Literacy Learning for Aboriginal Children and Phonics in Australia

This essay delves into the complexities of literacy learning for Aboriginal children in Australia, examining the challenges and potential solutions. It highlights the importance of addressing cultural and linguistic differences, emphasizing the need for family-school partnerships and community involvement to foster positive learning environments. The essay explores various approaches to literacy, including phonics and whole language, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and also touches upon the blended learning approach. It stresses the significance of early intervention and the need for educators to adapt their methods to meet the diverse needs of Aboriginal children. The essay references various studies and initiatives aimed at improving literacy outcomes and advocates for a holistic approach that considers the unique circumstances of Aboriginal communities.

Running head: LITERACY LEARNING FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND PHONICS
Literacy learning for aboriginal children and Phonics
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Complexities of literacy learning for Aboriginal children and measures for supporting
positive literacy in them:
Literacy learning has been a major issue in the social scenario of Australia singe ages.
Various measures and initiatives have been undertaken to remove such disparities existing in the
social scenario of the country. However, the process of eliminating the difference in rendering
education to the children and closing the gap that prevails among them has been significantly
slow. The prevention of children to nurture proper learning from such an early age affects their
future negatively. Thus, collaboration of education system with the communities of the children
and their families helps to develop the child in a proper way.
There are various complexities in the literacy learning of the aboriginal children in
Australia (Klieve & Fluckiger, 2015). The opinions and perspectives of the people are mostly
undervalued and not addressed properly, compared to the mainstream communities. Since an
early age, the children use a different accent and language that makes them unable to understand
the common language used for education and learning. The cultural difference also acts as
barriers for the children that make learning ineffective. The members of the immediate family of
these children need to realize the importance of literacy learning for their children so that they
are influenced to enlighten the kids. The children residing in the remote areas also fail to access
the educational facilities that are generally provided in the main cities.
Considering the concern of increasing literacy learning for the aboriginal children,
various methods have been adopted. It is found that children are more active in learning when
their parents are engaged in the process. Thus, partnership between the parents and schools have
been emphasized by programs like PaL and Mums n Buds that enacts the belief of DEEWR to

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improve the literacy learning in aboriginal and indigenous children, thereby increasing their rate
of participation in education and schools (Fluckiger, Diamond & Jones, 2012). Preschool
teachers also interact effectively with the mothers of the aboriginal children for their concern and
support who now promote literacy in the lives of their children. The courage of these women is
rendering progress and development of literacy learning of the aboriginals. They are engaging
the children to learn standard Australian English that serves as the basis for the learning process
(Australiancurriculum.edu.au, 2018). The approach to promote power in the communities than
power over them has been proving very effective for these groups of people. Participation,
knowledge building and decision-making processes are developing the activities working to
promote learning in these groups (Hill, Glover & Colbung, 2011). Transparency in organizations
with clear visions and missions to identify the aboriginals as nothing different would help to
improve the situations. Development of proper school learning with no judgmental differences in
looking at children belonging from different communities and initiations of greater family-school
partnerships make the learning process for the children more effective (Maher & Bellen, 2015).
Public libraries also have a good influence to promote better learning facilities to the children
hailing from different backgrounds. Focusing on the vocabulary of the children from an early age
and improving their reading skills in order to access the library on their own also helps to fight
the competencies. Setting preschools in different parts of the country and proving bus services to
make the children reach to the mainstream areas to pursue education are some basic
considerations that are needed to promote literacy for the aboriginals living in the remote places.
Various events are held to influence the people residing in the corners of the country to realize
the need of education to be served to children from a preliminary stage that would foster their
bright future and help to combat the challenges to a significant extent.

