Influence of emergent literacy skills on the child’s literacy development in the Agona West District

Abstract

The study sought to investigate the influence of emergent literacy skills on literacy development among pupils in Basic Schools. The study adopted the qualitative case study for the study. The population used for the study comprised all basic school pupils in the Agona West District in the Central region of Ghana. The study adopted the maximum variation (heterogeneous) type of purposive sampling technique to select 20 pupils (4 males, 16 females) from four schools in the District. This study used observation and interview to examine the influence of emergent literacy on literacy development. Thematic analysis was used for the data analysis. The findings revealed that the home environment and ―technology‖ plays a very crucial role in learners‘ literacy development. The study revealed that good interactions with parents and other members of the family contribute a greater part of the participants‘ literacy development before their first school entry. The results were analysed using thematic analysis which mainly comprised qualitative content and data triangulation. This research suggested strict parental involvement and home environment interactions as the bases for literacy development. In addition, this study provides preliminary evidence that close and trusting relationships between parents and teachers can foster children‘s school readiness skills. The results can be used to develop more effective school readiness interventions for families of young children.