Professional development to enhance children's literacy skills

The thesis examines early reading and readers, and introduces the whole language approach to reading as one of the possible ways to develop reading literacy. The theoretical part presents a review of literacy, history of reading instruction, and current issues in reading instruction. It also places the role of literacy development in the context of the Framework Education Programme for Basic Education in the Czech Republic. Moreover, the results of reading literacy studies in the Czech Republic are summarized in the first part ofthe thesis. The second section ofthe theoretical part dosely looks at the background of the whole language approach to reading and its princip les. Specific examples oť its application in reading instruction are provided. The research part oť the thesis then studies the professional development needs oť primary school teachers when implementing the whole language approach into practice in order to develop reading literacy