I skriftkulturens grenseland – tidleg literacy i barnehage, fritid og skule

Abstract

In this our sixth publication in the Skriftkultur series, we focus on an issue at the outskirts of written culture – specifically the period from age 0-8 during which children develop language and are initiated into written culture and text-oriented society.

Children begin formal training in reading, writing and written language when they start school; they are then officially enrolled as aspirants in written culture. However, starting school is only one of many events in the process by which children become participants in written culture and the text society. In addition to school, indoctrination in writing takes place in kindergarten, at home and in children’s free time. We can therefore speak of a large border zone of written culture that corresponds to the time in life and the activities that children engage in before they fully master written language. This border zone is often referred to as early or emergent literacy (Barton, 2007) and is characterized by increasing linguistic competence with regard to both verbal and written language.

In this special issue, you can read about how children enter and become included in text-oriented culture and the writing community through science conversations in kindergarten, song sessions, reading picture books, conversations about letters, role play, narrative writing using resources from both popular culture and the school context, functional writing instruction in school, and self-initiated text production in their free time! A common feature of the studies is that the children engaged in them, whether they are two, five or ten years old, actively explore and acquire knowledge about language, texts and ultimately, the world. Let these actively working young people be this special issue's most visible contribution to the professional conversation about early literacy, writing culture, and reading and writing education.