Literacy Aquisition

Literacy Aquisition

1. Neuroscience

   • Visual Word Form Area (Brain's 'letterbox')
     • responds to words we don't recognise
     • Primates recognise shapes/alphabets
       • Similar visualisations in all writing systems -natural visual scenes
       • See these as the same letter
   • Evolution
     • Neuronal Recycling
   • 2 Month Old Infants can recognise MT
     • Shapes trigger responses in area of brain prior to literacy
     • Unlearning Mirror Invariance
       • B and D / Q and P
       • Breaking MI is one of the Key Stages in Literacy
       • Should occur by age 10
   • Illiterate Adults
     • impact of literacy on brain is massive
       • visual word system/visual word form
       • Increased activation to all stimuli including face recognition
   • Children begin to read independent of orientation
     • Mirror competence slowly disappears
       • remains in illiterate adults
   • Literacy enhances our behaviour
     • Shapes can be treated as identical or different
   • Literacy enhances speech processing
     • Writing is a substitute for speech - same brain functions
     • Best readers use less brain activity except in auditory area
     • Phonemes and Graphemes
       • Illiterate adults cannot hear same letters in different words
     • Doubling of brain activity
     • Neurocircuitry converges gradually between L1 and L2

2. Second Language

   • L1 literacy benefits L2
   • Greater L1 and L2 differences make learning more difficult
     • Use of language in the home
       • Exposure to print

3. Stages of Literacy

   • Fundamental
   • Proficiency
   • skilled literacy
   • automaticity
     • Independent Reading
   • Fluidity
   • Working Memory
     • manipulate, recall, retrieve, maintain
   • Vocabulary depth is key (not quantity)

4. Milestones in Childhood

   • visual development until 10 years

5. Role of Teachers

   • Supervision
   • Time management
   • Students occupied all the time
   • manuals/guides

6. Orthography

   • African languages are consistent/easier to learn
   • English/French more complex and more difficult to acquire
     • 'Anglocentric' research
   • Consistency

7. Language

   • Psychological
   • Cultural
   • Political
   • Educational
   • Community value

8. Classroom considerations

   • Textbooks
     • Font size 24
       • Perceptual Learning
     • minimal illustrations
     • Word repetition/gradually built
     • Bilingual
     • Double spaced
     • Colour
     • letter by letter instruction
   • Pattern detection/Blackboard
     • spatial attention

9. World Bank 100 days strategy

   • Basic reading in L1
   • Grade 2 bridging strategy
   • Letter shapes and sounds
   • Decoding strategy
   • Results (Cambodia)
   • Reaction times ICT
   • USAID Egypt