Storybooks, Songs, and Games: Tools to Boost Early Literacy Development in Primary English Classrooms

Determining later academic achievement, early literacy skills are all of the prerequisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for successful reading and writing during formal education. Early literacy skills consist of several sub-skills including phonology knowledge that determine primary-level reading. The present article is prepared for English language instructors teaching English at early grade levels, specifically at pre-primary and early years in primary education (Grades 2, 3, and 4 for public; Grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 for private institutions) as a reference to utilize when practicing phonological and phonemic awareness with young learners of English. The study which taps into phonological and phonemic awareness and recommends putting phonics instruction into practice in the early years of literacy education in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts is an instructional resource for teacher trainees and in-service instructors with limited experience and knowledge in young learners' literacy education. The paper has two major parts, first, phonological awareness types are explicated, operational definitions are provided and classroom activities are presented. In the second part, storybook and song integration for a linguistically-rich early literacy acquisition in primary EFL classrooms with young language learners are further discussed.