Background:

What knowledge do you have about the selected educational fact or process?

This research is based on the premise that initial literacy is a means

fundamental for socialization and communication in human beings, therefore
So much is the basis for building later knowledge, being the school and
the educators are the direct responsible for teaching and integral development
of the students.

In primary schools in less developed countries like ours,

the situation of reading and writing translates into a crisis both within the
school as outside of it.

It is evident that one of the greatest transitions in individual development

within education is the acquisition of the reading-writing process. As
Slavin (2003) states, "every year millions of children around the world begin their"
formal education, and just two years later many of them are
They detect difficulties regarding progress in the reading-writing process.

Many children do not have any form of preschool education and many
their teachers have not been trained to address their specific problems.
Thus, school repetition is disproportionately high. This leads to more
repetition and, subsequently, to dropouts. Vega, Reyes and Azpeitia (1999)
it is noted that 'the statistics in Mexico are indicative that the two
the first grades serve as a filter in primary education and it is precisely
in these where instruction and literacy acquisition take place,
What is anchoring based on which most of the content will be established?
transmitted through texts and instructions.

In fact, 'literacy has been defined as the functional, social and

cognitive aspect of written language, and developmental psychologists agree that
the process that makes it possible begins from a very early age in life.
Children develop a series of knowledge that allows them to
learning to read and write, through their interaction with a
linguistic community that gradually introduces them to the written language” (Seda,
2003; Suárez, 2000). To achieve literacy, children need to master
different skills, including speaking, listening, reading and
writing; the development of oral language is one of the most important factors
to achieve mastery of written language.

There is a consensus among educational researchers that 'children

they require developing various skills to achieve learning of the
reading and writing, among which can be located: a) understanding the language in
the one they are going to read, b) to be able to decode the written words in a manner
fluid and automatic, and c) understand the text they read. This vision
apparently simple to read, it actually involves a high degree of
complexity, because achieving that level of reading efficiency requires:
knowledge of vocabulary and text structure, strategies of
comprehension, decoding, and automatic recognition of words,
reading fluency, as well as motivation to learn to read and to continue
reading" (Stahl and Yaden, 2004).

Children's interactions with printed words, as well as the skills

Linguistic and pre-academic skills form the foundations of reading development.
Garton and Pratt (1991) point out that "written language is learned as a
second-order representation system, where the words on the paper
correspond to the spoken ones that, in turn, carry a meaning.
thus, when learning to read, the child must establish the correspondences between
written and spoken words, as well as determining the meaning that is
transmit. To achieve this, children have a series of concepts and
skills that contribute to the task of reading. Within the general progression
that takes place from the development of some initial knowledge about what
it is the reading up to the appropriate mastery of the process, there is a complex network

of skills that can be developed in different ways by children,

depending on their levels of proficiency in other skills.

The level of efficiency in reading skills will be influenced by aspects

as the level of vocabulary development, both in content and in
quantity, experience, and familiarity with a variety of styles
conversational, the skills of understanding spoken language, and the
ability to reflect on the language that is used; although it should not
forget that the learning of reading does not occur in isolation from other developments,
and that at the same time that children advance in their reading skills, their
spoken language skills continue to develop. They are also
important the initial knowledge that children have about the
written language, for example what they understand by reading, what it is for, if they know that

his parents and close people know how to read and how they use that skill,
how many interactions do they have with what is printed in the environment, how much interest

they have in learning to read, what do they know about books and other materials
printed. Similarly, the degree of knowledge must be considered.
children have about the conventions that exist in our language
written, for example, that is read from left to right, that letters are written
that form words and that in turn make up phrases and sentences, to everything
which must be assigned a meaning.

For a large number of children, learning to read and write can be a

difficult task, even with years of formal instruction and reinforced practice. The
research in the field indicates that letters and words are the data
basics of reading and that competent readers focus on most of
these; the information obtained from a text closely depends on the
specific words on which the reader focuses, and the recognition
they entirely depend on the processing of their spelling and the
letter-sound correspondences. In skilled readers, the basic dynamic
It is connected reading, from left to right, line by line and word by word.
word.

It is also important to remember that the ability to read words does not guarantee
the understanding of what is read, since these are not skills that are
they continue automatically. Garton and Pratt (1991) explain that “there are three

reasons for it. Firstly, reading comprehension depends greatly on

the skills of spoken language comprehension and these may not be
as well developed as it may seem when observing the interactions
children's daily activities; secondly, written language frequently makes use of
syntactic constructions that are used exceptionally or never in their
spoken form; and, thirdly, the understanding of the written word requires
often integrate complete information throughout a broad speech
to a greater extent than in spoken language.

