Playgrounds of language: the role of agency in the development of literacy

It is accepted that the development of competent literacy skills in very young children is contingent upon high quality interactions involving language and communication in a variety of contexts. As authors, we argue that taking such a view requires an understanding that children are competent and capable communicators from birth. Such understanding is integral to conceptualising how the skills of language and metacognition that contribute to the development of literacy actually play out 'in the real'. This paper uses data from interviews and videotaped observation of young children and their families in their socio-cultural contexts. Rogoffs (1998, 2003) planes of analysis are used to unpack this data, as a means of informing epistemological understanding about how socio-cultural contexts constrain or enable children as successful in the formal learning context. It is argued that taken-for-granted understandings of how children learn can actually delimit rather than enhance their capacity to develop sound literacy skills