Language and Literacy 1

Running head: LANGUAGE AND LITERACY DEVELOPMENT

Language and Literacy Development: Observation

Language and Literacy 2

I believe that language development and literacy is a major
accomplishment in any preschool childs life. Children learn to speak and
understand words by being around adults who communicate with them and
encourage them, and their efforts to talk. Talking is an important milestone in
any childrens development. Unfortunately many young children fall behind
these milestones. For this assignment, I observed a preschool boy named
Emilio Ruezga. Emilio was born on September 10, 2009 and is five years old.
He is Hispanic, and his first language is Spanish, he is trying to learn English
as a second language. He was sweet, friendly and sometimes shy when I
begin to observe him. He was willing to do several activities with me, but
sometimes he had a hard time understanding the instructions because of his
lack of English. However, he was very positive in every activity that I
suggested but he would get frustrated and begins to cry if he couldnt
complete the activity successfully.
For this observation, I observed Emilio at his preschool, a Montessori
school called Bella. As I walked into the classroom, half of the class was
outside and the other half were working on a variety of activities. Emilio was
reading a book in one of the corners of the classroom. The students at Bella
Montessori School are allowed to have an hour to choose their own activities
as long as they are learning something new. Emilio and I engaged in several
activities, including a math game, spelling bee contest and an art project.
While he did this I wrote my observations in my book.

While Emilio was having lunch I observed that his level of oral
language was excellent even tough he just started to learn English.

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Unfortunately, Emilio didnt seem to understand at first what a sentence was
until I showed him an example, he immediately knew what I was talking
about. Even tough, he knows how to follow instructions he sometimes has a
hard time finishing any sentence structure activity, he then becomes
frustrated very easily.
As I was talked to Emilio I noticed that he used many different parts of
speech to communicate, he used nouns, verbs and pronouns. One example
was when we were doing the spelling bee contest and I asked him to
elaborate a sentence that included a noun and a verb. And he immediately
showed me that he knew how to implement a noun and a verb in a sentence
without any help. Another example of Emilio using correct sentence structure
is when he finished the spelling be contest and screamed, I want another
star which demonstrate the use of an adjective. Emilio also knew how to use
a preposition, he said My sister is behind the other children in her class.
During break time, Emilio and I ate a snack together and said to me, Yuck!
My food tastes awful! demonstrating his use of an interjection. I believe that
Emilio is a very smart kid because even tough he is not an English native
speaker his level of English is really good. He follows directions and he also
knows how to read a story by making connection between the characters
while he is reading.
Phonology was also shown throughout the observation session. Emilio
for the most was very easy to understand. Even tough he sometimes
substitutes the speech sounds of his native language for those of the
language he is learning. From my observation I noticed it was challenging for
Emilio to pronounce some words in English. I know he is making an extra

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effort to get better and acquire all the English skills that he needs. However,
he articulated many of the words he used and he master almost all of the
sounds up to age five. One example was when Emilio said, Jelly which
demonstrates he mastered the J sound which sometimes its hard for a kid
at this age use the word J. Semantics was also shown throughout my
observation while I was reading The Cat in the Hat. As I continued reading I
noticed that Emilio was learning a new word every time I turned the page.
One example was when I mention the word tricks he had not clue what I
was saying but after reading it a couple of time he finally learned the word.
What I did in order to teach him a new word was by asking him questions of
words I knew they were hard for him Then at the same time I made facial
expressions in order for him to remember and to get his attention. Emilio also
demonstrated listening skills. He responded to every direction from the
instructors and any other adult. One example was when Emilios teacher
asked him if he did the homework, and he responded with excitement and a
nod in his head yes. He also asked several questions as the teacher was
explaining the homework for the next day. As I was working with Emilio I
noticed his creative use of oral language was very impressive. He told me a
story where he used different toys, puppets and drawings in order to show
me what the story was about it. He also pretended to imitate the characters
of his story to make it more appealing. His writing language I believe it is
appropriate to his age. Also he constantly used pencils and colors in order to
communicate better and he constantly creates pictures and scribbles to
write. Emilio also demonstrated that he had an understanding of print
concepts and emergent literacy skills throughout my observation. Emilio also

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demonstrated through the book The Cat in the Hat that he could turn the
pages one at a time from front to back. And he showed me that he can read
many words and he can write complete sentences for me. Also, as I was
observing Emilio I observed that while he was using the computer he can
read the time and he even knew what day of the week he has to go to school.
I also found out that Emilio read stories by pointing the pictures. One
example, is when he was reading me his story about the Desert Island he
constantly mention the main character and pointed his finger at him to show
me who was he talking about.
I believe a teacher could do many things to enhance Emilios oral and
writing skills. One would be to read books with Emilio constantly and show
him that he is capable to do many things. I think that having a variety of
books will make Emilio get a better pronunciation and at the same time he
can also improve his writing skills. The teacher should also dedicate more
time to Emilio since he is the only student who just came from Mexico and
sometimes he can get confused. Also Emilios teacher should encourage
more peer interaction in order to help Emilio oral communication and get
more confident. One last suggestion would be to give more opportunities to
write a story and get creative. I believe this is a great way that Emilio can
develop different skills. After observing Emilio, I found that he seemed where
his developmental levels should be even tough his native language is not
English.