Upon entering primary school, there will be significant individual differences in interest.
the children towards the reading process and in their knowledge about it. It is
it is evident that educators cannot assume that all children arrive at the
school knowing what reading is. The development of literacy can
affected by variables such as linguistic differences, lack of
prior knowledge and other family or school-related factors that are connected
with the difficulties of children to develop reading. It has been proven
broadly that the learning process of all skills
cognitive interactions involve complex interactions that are affected by
factors such as parenting practices, socioeconomic circumstances, structure
familiar, adult-child interactions and educational environment.

Children evolve towards the knowledge of literate adults.

through their participation in meaningful reading and writing activities, thus
how through oral expression. The development of literacy includes
speaking, listening, reading, and writing, therefore the development of language is a factor
of utmost importance for achieving access to written language. The home and the
preschool, through interactive oral linguistic experiences and
written, they are responsible for preparing children to achieve the
literacy in their formal education.

On its part, primary education has one of its main tasks

to enable children to develop literacy as a means to obtain
new knowledge, as recognized by the Study Plan and Programs
Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), published in 1993 and reprinted every year
to be distributed among primary school teachers. But the achievement of that
task requires, according to Daviña (1999), "to recognize that literacy is a
linguistic and social process, a cultural practice that is constructed
institutionally from the everyday school life, and therefore for the
Teachers still have the responsibility to achieve student interaction.
with the teachers and with the texts in the classroom setting, as a means to
achieve literacy.
Society continues to recognize that teaching how to read and write is one of the
basic functions that justify the very existence of the school, by virtue that
this teaching is instrumental for the learning of other knowledge.
Even though it is currently recognized that literacy takes place in
different contexts of interaction, school continues to occupy a place
preponderant for the development of this process” (Daviña, 1999). Therefore, it is
it is fundamental to think about the decisions that can be made when one is
responsible for teaching reading and writing in the first grade,
because it is there where the first steps taken by the students are in the
school institution. What needs to be decided is: 'first steps towards where [...]
In this first stage, the initial relationships are being built between the
students and the objects of knowledge as they are presented within the
school” (Galaburri, 2000: 1). One of the important decisions relates to
teaching project, which includes the design of teaching situations
intended for reading and writing, with the aim of forming readers
competent and autonomous, as well as writers who know how to communicate through

written with others and with themselves to convey messages in situations

determined; that is to say, the teaching of the social practices of reading and the
writing. But, to achieve it, it is also necessary to consider language
spoken.

We agree with Garton and Pratt (1991) that 'there are at least two reasons
for which spoken and written language must be considered
together. The first of these relates to the obvious links
between the two systems, the second reason is that many of the processes
involved in the development of spoken language are very similar to the
involved in the writing.” In both cases, the child requires help from an adult.
or someone who masters the language and presents interactive situations
that facilitate the child's linguistic mastery. In this regard, Ferreiro
It clarifies that the process of acquiring written language must be conceived
as "a particular way of representing language" (Ferreiro, 2004: 179).

It is currently recognized that there is a continuity in development of

language, which begins with babbling, includes structured speech and continues
with reading and writing. In fact, the initial period of development of the
written language (pre-literacy) is present from preschool years
with the various contacts that the child has within a society
literate and closely related to the development of oral language. Also
The mutual influence that both linguistic modalities have is recognized.
For a child to develop reading and writing skills, it is
condition necessary what haya developed certain skills
corresponding to oral language, such as phonological skills, description of
events and subjects, structuring of phrases and sentences, expression of ideas that
involve the use of concepts, as well as understanding and exposition of
structured narratives logically and chronologically. But at the same time, the
contact with written language results in an improvement of those
oral linguistic skills, as children integrate within the discourse
oral the more formal structures and the concepts acquired through the
written language.

It is also important to consider the remarks of Horrocks and Sackett.

who clarify:

Generally, it is accepted that most children enter school with a

considerable ability to understand and use words orally, but it is limited the
number of those who are capable of reading them (and writing them) at that moment. Most of the
It is necessary to teach children” (Horrocks and Sackett, (1982: 9).

