Family Influence on Early Literacy

This assignment delves into the profound impact of family on a child's early literacy development. The author recounts personal experiences and those of their sibling, emphasizing how parents fostered a rich learning environment from infancy. This includes teaching rhymes, alphabets, and basic literary concepts. The author underscores the significance of parental involvement in nurturing literacy skills from an early age and advocates for families to prioritize this aspect of their children's education.

Running head: LITERACIES
Literacies
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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An understanding of theoretical principles and recent developments in literacy research in
a variety of social, global, historical and technological contexts.
Background
Traditional learning is the most easily known and accepted form of learning that is followed in
large scale everywhere. Traditional learning however has no proper definition. It can thus be
assumed that traditional learning or traditional education is a kind of scenario where the learners
or the students are seated in a classroom with desks listening to the teacher (Lilly & Green,
2004).
The teacher is standing at the center delivering a lecture on any lesson. The lecture is to
be completed within a stipulated time period. It is after the completion of the lesson that the
students complete assignments related to this topic.
Objective
The objective of this paper is to see how literacy is imbibed with the society through traditional
learning. It talks about the large number of theories that explains the range of approaches in
literacy (Wang, 2017).
These different approaches can be used in the day to day concepts of life to see the used
of literacy. The objective is to see how the different approaches of traditional learning are being
used in the Historical, social, technological and global context.
Key issues
The key issues related to the concern of education and literacy is largely seen in the
present day context. Literacy must be inculcated within each and every one of the society.

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Without proper literacy, life is very much difficult in the present day scenario. Proper rate of
literacy will promote the well being of all the individuals at the personal and finally at the
societal and universal level as well. The best way of imbibing this literacy among the society is
through the method of traditional learning. However it must be noted that each and every family
must clearly understand their roles in imparting literacy within their children, this is because of
the fact that charity behind at home. In other words, the initial form of learning is considered to
be a natural process and all the individuals tend to learn from their surroundings and their elders.
So, it is the duty of all the family members to provide a rich educational background to all the
children right from their early years of learning.
Social context
The social context mainly talks about the different ways in which literacy is used in
the social ecosystem of which it is a part of. One of the good examples can be seen in schools
when the teacher might ask the students to write a letter (Li, 2010). This will make the students
discuss among themselves what exactly the school might want to see in this letter. This will
encourage the promotion of socially accepted issues like managing relationship with schools.
Any and every classroom learning must take place following the situated social practice as
below:
Literacy has also become one of the major concerns in the present day global context (Godwin et
al., 2013). A very common feature seen in many of the international campaigns and conferences
is how to eradicate the rate of illiteracy. This is done for many purposes. One is in order to
remove the language barriers that often limit the scope of growth of many communities.

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Historical context
Literacy also has played a major role in the historical context. It is seen that in a
classroom teaching session, a teacher usually encounters students coming from so many different
backgrounds. They might face several problems in understanding in communicating in one
particular language owing to their historical or linguistic differences (Lilly & Green, 2004).
Technological context
Literacy is also undergoing several changes in the present technological context. It
is becoming much more computerized like emails, blogging, postcards, online shopping and
many more. Literacy is also being used to spread education and awareness on different
technological platforms like the social sites namely face book, twitter, Gmail and many others
(Li, 2003).
Family literacy theory
This theory was coined by Denny Taylor ion the year 1983, in her book called Family
Literacy. This theory is a collection of all the different programs that are designed in order to
make the family members very much involved in the entire learning process (Corson, 1995). In
other words thus theory tries to bring under its influence all the different roles, responsibilities
and the activities that are to be done on the part of the families to create a learning free
environment within their homes.
Maturation theory
This theory emerged in the year 1931. The coiners of this theory were Washburne and
Morphett (Piller, 2016). This theory as the very name suggests was of the belief that the children

