Literacy Education in Kindergarten Classrooms

A survey of literature regarding contemporary thought in early literacy acquisition reveals a strong focus upon emergent literacy. Emergent literacy theory asserts that literacy concepts are being developed at virtually all ages. Knowledge of communication functions and forms are being learned as an individual listens and speaks, and makes transactions with print. Life experiences, as well, affect the ways in which we will interpret communicative episodes. All of these are developing as an individual experiences life. No longer do early literacy theorists associate the onset of literacy learning with an age or stage (Raines and Canady, 1990). Literacy acquisition is a lifelong endeavor, emerging as early as when a child first comes into contact with printed forms (Teale and Sulzby, 1989)