Australian Early Childhood Teachers’ Training in Language and Literacy: A Nation-Wide Review of Pre-Service Course Content

Tanya Serry,Pamela C. Snow,Tessa Weadman

doi:10.14221/ajte.2021v46n2.3

Abstract

Early childhood teachers are well-positioned to maximise preschoolers’ development in oral language and emergent literacy; both of which are vital predictors of academic success at school. Research investigating their pre-service training in language and emergent literacy remains limited. This issue is addressed in the present study, with the first nation-wide review of the oral language and emergent literacy course content across all 84 Australian early childhood teacher pre-service courses. Qualitative Content Analysis was employed to gain an overview of language and emergent literacy teaching content reported in publicly available course documents. Study findings demonstrated large variation in the oral language and emergent literacy course content reported. The results showed that course content on the structure of language and code-related skills including phonological awareness and concepts of print, do not feature prominently across pre-service course documents. Further, course content on evidence-based strategies to foster children’s oral language and emergent literacy development, such as dialogic book reading, and intentional adult-child interactions were also limited. Findings are discussed with respect to their implications for preparing early childhood teachers to support the oral language and emergent literacy growth of preschoolers.

Highlights

Preschool Oral Language and Emergent LiteracyThe oral language competencies and emergent literacy skills of preschool children are strongly linked to their reading and spelling attainment once formal literacy instruction commences on school entry (Morgan et al, 2015; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002)
The information included in these outlines differed between universities and only publicly available teaching content was included in this review
When examining finer details teaching content, our review suggested only a minimal emphasis on phonological awareness in pre-service course documents. This finding is consistent with international research that has demonstrated training in phonological awareness has often been via in-service professional development, rather than pre-service coursework (Vesay & Gischlar, 2013) and may to some extent explain the low levels of understanding of phonological awareness possessed by Australian early childhood teacher (ECT) (Carson & Bayetto, 2018; Hammond, 2016; Meeks & Kemp, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

Preschool Oral Language and Emergent LiteracyThe oral language competencies and emergent literacy skills of preschool children are strongly linked to their reading and spelling attainment once formal literacy instruction commences on school entry (Morgan et al, 2015; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). Children who have fallen behind in meeting expected language milestones by school entry are far more likely to struggle when learning to read and with increasingly complex reading comprehension across the school years (Catts et al, 2008, 2017; Snowling et al, 2016). These students often have weaknesses in receptive vocabulary, grammatical understanding, and comprehension of spoken discourse (Catts, 2006). Accelerating the oral language skills of students experiencing disadvantage once they enter preschool and school is of particular importance (Snow, 2020)

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