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must reach a certain age of maturity before they are instructed with some learning instructions.
This theory suggested the parents that they must start teaching their children to read and write
only after they have reached the age of 6.5 years
Emergent literacy theory
As the very name suggests this theory emerge gradually from the years 2001 to 2012.
This theory mainly focuses to a particular point between the child’s birth and the time when he is
ready to read and write. The believers of this school of thought say that the listening, speaking,
reading and writing skills of a child are all interrelated and they learn all these skills by looking
at or imitating their family members. As these very initial stages of development begin right at
home, the family members must try and make a rich home environment for their children (Apple,
1996).
Cognitive theory
This theory was coined by Piaget in the year 1969. This theory states that there
are different stages over which, the thinking of a child gets modified over the years. These stages
help the teachers to know and understand the different needs of children and the different ways
in which they might acquire the language (Wang, 2017).
The first and the foremost is the family literacy theory which encourages all the family
members of the learners to understand their roles behind imparting the right education to their
children. This theory is linked to the maturation theory as it says how the family must impart the
literacy in their children as per their maturation and not before that. This theory says that the
children become properly matured to acquire the learning not before the age of six years. This
theory again is connected with the emergent literacy theory also talks about the fact that children

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acquire the learning in a step by step process as they emerge from one age to the other. This
again is linked with cognitive theory that states, the thinking capacity of the children changes and
gets modified as per the age. Hence, it is the duty of all the family members to carefully
understand and implement their roles in implementing proper education to their children at the
right time and at the right age. All the above theories finally lead to the theory called contingent
theory which says that the thinking pattern of children change as per their growth and
development. These stages help the teachers to know and understand the different needs of
children and the different ways in which they might acquire the language (Wang, 2017).
Theoretical and empirical literature in literacy research and discuss a range of approaches
to literacy
There can be different takes or different approaches on this process of learning.
These approaches can cause different learning outcomes as well. As for instance, the method of
critical discourse is one. Anything that is critically learnt helps in creating a netter and clear
understanding as it also gives rise to discussions in the social scenarios as well. This theory is
also derived from the contexts of linguistics that is from the scientific study of speech sounds and
also from poststructuralist discourses (Lynn & Morgan, 2017).
Function of literacy in different communities and explore how diverse illiteracies relate to
fair and equitable access to social goods such as education, employment, and welfare or
community participation.
Educational application
The educational application of the theory says that social science has played a major
role in setting forth and also influencing the research direction on education. This theory also

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focuses on the family approaches. In other words, it talks about the different ways and methods
the family can p-lay a major role in the study of language and also in the study of many different
texts from literary theories, the linguistics and also from the philosophy of language and science
(Bruce & Borders, 2015). This theory was mainly applied b y the educators in the post World
War period, to see the errors in the structure of sentences that were used by people. There indeed
was an error that was being made by the second language learners.
Employment welfare
Literacy naturally increases the chances and option of employment. In the modern
day scenario, it is seen that proper education is needed in order to opt for the different
employment opportunities. It is only through proper literacy that the individuals can be made to
realize the importance of a job. Getting educated and employed naturally helps an individual to
secure himself economically and develop an identity of his or own.
Community development
Literacy as a whole helps in developing the community. The general good and
welfare of the community can be promoted only if there is proper rate of literacy among all the
individuals. Literacy helps in getting the people educated and also in becoming much more
logical, just and clear in their decision making and judgment powers. Literacy also enables in
reducing the social evils like gender discrimination, theft, robbery and several others.
Intersection between Literacy and Educational Achievement
Literacy, apart from having educational achievement also have a significant influence
in reducing gaps between people based on social, cultural and racial grounds. No one deserves to