3LITERACY LEARNING FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND PHONICS
Considering the various aspects of literacy learning in aboriginal children of Australia
and the challenges that are faced in promoting education to them, it can be analyzed that there
are more initiatives to be undertaken to bring all of them under the canopy of getting educated
and enlightened. The indigenous people are recently found to have admired and participated in
the processes to bring in a change and develop the future of their kids, which clearly indicates a
success of the aim to promote literacy learning to every child, irrespective of their culture and
background.
Advantages and disadvantages of phonics and whole language approaches for reading and
a brief study on the Blended approach of study:
The reading strategies that are taught to children to determine the incorporation of parts
of language to create a meaning is known as the whole language approach in literacy methods
(Vaish, 2014). It serves to be the basis of effective reading and phonetics play a very crucial part
in the approach (Campbell, 2015). Phonetic approach is the effective method of teaching and
learning based on the alphabets and the associated sounds of them (Turk et al., 2014). It acts as
the primary method to ensure knowledge of letters in children who becomes able to identify
them and decode words accordingly. However, there are various advantages and disadvantages
of the approaches that are discussed below.
The approach helps to develop the spelling of the children from an early age. It renders
confidence to the children who become able to identify words and decode them. The main
problem regarding phonetics is not every word is spelled phonetically. Another disadvantage is
through this approach; the children often easily read the sentences but fail to understand the
meaning of them. Students even often fail to spell words properly having improper phonic

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instructions. The potential of each child differs from each other. Thus, the approach may not be
evident for all the children who may find difficulties in the approach of learning.
Thus, educators for the young children integrate different approaches of teaching. English
orthography is the alphabetic spelling system of the English language. A depth of knowledge in
English orthography is very effective for teachers that help them to understand and respond to
young children’s reading and writing ways. Young children do not have a sense of phonics, thus
they must be given opportunities to talk and communicate freely, go through variety of words in
picture-story books, see and writing practice on regular basis, reciting rhymes together and
teaching them to identify alphabets and sounds together enable the kids to learn the language
effectively. All the children develop better learning if the teaching sequence for them is the
same (Block & Duke, 2015). Instead of making the process of learning complex and complicated
for the small kids, there must be a sense of joy in the learning process.
In the 21st century, the blended learning is gaining momentum that uses e-learning
methods and modern technologies for the process of learning (Hornsby & Wilson, 2014). The
approach of learning is very effective for both the teachers and the students. It is delved in online
methods and deviates from the traditional physical classroom environment. However, it is not
very applicable to the young kids who need the individual care and face-to-face
acknowledgement from their educators that smoothen and develop their learning abilities largely.
Thus, a whole language approach serve to the basic with the phonics-based methods of learning
that teach the children to decode words and learn spelling in a better and integrated way.

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References:
Australiancurriculum.edu.au. (2018). English. [online] Available at:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/english/curriculum/f-10?layout=1 [Accessed 15
Mar. 2018].
Block, M. K., & Duke, N. K. (2015). Letter names can cause confusion and other things to know
about letter-sound relationships. YC Young Children, 70(1), 84.
Campbell, S. (2015). Feeling the pressure: Early childhood educators' reported views about
learning and teaching phonics in Australian prior-to-school settings. Australian Journal
of Language and Literacy, The, 38(1), 12.
Fluckiger, B., Diamond, P., & Jones, W. (2012). Yarning space: Leading literacy learning
through family-school partnerships. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(3), 53.
Hill, S., Glover, A., & Colbung, M. (2011). My favourite book!: young Aboriginal children's
book choices. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 36(1), 77.
Hornsby, D., & Wilson, L. (2014). Early literacy is more than phonics. Practically
Primary, 19(3), 12.
Klieve, H., & Fluckiger, B. (2015). Towards an evidence base: Exploring the impact of
community-based literacy programs in remote Indigenous communities. Australasian
Journal of Early Childhood, 40(2), 89.
Maher, M., & Bellen, L. (2015). Smoothing children’s transition into formal schooling:
Addressing complexities in an early literacy initiative in remote Aboriginal communities,
Northern Territory, Australia. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(1), 9-17.

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McTurk, N., Lea, T., Robinson, G., Nutton, G., & Carapetis, J. R. (2011). Defining and assessing
the school readiness of indigenous Australian children. Australasian Journal of Early
Childhood, 36(1), 69.
Vaish, V. (2014). Whole language versus code-based skills and interactional patterns in
Singapore’s early literacy program. Cambridge Journal of Education, 44(2), 199-215.