believe that learning to read and write
is essential to the children’s success in school and future years. The greatest indicator of their
ability to achieve in school is the degree to which the children develop in language, reading, and
writing. While reading and writing capabilities develop throughout the young children’s life span,
the period from birth through eight years of age is the furthermost significant period for their literacy
development. This is the reason that IRA and NAEYC joined forces to develop a position statement in
relation to the young children’s acquisition of literacy using ‘developmentally appropriate practices’
when teaching young children to read and write. In 1998, IRA and NAEYC (1998) approved a position
statement on young children’s literacy development that supported that literacy be taught according
to a progression of the children’s literacy development irrespective of age. Developmentally appro-
priate practice utilizes child development theory to encourage teaching that emphasizes the young
children’s individual progress and learning based on their developmental areas in a way that speaks
to ‘the social and cultural contexts’ in which they live (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009, p. 10).
 EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND CARE 303

Table 1. Levels in children’s development of reading and writing: from infancy through third grade.
Phase Level Grade
1 Awareness and exploration Infancy through preschool
2 Experimental reading and writing Kindergarten
3 Early reading and writing First
4 Transitional reading and writing Second
5 Independent and productive reading and writing Third
Source: International Reading Association [IRA] & National Association of the Education of Young Children [NAEYC] (2009).

The development of current theories on acquisition of language and literacy guides the present
transformation of reading instruction. Emergent literacy has been replaced for the concept of
reading readiness. The recognition that all language abilities must be balanced has helped merge
children’s literacy-related play, literature, and shared storybook reading within literacy instruction.
Cultivating competent, literate children during their early childhood years is essential before introdu-
cing them to formal reading instruction. This component has guided the family literacy movement.
Families and early childhood education teachers need to be sensitive to the way they teach language
and literacy. They need to know developmentally appropriate literacy strategies and activities that
integrate literacy-related play, writing, story reading, creative dramatics, art, and any content area.
Teachers need to know the children’s cultural and linguistic knowledge, their child rearing styles,
and how to set up effective physical and social classroom environments. They need to be active in
their professional development to keep up to date with current professional knowledge.
Teachers are encouraged to offer young children instruction that corresponds to their develop-
mental level, cultural level, and ability level in both oral and written language. Table 1 presents
the levels in the children’s development.
Such interpretations contributed to the transformations in developmental theories related to lit-
eracy, language, and cognition. The teachers’ ability to understand diverse populaces that are found
in their classrooms can help them provide developmentally appropriate literacy instruction to all
children.
NAEYC promised to provide resources to early childhood education teachers that they can use to
assist young children to become literate and motivate them to read and write for enjoyment, infor-
mation, and communication. Teaching practices must be appropriate, effective, and focus on the
young children’s developmental attributes, culture, language, and specific learning needs. They
need to learn through different, research-based teaching techniques that will support the young chil-
dren’s language and literacy development. NAEYC and IRA (2009) report the following research out-
comes that need to be considered:

. Children take their first critical steps toward learning to read and write very early in life.
. Children do not become literate automatically; careful planning and instruction are essential.
. Ongoing assessment of children’s knowledge and skills helps teachers plan effective instruction.
. No one teaching method or approach is likely to be effective for all children, at all times.
. As children move from preschool into kindergarten and the primary grades, instruction focused on
phonemic awareness, letter recognition, segmenting words into sounds, and decoding printed
text will support later reading competence.
. Children who are learning English as a second language will become literate more easily if they
have a strong foundation in their home language (NAEYC & IRA, 2009).

Conclusion
Over the years, early childhood education has endured recurring curriculum transformation. Major
modifications have occurred in the area of language and literacy. Early childhood researchers and
304 EDITORIAL

practitioners need to be cognizant of these changes. They must improve the knowledge and skills
required to sustain an early childhood education programme that focuses and addresses the
young children’s needs in present society.
The development of theories in language learning modified how children were taught literacy.
The reading readiness paradigm was substituted with the concept of emergent literacy. The early
childhood years before introducing children to formal literacy instruction is viewed as critical in devel-
oping competent and literate children. All early childhood education teachers, at all levels, are con-
sidered to be literacy teachers, even before children participate in formal reading instruction. Instead
of forcing formal reading instruction on children who are not developmentally ready for this instruc-
tion in the preprimary grades, teachers need to use contemporary methods that focus on the young
children’s language abilities to provide experiences that will lead them to become more competent
readers in their later years.
This special issue has studies related to the critical skills, environments, and adult interactions that
contribute to young children’s language and literacy development. The studies take into account the
contemporary theoretical reforms that have emerged in the language and literacy education of
young children.

References
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Durkin, D. (1966). Children who read early: Two longitudinal studies. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Elkind, D. (1981). The hurried child. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
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Olivia N. Saracho
University of Maryland
ons@umd.edu