Chapter 1: Introduction
Researchers studying emergent literacy have focused on the process of how children become literate during the first few years of life. One of the concepts central to this body of research is that literacy learning is a continuous, gradual, evolving process. There is no beginning or ending point in becoming literate—literacy learning is not an all or nothing phenomenon, but, rather, a continuum of development. Researchers have documented that this process of becoming literate is similar to the process by which children develop oral language, and begins long before children enter school (Goodman & Haussler, 1986; Hiebert, 1988; Snow, 1983; Teale, 1986; Teale & Sulzby, 1986; Wiseman & Robeck, 1983).
Many studies on emergent literacy are couched in a theoretical framework that defines literacy and literacy learning as inherently social (e.g., Harste, Woodward, & Burke, 1984; Heath, 1983; Rowe, 1989; Teale, 1986). Within this framework, literacy learning is not studied separate from the context in which it occurs; rather, the social context is considered integral to the study of literacy learning.
For researchers studying the relationship between literacy learning and social contexts, literacy development is defined as a socio-psycholinguistic process (Harste et al., 1984; McGee & Richgels, 1990). This perspective emphasizes the concept of “language as sociologically rooted, and language learning [including literacy learning] as understandable only when viewed within its social contexts” (Harste et al., 1984, p. 49). Thus, many of the studies conducted within this framework occur in classroom contexts. For example, Rowe (1989) studied three- and four-year-olds in a preschool setting as they engaged in social interaction at a literacy center. For the children, social interaction in this setting often formed the basis for the acquisition of new literacy knowledge.
Literacy learning occurs in social contexts and requires interactions among participants. But, it also involves cognitive processes—children, as they interact with others in literacy or literacy-related events, actively engage in meaning construction (Freeman & Hatch, 1989; Goodman, 1986; Harste et al., 1984; Teale & Sulzby, 1989). The process of becoming literate is one in which children actively test hypotheses and construct knowledge about literacy:
As children encounter written language, they try to figure out how it works. In so doing, they form and test hypotheses, attempting to discern the differences between drawing and writing; to understand the meanings, structures, and cadences of written language; to learn the symbols of writing; and to sort out the relationships between these symbols and the sounds of oral language. (Teale & Sulzby, 1989, p. 4)
Embedded in a socio-psycholinguistic framework of literacy learning is the belief that children construct knowledge about literacy as they participate in everyday literacy events in the contexts of home, school, and community (Dyson, 1986; Heath, 1983; Taylor, 1983; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988; Teale, 1986; Teale & Sulzby, 1986, 1989). In studies of literacy in families and communities, researchers have found that groups have their own rules for socially interacting in literacy events and children learn these rules through observation and participation.
Observing and sharing in literacy events may be the foundation for literacy learning. Through participating in family or community literacy events, children come to view literacy as a valued social tool, one that allows them to fulfill varied goals. (Dyson, 1986, p. 214)
As children observe and interact with literacy at home, in school, and in their communities, they begin to develop concepts about the functions of written language. Research in this aspect of literacy learning arises out of interest in research on the functions of oral language. A key finding of this research is that children learn language as they learn its functions; that is, they learn and use language as they need it to accomplish everyday activities (Halliday, 1975; Tough, 1979).
Several researchers have studied emergent literacy in home and school settings and have discovered that children use written language in ways similar to which they use oral language (Dyson, 1983; Milz, 1985; Neuman & Roskos, 1988). Written language is functional: “Literacy develops in real-life settings for real-life activities in order to ‘get things done.’ Therefore, the functions of literacy are as integral a part of learning about writing and reading during early childhood as are the forms of literacy” (Teale & Sulzby, 1986, p. xviii).
Research on literacy learning as a process embedded in social contexts has also focused on special populations (Schuele & Van Kleeck, 1987). Studies by Ewoldt (1985, 1987) examined emergent literacy of Deaf children of Deaf parents with particular focus on social interaction during writing events. The findings from these studies indicate that social interaction was a strong force for the children’s developing literacy. Conway (1985) had similar findings in a study of emergent writing of kindergarten hearing-impaired children.
It appears, based on studies (Conway, 1985; Ewoldt, 1978, 1985; Maxwell, 1983, 1984), that the process by which Deaf and hearing-impaired children learn to read and write is similar to that for hearing children. One difference, however, is the inclusion of visual forms of literacy unique to this population, specifically, fingerspelling and sign print.
Fingerspelling is a manual form of spelling—each letter of the alphabet is represented by a unique handshape. Although analogous to spelling in form, fingerspelling is often read in the same way as print and it resembles writing: “Fingerspelling is in some ways like writing words transposed to three-dimensional space” (Maxwell, 1988, p. 377). In studies of literacy development of Deaf children, fingerspelling was closely related to print and the children used both as symbolic, communicative systems (Maxwell, 1983, 1984, 1988; Padden & LeMaster, 1985).
Sign print is a form of writing embedded in drawings or illustrations. Signs for English words are illustrated, often indicating the fingerspelling of the initial letter of the word. For example, the word "we" is drawn as the fingerspelled letter W moving from the right shoulder to the left shoulder. Sign print, like fingerspelling, is often read by Deaf children as a print form (Maxwell, 1983, 1984), and, therefore, its acquisition is closely related to learning to read and write. For example, Maxwell (1984) found that, for the Deaf child in her study, “segmentation of the sign line and matching the actual sign to the sign illustration (in the signed English texts) is analogous to the behavior described by Clay (1979) and Schickedanz (1981) for matching speech to orthography” (p. 217).
