Language Acquisition Theory

11:22 < DOC-20231202-WA00... Foundational Literacy and Numeracy: A Pre-requisite to Learning and ECCE Background Note Prof. Suniti Sanwal, Head DEE, NCERT Introduction Early childhood (birth to 8 years) is a critical period of development and carly literacy and carly numeracy are two important skill areas that develop during this period. Literacy and numeracy development begins in the first three years of life and is closely linked with daily communications, actions, thoughts and drawings of young children. Parents and the home learning environment and interactions of young children with literacy materials as books, paper, and crayons are the building blocks for the development of language, reading, writing and numeracy. This understanding of early literacy development complements the current research supporting the critical role of early experiences in shaping brain development. Education in the Early Years Young children are active, energetic, curious and interested in people, objects and events around them. They actively seek to make meaning of their experiences and their capacities continuously evolve. Children learn by doing and actively use their sensory capacities to understand the world around them. They discover and construct knowledge through the activities they are involved in. To enable children to understand concepts and develop their abilities, adults need to provide them opportunities to explore their environment, manipulate objects, engage in experimentation and ask questions and search for answers. These hands-on experiences help them understand how things work and in this way each child re-constructs his/her own understanding of the world. At the same time, children learn in context of relationships. Children also need guidance and instruction from teachers and more knowledgeable peers who can help the child to move from one developmental level to the next they help the children to move through their zone of proximal development. Having identified concepts and tasks which are within the child's potential development level (i.e. what the child is capable of doing with help), the teacher needs to provide dynamic support, guidance and teaching so that the child reaches her potential and is able to do the task independently. Definition of Literacy and Numeracy UNESCO defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed materials associated with varying contexts. (Education for All; Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2006). Literacy is more than the ability to read and write. It involves the knowledge, skills and abilities the competencies that enable individuals to think critically, communicate effectively, deal with change and solve problems in a variety of contexts to achieve their personal goals, develop their knowledge and potential, and participate fully in society. Numeracy encompasses the ability to use mathematical understanding and skills to solve problems and meet the demands of day-to-day living in complex social settings. To have this ability, a young person needs to be able to think and communicate quantitatively, to make sense of data, to have a spatial awareness, to understand patterns and sequences, and to recognise situations where mathematical reasoning can be applied to solve problems. Definition of Literacy and Numeracy UNESCO defines literacy as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed materials associated with varying contexts. (Education for All; Global Monitoring Report, UNESCO, 2006). Literacy is more than the ability to read and write. It involves the knowledge, skills and abilities the competencies that enable individuals to think critically, communicate effectively, deal with change and solve problems in a variety of contexts to achieve their personal goals, develop their knowledge and potential, and participate fully in society. Numeracy encompasses the ability to use mathematical understanding and skills to solve problems. and meet the demands of day-to-day living in complex social settings. To have this ability, a young person needs to be able to think and communicate quantitatively, to make sense of data, to have a spatial awareness, to understand patterns and sequences, and to recognise situations where mathematical reasoning can be applied to solve problems. Why are Literacy and Numeracy Important? Early literacy and numeracy skills are not only foundational for learning but are correlated with greater quality of life, personal well-being, national stability, prosperity and are critical for educational outcomes in later years. Strong literacy and numeracy helps children to learn, experiment, reason and create, to be active and informed citizens, and to contribute socially, culturally and economically. Lack of learning opportunities during the early stages of acquiring literacy and numeracy impede children's academic progress and motivation, resulting in further lack of achievement. Vision The vision for foundational literacy and numeracy therefore is to enable children to become independent and engaged readers and writers who are able to transition from 'learning to read to 'reading to learn and from "learning to write to 'writing for academic success and pleasure". Children demonstrate an understanding of numbers and knowledge of mathematical concepts, make connections between related ideas and progressively apply their understanding in new and unfamiliar contexts. To achieve the vision it is important that we understand the present status of reading and writing among children in the country. Various researches conducted in the country point out that the children are facing a learning crisis. The Learning Crisis The National Policy on education (NEP,2020) highlights that various governmental as well as non-governmental surveys clearly indicate that, at the current time, we are in a severe learning crisis with respect to these most basic skills: a large proportion of students (over 5