Therefore, regardless of the controversy surrounding the methods of

Global or phonetic teaching, it is necessary to keep in mind what is wanted.
achieve in the literacy process. Literate students are capable
to develop a dynamics to connect reading and writing to the left
to the right, line by line, word by word, spelling the words and
finding relationships between letters and sounds; and which are also capable of
process the letters and words without detriment to the attention and understanding of
meaning or content of the message, even managing to predict words in
function of the reading context, as well as understanding the concepts
contents in the texts
The optimal development of such competencies is strongly related to the
previous development of skills such as visual and auditory attention, the
phonetic skills, the ability to distinguish between different phonemes and
symbols, the understanding and use of vocabulary, the development of language in
general, as well as other perceptual and thinking skills. The relationship
the skills that the child develops are not free, nor is the
relationship of general psychological development with opportunities that
provides the social environment. This series of linguistic skills and
pre-academic skills in children can facilitate the learning of reading and
writing, regardless of the method used for its teaching
formal, while the failures in the development of such skills are
strongly associated with problems in various academic areas
(Guevara et al., 2007a).

According to Ferreiro's arguments, in the Latin American region it is common to

multiple problems arise in the literacy process,
especially in first grade: "we have not learned to drive"
adequately the first learnings, so that what should be
school progress becomes, in fact, a succession of failures. The
Failure in first grade is the failure of initial literacy.
(Ferreiro, 2004: 191-192).

This phenomenon is due to multiple factors, among which the following stand out
previous school learnings of the children.

In all the research conducted on this topic, we have repeatedly confirmed that
the children of parents [...] who frequently and routinely use written language [...]
they arrive at school with a series of knowledge acquired in social contexts of use
from that social object and, in addition, with a series of knowledge resulting from their explorations
active on written language (thanks to the books, magazines, and newspapers that are in the house;
thanks to the possibility of writing that pencils and blank papers offer in the
house; thanks to the information they received in various, completely informal contexts,
because they could ask and there was someone around capable of answering.

(Ferreiro, 2004: 187).

Ferreiro clarifies that those conditions of a literate environment are not met, or they are

partially fulfill, in homes where parents have little education

school and cultural; a situation that exacerbates social differences.

Inside the school, the teaching of reading and writing becomes

increasingly difficult, the reasons for this crisis are many, among them
We have: The lack of practice of habits for reading and writing, the limited access to
written elements (newspapers, posters, advertisements, books, magazines, etc.)
The development of learning activities in the area of communication
integral is performed routinely; relevant strategies are not used
that allow the development of abilities and attitudes that serve the child
later in situations of their life. On the other hand, the parents
they show little interest in supporting their children in completing their homework
schoolchildren.

The communication process is probably the activity that most influences

the behavior of human beings. Given the importance of communication in
humans, it is not surprising that language teaching is one of the
most prominent themes in all educational activities. All school teaching
it is offered through the use of the arts of language, since it cannot be
to dispense with these to communicate thoughts or impart knowledge.

Educators must know and familiarize themselves with theories and methodologies.
of literacy with the aim of applying those that in their opinion are
the most effective when it comes to approaching the teaching and learning process
from reading and writing. For this reason, educational institutions have
have as their main objective to educate their students,
this process begins with the teaching of writing and reading from the
first years of life, this is how the acquisition and development of
language is a goal of early childhood education. The aim of teaching
literacy in the classrooms is to develop the basic competencies of the
communication in students.

Specialists in the didactics of reading and writing prefer to talk about

learning processes rather than teaching methods. Thus
synthetic we can say that the process of learning to read and write is
more effective when we are able to place the child in a rich environment in
meaningful stimuli that involve activities of both writing and
of reading and that also aim to develop the child's oral language.

The learning of reading and writing is closely linked. Some

children begin to write before starting to read.

Once the child understands that each letter has a sound and that to
we write something 'we put' on the paper the words (sounds) that we are
thinking or saying, start to execute the first writing sketches
(although it does not correspond to what we understand by writing
conventional). Learning and understanding the spelling code helps to
child to start reading, to decode, even if they do not understand what they read. The
comprehension and reading speed go hand in hand with regular practice and
systematic, once the decoding process has been initiated.

In principle, Spanish is a language that does not present special problems.

because it is a phonetic language. The basis of reading and writing is language.
spoken. It's no secret that children who have greater ease for
communicate, more vocabulary richness and fluency, are the first ones who
they start to read.
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