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be humiliated because of one’s’ birth place, caste, gender, or races. After a study being
conducted on Ltinaa community, it was seen that they are strategically placed in schools so that
they can speak with people coming from different linguistic backgrounds and can thus, overcome
the language barriers. Then, there is again discrimination done between men and women.
Though both the Latina men and women are marginalized, but the women are always doubly
dominated. They find a tough time to participate in the California education system because of
their language barriers. They have to negotiate through their racial languages.
Self reflection
I often find around myself that there are people that discriminate between men and
women. This is because of the fact that there is not enough literacy available among all the
classes of the society. One of my bitter experience was when I saw a huge scale of inequality and
injustice being done in a nearby local construction site in terms of the monthly pay to the
workers. Even after working for the same time period, the female workers were given half of
what the male workers were paid. On enquiring, the manager answered me, that it is because
females are tender and are weak and also their mind is not as intelligent as that of the males. So
even if they are working for longer period of time like men, they make lot of mistakes, hence it is
justified to pay them less. For me, the most surprising part was that nobody ever protested
against this practice. This was only because of the fact that those people were illiterate. Hence, I
would say that the only and rather the easiest way or eradicating this kind of senseless and unjust
practice is to increase the chances of literacy.
Apart from this, I also feel that literacy is very much important for proper child development and
child handling. For ensuring this, the families must be educated first. I have seen this very well

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within the context of my family and especially in case of my siblings that there are many stages
in which their thinking capacity have changed over the years. There were many of my uncles and
aunts who started teaching their kids how to read and write at a very early age of almost 4years.
But this did not really have any such fruitful impacts. Rather it often disrupted the mood of the
children. Perhaps this is because of the fact that the children are not matured enough to learn the
art of writing and reading before they reach a certain conventional age. I have seen, on the other
hand that some of my other siblings were quite comfortable with the process of learning at the
age of six. Thus, staying true to the maturity theory, I have seen that children get matured with
age and hence, it must be the duty of their family members to see to it that their children are not
too much pressurized before they reach at a certain age. The other important learning that I have
taken from this literary development theory is based on the emergent theory of literary
development. It suggests that the learning of a child matures as he emerges from the time of his
birth towards his stage of growth and development. This is very much relevant in my case in and
in my brother’s case as well. Right after our birth, our family made sure that we get a rich and
educational home environment within the context of our family itself. I can recollect that my
parents used to teach me the rhymes and alphabets and the basics of learning right from the early
years. This has really been very much helpful when I first started going to school. I remember
my play school days, I could very easily relate to the lessons that were taught in the class by my
teacher and same was the scenario in my younger brother’s case as well. I also made sure that I
can provide a rich home environment during the initial childhood years of my brother. I started
interacting with him based on the basic literary stuffs after he reached a certain conventional age.
This also proved to be a great help for him during his initial school days.
Take home message

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It is from here, that I would suggest it to all the families that they must be very much
well aware about their responsibilities towards the literacy development of their children.
Learning is a very natural process that starts right from the very young and tender ages of every
individual. Hence I would suggest that special care be taken by the family of each and every
child, in order to inculcate the lessons of literacy within the children right from the early ages of
their childhood.

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References
Apple M W (1996) Cultural Politics in Education, Teachers College Press, New York
Corson D (ed.) (1995) Discourse and Power in Educational Organizations, Hampton Press,Creskill,
New Jersey
Godwin, E., Herb, B., Ricketts, A. & Wymer, S. (2013). Theories of Literacy Development 1930s –
Present Day. Available at http//:hillerspires.wikispaces.com/file/view/Theories%
Hull, G. A., & Hernandez, G. (2008). Literacy. In B. Spolsky, et al. (Eds.), The Handbook of
Educational Linguistics (pp. 328-340). Malden, MA and Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Li, G. (2003). Literacy, Culture, and Politics of Schooling: Counter narratives of a Chinese Canadian
Family. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 34(2), 182-204.
Li, G. (2010). Race, Class, and Schooling: Multicultural Families Doing the Hard Work of Home
Literacy in America's Inner City. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 26(2), 140-165.
Lilly, E. & Green, C. (2004). Developing Partnerships with Families through Children’s Literature.
Boston: Pearson Allyn Bacon Prentice Hall
Lynn, Morgan, (2017). "Latina Identities, Critical Literacies, and Academic Achievement inCommunity
College" Doctoral Dissertations. 923. <http://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/923>
Piller, I. (2016). Linguistic Diversity in Education. Linguistic Diversity and Social Justice: An
Introduction to Applied Sociolinguistics (pp. 98-129). New York: Oxford University Press.

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Wang, X. (2017). Transnational Chinese Students’ Literacy and Networking Practices. Journal of
Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 60(6), 687-696.