Emergent literacy practices in pre-school age indigenous children in Tennant Creek

Samantha Disbray
University of Melbourne

Gillian Wigglesworth
University of Melbourne

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     Last modified: February 29, 2004
     Presentation date: 07/15/2004 9:00 AM in SS Common Room
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Abstract
Tennant Creek is one of the communities participating in the Aboriginal Child Language Acquisition project, which is concerned language and socialisation in changing multilingual environments.

Indigenous children in Tennant Creek, whose traditional language is Warumungu, are acquiring non-standard English as a first language. Warumungu has undergone severe language shift but influences the variety of Aboriginal English spoken. The eight children in this study, aged between 14 and 36 months, are being recorded on a regular basis interacting with one or more caregivers and other children, over a three-year period.

The problem for these children will be that at the age of five they will enter mainstream schooling where standard English is the language of instruction. In addition, literacy and learning programs assume that children have been socialised in literacy practice according to mainstream norms.

In this paper, we focus specifically on the language used in activities normally associated with the development of pre literacy skills. Caregivers and older children were recorded reading and discussing picture books, and modelling oral story-telling styles in the children homes. We argue that these kinds of activities should provide a foundation for links between home language practices and school-based learning.