Young Children's Written Language Knowledge: What Environmental and Functional Print Reading Reveals

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe attempts by nonword readers, novice word readers, and expert word readers to read environmental and functional print items. Eighty-one children aged 3 to 6 years were included in the study. Children were assessed for word-reading ability and letter-naming knowledge. They were then categorized into reader groups based on ability to read preprimer and primer words in isolation. Next, children were shown nine print items and asked, "What can you read here?" Responses were judged for whether they maintained the communication contract by showing an attempt to read. Attempts to read were then judged for whether they included text from the print item, were meaningful, and/or indicated attention to graphic detail. The results revealed that children attempted to read more frequently than they renegotiated the task or refused to respond. Over 75% of the attempts to read were meaningful, more than 35% included text from the print items, and nearly 50% indicated attention to graphic detail. Differences were found between attempts to read a potato chip bag (environmental print item) and attempts to read functional print items. Despite similarities in letter-naming ability, expert word readers and novice word readers differed in their attempts to read and in their attention to graphic detail.Environmental print studies have made several important contributions to the growing body of knowledge related to young children's literacy (McGee, 1986). In general, these studies have shown that children are aware of the meaning potential in environmental print, but use environmental cues rather than graphic or print cues 99

Developing Print Awareness: The Effect of Three Instructional Approaches on Kindergarteners' Print Awareness, Reading Readiness, and Word Reading

“…, Mason (1980), and Masonheimer, Drum, and Ehri (1984) found that the transfer of words learned in the context of environmental print to traditional word reading was very poor. McGee, Lomax, and Head (1988) found similar results to these previous studies with one minor exception; nonreaders did devote limited attention to graphic detail. Johns (1980) found that children who were low achievers in reading at the conclusion of first grade evidenced poorly developed concepts about printed language.…”

The influence of environmental print on preschoolers’ literacy development in a two-alphabets’ society

“…The results of this research agreed with that of earlier work (McGee, Lomax, & Head, 1988) which stated that children, even if they are not able to read the environmental print conventionally, observe and comment on specific letters. The fact that Greek preschoolers seem able to discern successfully between the two alpabetical systems which proliferate in their literary environment, gives strong evidence to assume that environmental print contributes to their literary development.…”

“…a Ruffles potato chip bag) than functional print items (e.g. McGee, Lomax & Head, 1988). In addition, although preschoolers tend to identify the labels as either categories (toothpaste) or functions (to clean teeth) (Goodman & Altwerger, 1981;Morgan, 1987), they gradually move from gross approximations about print to conventional reading looking for individual words and letters.…”

“…Young children seem to concentrate on the print and many times they observe and comment on individual letters (McGee, Lomax & Head, 1988). Even in cases of wrong readings, due to misleading visual hints, children seem to take notice of the actual print.…”

Why is letter-name knowledge such a good predictor of learning to read?

“…Past studies have suggested that the main contribution of letter knowledge to early literacy is to improve visual word recognition (Mason, 1980;McGee, Lomax, & Head, 1988). Recent research results indicate that LNK may have a much more influential role in the first stages of literacy acquisition by promoting the emergence of a phonologically-based strategy in early spelling and reading.…”