YASMIN.

29 JULAI 2021

THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING LITERACY IN TEACHING

Literacy often refers to the ability to read and write but the concept of literacy actually
goes beyond that. PISA proposed a definition of literacy as an individual’s capacity to
understand, use and reflect on written texts, in order to achieve one’s goals, to develop one’s
knowledge and potential and to participate in society (Organization for Economic Co-operation
and Development, 2006). Early literacy refers to the development of skills students need in
order to transition from learning to read, to reading to learn. Early literacy has been one of the
most fundamental aspects in teaching English for ESL classrooms. The main concern with
literacy and years of schooling is that children survive long periods of formal education without
acquiring the skills of reading and writing, while others learn to read and write outside the school
system (Elley,1989). This is mainly due to lack of understanding about literacy. Thus, educators
should understand the literacy in teaching early literacy sounds system to the primary ESL
pupils to produce an excellent learner.

First and foremost, teachers should understand literacy in depth in order to be the
excellent primary knowledge resources for pupils. Honestly, young children in primary school
often viewed their teachers as walking resources and most of them only rely on teachers for
their knowledge. In this case, they might bombard teachers with unexpected questions. Thus,
teachers need to equip themselves with tons of knowledge to help them to understand the
lesson. In teaching phoneme blending, teachers who have enough inputs, will be able to
recognize students’ need, strength and weakness. For example, some students, who are slow
learners cannot even distinguish that the grapheme /c/ in cat is represented by the sound, /k/.
Teachers will be able to take quick action such as preparing some remedial materials to make
them understand the phoneme blending. For instance, teachers can conduct ‘Three Fingers’
activity in the classroom in which pupils will put out three fingers and each finger will represent
one phoneme, /s/ + /u/ + /n/ = sun. They will pronounce each phoneme orally. On the other
hand, if the teachers themselves do not even understand the literacy, they would not be able to
encounter the pupils’ problem in phonemic awareness and most likely skip the phonemic
awareness in the teaching and jump straight to teaching them to read because it is easier for
them but this kind of teachers are clearly robbing the pupils as they should take a baby step in
developing reading and literacy skills.
YASMIN. 29 JULAI 2021

Besides, understanding literacy can help teachers to plan appropriate lessons in

incorporating literacy skills into every lesson in a way that is more systematic and structured. In
this scenario, teachers will have a clear direction and a very specific objective for pupils to
master in class. I believe a good teacher is a good learner. As learning a foreign language is
hard enough for young children, the learning session should be interesting and captivating for
them to instil the love to learn English. For example, in teaching phonemic awareness, teachers
need to have a good strategy to introduce primary ESL pupils to phoneme blending. For
example, teachers can introduce rhyming words first such as /pin/ and /tin/ by clapping hands
for each sound, /p/ + /i/ + /n/ = pin and /t/ + /i/ + /n/ = tin. If pupils can blend sounds, they can
see letters in a word, recognize the sounds for each letter, and blend the sounds to pronounce
the word. Another strategy is using nursery rhymes to teach phoneme blending. For example, a
humpty dumpty song. A study by Maclean et al. (1987), young children who were
knowledgeable about nursery rhymes had well-developed phonemic awareness. It is a good
strategy to make them recognize the familiar sounds.

Last but not least, teachers will be able to integrate learning into technology culture and
take advantage of popular trends. In the Age of Technology, teachers, who have sufficient
knowledge about literacy will be able to adapt their lessons with the technology. Teachers can
conduct blending learning in the classroom in which they can combine traditional classroom and
online assessment. There are various online applications that can be used to teach phoneme
blending. One of the most popular games is The Hay Loft. In this blending game, players
practice blending words as they listen to a CVC word said in parts. They match the blended
word to the picture on the hay bale. (Lauren, 2021). Pupils will be able to get the knowledge
indirectly while having fun with the games. Teachers also can present the lesson about
phoneme blending in a colourful Powerpoint Slideshow to keep attract students’ focus.

In a nutshell, understanding literacy is essential in producing a top-notch teaching quality

in the primary ESL classroom. There are myriad of benefits for both teachers and pupils. It is
safe to say that teachers are a key point in creating high quality citizens with knowledge,
thinking skills, and bilingual proficiency to contribute to the betterment of the country. Besides,
the teaching profession requires teachers to do continuous learning to be able to teach pupils.
Thus, teachers should learn about literacy in teaching phonemic awareness to the pupils to
produce a better learner with good literacy skills.
YASMIN. 29 JULAI 2021

References

o Elley, B. W. (1989). Review of Research on Reading Literacy. New Zealand:

University of Canterbury

o Elizabeth B. Keefe and Susan R. Copeland. (2011). What Is Literacy? The

Power of a Definition. Research & Practice for Persons with Severe
Disabilities, 36(3-4), 92-99. Retrieved from
http://pealcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/What_is_Literacy.pdf

o Jude Fransman. (2005). Understanding literacy: a concept paper. Education

for All Global Monitoring Report 2006. Retrieved from
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.569.2120&
ep=rep1 &type=pdf

o Lauren. (2021). Educational and Appealing Online Phonemic Awareness

Games for EVERY Skill. Retrieved from
https://www.ateachableteacher.com/online- phonemic-awareness-
games/

o Maclean et. A. (1987). Rhymes, nursery rhymes and reading in early childhood.
Merrill- Palmer Quarterly, 33, 255-281.

o Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2006). Assessing

scientific, reading and mathematical literacy: A framework for PISA 2006.
Paris: OECD Publications.
YASMIN. 29 JULAI 2021

o Rintaningrum, Ratna. (2009). Literacy: Its Importance and Changes in the

Concept and Definition. TEFLIN Journal, 20(1), 1-7. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47523879_Literacy_Its_Impo
rtance _and_Changes_in_the_Concept_and_Definition

o Wasik, Barbara. (2012). Phonemic Awareness and Young Children. Childhood

Education, 77(3), 128-133. 10.1080/00094056.2001.10522146.