Visual and Linguistic Factors in Literacy Acquisition : Instructional Implications for Beginning Readers in Low-income Countries

Improving the quality of literacy teaching may require intervening at different levels, for example, encouraging school attendance and optimizing textbook format and teaching methods. Reading is a complex task involving perceptual, motor, linguistic, phonological, and memory components, each of which has a crucial role in determining reading rate. High poverty rates continue to have a negative impact on human resource development and education quality in Africa, further complicating the ability of most countries to reach the Education for All (EFA) and Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Moreover, Africa and Asia are hosts to most of the world's multilingual countries, in which textbook availability in major indigenous languages is sorely lacking. Therefore, it is important to take all possible steps to maximize the effectiveness of teaching interventions. In parallel, also the quality of textbooks is a crucial factor for quality education, especially in developing countries. It is important to dispose of well-written and well-designed textbooks, because the quality of textbook can be an important predictor of student learning and can contribute to the effective use of instructional time and classroom teaching. This review examines the evidence regarding variables influencing acquisition of decoding and comprehension reading skills. One important caveat is in order. While the educational, psychological and neuroscience literature on reading is extensive, it largely depends upon studies on English speaking individuals. The first part of the review focuses on studies of visual psychophysics and examines the visual limitations affecting reading and its development. The second part of the review draws on the psychological and neuroscience literature to examine the role of several variables influencing reading acquisition, such as letter knowledge, teaching method, teacher's competence, orthographic consistency.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Marinelli, Chiara Valeria, Martelli, Marialuisa, Praphamontripong, Prachayani, Zoccolotti, Pierluigi, Abadzi, Helen
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:	ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, ACADEMIC SUCCESS, ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL, ACQUISITION OF LITERACY, ADAPTATION, ADOLESCENTS, ADULT ILLITERATES, ADULT LEARNING, ADULTS, ALPHABET, ALPHABETS, ATTENTION, AUDITING, AVAILABILITY OF TEXTBOOKS, BASIC SKILLS, BINDING, BLACKBOARDS, CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES, CLASSROOM, CLASSROOM TEACHING, CLOSEST MATCH, COLLEGE STUDENTS, COLONIAL LANGUAGES, CONCEPT FORMATION, CONTENTS, DEMONSTRATION, DESCRIPTION, DEVELOPMENTAL PERIOD, DOMAIN, DONOR SUPPORT, DRILLS, EARLY CHILDHOOD, EARLY GRADES, EARLY READING, EARLY YEARS OF SCHOOL, EDUCATION FOR ALL, EDUCATION QUALITY, EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS, EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS, EDUCATIONAL QUALITY, EFFECTIVE TEACHERS, EFFECTIVE TEACHING, EFFECTIVE TEACHING STRATEGIES, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, ENGLISH SPEAKING CHILDREN, ENTRY, FIRST GRADE, GROSS ENROLMENT, GROSS ENROLMENT RATES, HEADINGS, ILLITERATE ADULTS, ILLITERATE CHILDREN, ILLITERATE POPULATION, ILLITERATES, INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES, INFANTS, INFORMATION PROCESSING, INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS, INSTRUCTIONAL TIME, INTERVENTIONS, INTUITION, LANGUAGE OF INSTRUCTION, LEARNERS, LEARNING, LEARNING CURVE, LEARNING CURVES, LEARNING DISABILITIES, LEARNING EFFECT, LEARNING MATERIALS, LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES, LEARNING OUTCOMES, LEARNING PROCESS, LEGIBILITY, LET, LEVEL OF EDUCATION, LINGUISTIC DIFFERENCES, LITERACY, LITERACY SKILLS, MATURATION, MEMORY, MOTHER TONGUE, OBJECT, OBJECTS, OLDER CHILDREN, PAPERS, PERCEPTION, PRIMARY EDUCATION, PRINTING COSTS, PROBABILITY, PSYCHOLOGY, QUALITY EDUCATION, QUALITY OF EDUCATION, QUALITY OF LITERACY, QUALITY OF TEXTBOOKS, QUALITY TEACHING, READERS, READING, READING ACHIEVEMENT, READING COMPETENCE, READING COMPREHENSION, READING SKILLS, READINGS, RECOGNITION, REGULAR SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, RESEARCHERS, RETENTION, RURAL STUDENTS, SCHOOL AGE, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE, SCHOOL DROPOUTS, SCHOOL YEAR, SCHOOL YEARS, SCHOOLING, SCHOOLS, SECOND LANGUAGE, SELECTIVE ATTENTION, SITE, SOCIAL ADJUSTMENT, STANDARDIZED TESTS, STUDENT LEARNING, TEACHER, TEACHER EFFECTIVENESS, TEACHERS, TEACHING, TEACHING METHOD, TEACHING METHODS, TEACHING STRATEGIES, TEST SCORES, TEXTBOOK, TEXTBOOK AVAILABILITY, TEXTBOOK PRINTING, THINKING, THOUGHTS, VOCABULARIES, VOCABULARY, WORKING MEMORY, YOUNG CHILDREN,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/01/18043049/visual-linguistic-factors-literacy-acquisition-instructional-implications-beginning-readers-low-income-countries https://hdl.handle.net/10986/16244
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