ECCDD202A: Complexities in Literacy & Teaching Approaches for Kids

This essay critically examines the complexities of literacy learning for Aboriginal children, highlighting barriers such as lack of cultural knowledge among teachers, poor health, sociological factors, and dialectal differences. It explores methods for supporting positive literacy outcomes, including bilingual education, the RATE program, and community partnerships. The essay also discusses the advantages and disadvantages of phonics and whole language approaches to teaching reading, advocating for a blended approach that combines online and classroom teaching. It emphasizes the importance of cultural sensitivity, community involvement, and innovative teaching methods to improve literacy rates among Aboriginal children, concluding that a multifaceted approach is necessary to address the unique challenges they face.

Running head: LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
COMPLEXITIES OF LITERACY LEARNING FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN AND
EVALUATION OF PHONICS AND WHOLE LANGUAGE APPROACHES TO TEACHING.
Name of Student:
Name of University:
Author’s Note:

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
Introduction
The article critically examines the complexities of literacy learning in aboriginal children,
where various barriers are mentioned concerning it. In addition to different hurdle faced by the
indigenous children, several methods are discussed to support the positive literacy outcome. The
article also reflects the whole language approach and the blended approach. Various advantages
and disadvantages are discussed in relation to this approach. Steps are also highlighted regarding
the facilitation of blended approach as new teaching methods.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
COMPLEXITIES OF LITERACY LEARNING FOR ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
Aboriginal children of Australia are weak in their conventional peer in relation to
literacy. They are not culturally uniform as they have many complex cultures depending on the
place where they grew and develop. One complexity of literacy learning is that teachers lack
knowledge of diverse cultures of indigenous people. It was also stated that due to poor health,
adverse sociological factors and dialectal difference are the influencing reason for low
participation of aboriginal children in education. The result of education for these children has
been a matter of concern. There is limited number of Aboriginal teachers. Hence, they need to
face wider range of cultural difference in school. Aboriginal children's parents are illiterate; thus
does not wish to send their child to learn different culture and language (Glover, & Colbung,
2011). Another barrier of literacy learnings is lack of proper infrastructure. Number of
classrooms to accommodate the students are insufficient. Aboriginal students are not highly
skilled; they are bifurcated according to their kinds which cause low performance of them in
learning. (Maher & Bellen, 2015). Most of the aboriginal children themselves do not wish to
leave their environment and move to another place to develop skills in field of education.
Primary reason for low literacy is that aboriginal student's language is not English. So teaching
material available is great barrier for them. In the system of education, generally, stories are
explained related to white Australian which is no interest for them. The movies that are shown
are not based on their culture, thus cause lack of interest in learning new things. The textbooks
available covers the non-aboriginals is also the reason for the low literacy rate.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
METHODS FOR SUPPORTING POSITIVE LITERACY OUTCOME
Though there are many limitation and complexities in learning of aboriginal students, this
concern has raised an objection to develop plans that supports the positivity of literacy rate in
them. Thus, to remove such barrier bilingual education was started as an innovation by the
department of education, Australia by focusing on the aboriginal teacher literacy. An initiative
program known as RATE PROGRAM (Batchelor’s Remote Area Teacher Education) took place.
One important mean for improving the indigenous Australians education is effective partnership
between the parents, aboriginal teacher and their community for their early participation in
education system and literacy development. Various steps are taken to improve the literacy are
developing a mutual study curriculum and initiate co-teaching managements (Fluckiger,
Diamond & Jones, 2012).
Developing the inclusive child-family system which includes all shared staff, different
cultural curriculum. This help to remove the cultural competence. To enhance the rate of literacy,
sufficient funding is required to build schools as a communal hub, and there is a need to
implement policy and programs related to children learning and growth (McTurk et al., 2011).
Another way to improve the education system among aboriginal students are, parents and
elderly people need to be motivated and encourages to participate in every aspect of education
given to their children (Klieve & Fluckiger, 2015). A key factor for positive outcome of literacy
in them is involvement of aboriginal education officer. Apart from these, for making learning
easy, teachers need to adopt a visual and auditory program of learning called phonics. This will
help students to hear, feel and learn from different style.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF PHONICS AND WHOLE LANGUAGE
APPROACHES TO TEACHING READING.
Whole language approach is the method of teaching in which the students are taught to read by
the mean of phonics (Aydoğan & Akbarov, 2014). This approach prepares students to identify
the primary and core words as an only single word and make them understand the Scriptures
through sounds. Thus, the whole language approach incorporates literacy from all backgrounds.
It has many advantages and disadvantages.
ADVANTAGES:
It helps to build confidence- Through phonics, the students are made to learn with the help of
shapes and audio of the alphabet. This helps them to decode new words in small sounds which
are collaborated to create words (Nakeva von Mentzer et al., 2014).
Help the students with spelling- Students can be made to learn hard spellings with the help of
phonics.
Make students learn fast- With the help of visual representation of the words, students can
pronounce the words correctly; thus, make learning quickly.
Enhance writing- With the phonetic approach, students can write the task easily as because this
include a focus on spellings.
The unfamiliar word can be pronounced- A child can sound out the unacquainted words as
they learn the related words in accord of it.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
Make the symbols recognition easier- Students good in phonics have will be able to recognize
the symbol in a natural way because they are already skilled in phonic awareness.
DISADVANTAGES:
 Phonic does not allow children to break the word naturally into a different sound.
 Phonic often involves reading of many material and worksheet which make it a hectic
process.
 Whole approach pays less attention on word analysis due to which many students are not
able to learn to read.
 Children fail to determine the non-phonetic words because all word of English are not
spelled phonically.
 Though students learn to read the words, they fail in doing comprehension of those
words.
WHY EDUCATORS SHOULD PROVIDE A BLENDED APPROACH AND DESCRIBE
HOW TO FACILITATE THIS.
Blended approach is the combination of online teaching and classroom teaching. Thus, it
involves the use of laboratory equipment, online material and assess to e-learning for education
therefore, making learning fun (Pelatti et al., 2014). Every educator should involve blended
approach as learning program. Blended program often engaged the students in many content
types like video and audio lecture, and presentations are included in this course. This enhances
the whole learning experience. In physical teaching time has always been an issue. Blended
learning generally involves the trainee to make notes online and can assimilate it by their own
time. The approach helps to update the records and altering the material in just one click (Eppich