Definitions
When considering literacy learning at its early stages of development, how should literacy be defined? The term literacy has been discussed and defined in various ways with little consensus among researchers and educators. It is a broad term that is used to describe not just reading and writing but a whole range of knowledge about communication systems.
As a process, literacy learning involves not only reading but also writing as an interrelated process. That is, while learning to read, children develop writing skills which, in turn, aid their development in reading. Therefore, to understand how children become literate, it is important to define literacy from a perspective that includes reading and writing (Teale & Sulzby, 1986). For this study, reading is defined to mean attempts at constructing meaning from print and print-related materials. Examples of reading events include reading books, experience stories, pictures or illustrations in books, sign print, and filmstrip captions and titles. Writing is being defined in essentially the same way as Conway (1985) defined it in his research on emergent writing of kindergarten hearing-impaired children: “Writing was broadly defined as all efforts at symbolic representation. Thus, writing included scribbling, named scribbles, wavy line writing, print-like approximations, recognizable print, and pictures (i.e., drawing)” (p. 94).
The inclusion of drawing in a definition of literacy has been discussed by several researchers (Dyson, 1982, 1983, 1986, 1988; Kroll, 1990; Rowe, 1989). Drawing, like writing, is a communication system that young children use to symbolize experiences and people and objects in their world. Children learn about drawing and writing simultaneously and they frequently combine the two systems to express thoughts. Thus, “in examining how children make meaning in writing, it is clear that drawing must be included in the investigation, at least in looking at early writing attempts” (Kroll, 1990, p. 6). For this study, Dyson’s (1982) distinctions between writing and drawing are being used: “Writing [is] that (portion of the) product containing letters or letterlike forms. Drawing [is] . . . that (portion of the) product containing any non-letter or non-letterlike forms” (p. 365).
This study focused on a special population, hearing-impaired children, who communicate in systems related to written language but often not included in definitions of literacy. Therefore, for the current study, literacy was conceptualized in broad terms to include additional communication systems such as fingerspelling and sign print.
Taking all of the above factors into consideration (i.e., reading and writing as interrelated processes, drawing as a communication system, and alternative communication systems used by the hearing-impaired), for this research, literacy has been defined to include reading pictures and/or print, writing letters and letter-like forms, drawing, fingerspelling, spelling, and reading sign print (pictures representing signs for English words).
Literacy event, like the term literacy, is a varied and ambiguously defined expression. Often a literacy event is defined as an interaction with written language:
... any occasion upon which a person produced, comprehended, or attempted to produce or comprehend written language. (Teale, 1986, p. 177)
Other researchers take a broader view and include interactions with varied forms of print:
... the activities and skills associated directly with the use of print—primarily reading and writing, but also such derivative activities as playing Scrabble or Boggle, doing crossword puzzles, alphabetizing files, and copying or typing. (Snow, 1983, p. 166)
Still other researchers further broaden the view of a literacy event by including interactions within a social context in their definitions:
... the interaction with or about print by an individual or a group. This includes the contexts in which the interactions occur, the functions the interactions serve, and the meanings that the interactions with print hold for the participants. (Wells, 1988, p. 4)
For the current study, a literacy event is defined as any interaction with print or print-related materials. The interaction could occur individually or in a group. Furthermore, the goal of a literacy event is not limited to meaning construction. An interaction with literacy could have varied purposes (e.g., social interaction) and the engagement would still be considered a literacy event if print or print-related materials were involved. Literacy events observed in this study included listening to stories, dramatizing stories, reading or looking at books, reading environmental print, viewing filmstrips, writing letters or letter-like forms, drawing pictures, and participating in routines which involved the use of fingerspelling, spelling, or print.
Purpose for Research
The purpose for the research was to study emergent literacy in a population with limited access to oral or sign language. For this reason, the participants chosen for study were deaf and hearing-impaired children who came from hearing families and were enrolled in either an oral program or a program that utilized a manual encoding system for oral English but did not incorporate American Sign Language. The children included in the research were defined as deaf or hearing-impaired based on degree of hearing loss (moderate to profound) and the need for early intervention services (e.g., early schooling, speech therapy) due to delays in oral or sign language development resulting from their hearing losses.
Although deaf and hearing-impaired children have limited access to oral language, they do have exposure and access to print in their environment. They do not come to school as blank slates; in fact, they have a great wealth of knowledge about written language prior to schooling. From the few studies on emergent literacy of deaf and hearing-impaired children, it appears that they learn literacy in ways similar to those for hearing children (Conway, 1985; Ewoldt, 1985, 1987, in press; Maxwell, 1983, 1984). Therefore, studying this special population adds to the body of knowledge on literacy learning of all children as well as sheds light on literacy learning of a population whose first language is a visual rather than oral one.
To address questions of emergent literacy of deaf and hearing-impaired children, including issues related to literacy learning in general, a qualitative study was conducted in two preschool classes. The initial research questions were open-ended and broad. Specifically, the research questions addressed were:
1. What do preschool deaf and hearing-impaired children know and learn about literacy within a school setting?
2. How do preschool deaf and hearing-impaired children become literate in a school setting?
The chapters to follow contain details on the methodology, the site where the research was conducted, the seven key participants, the findings from the research, and conclusions drawn from the findings including their theoretical significance and implications for instruction and future research.