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
& Cheng, 2015). The test and quiz become easy task through blending approach. It is also
beneficial for students as they can learn and understand thing in an easy manner by getting their
performance feedback in just a fly. To facilitate this, schools should be implemented with
software and computer loaded with all education material and notes (Poon, 2013). Training is
needed by the teacher to accompany the new leaning method.
Conclusion
Lastly, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that aboriginal community are
backward and illiterate so, aboriginal children need new insight for learning which does not hurt
their cultural and further step should arise to enhance their involvement in learning to make them
literate. In regard to whole language approach and blended approach, both are important in their
own way thus need to be incorporated every school and keep in modifying the learning in new
ways.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
Reference
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Fluckiger, B., Diamond, P., & Jones, W. (2012). Yarning space: leading literacy learning through
family--school partnerships. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(3), 53-60.
Glover, A., Hill, S., & Colbung, M. (2011). My favourite book!: young Aboriginal children's
book choices.
Klieve, H., & Fluckiger, B. (2015). Towards an evidence base: Exploring the impact of
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Northern Territory, Australia. Early Childhood Education Journal, 43(1), 9-17.
McTurk, N., Lea, T., Robinson, G., Nutton, G., & Carapetis, J. R. (2011). Defining and assessing
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Childhood, 36(1), 69.

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LANGUAGE AND LEARNING LITERACY IN ABORIGINAL CHILDREN
Nakeva von Mentzer, C., Lyxell, B., Sahlén, B., Dahlström, Ö., Lindgren, M., Ors, M., ... &
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