ABSTRACT
Before formal instruction can begin in school, children need to have established certain concepts about words, print and reading, drawn from their experience of texts in the environment, home and community. The orchestration of reading combines semantic cues (meaning), syntactic cues (sentence grammar and punctuation) and graphophonic cues (the relationship between letters and sounds). Debates about the most effective way to teach phonics need to be related to wider processes of teaching early reading, including reading strategies and behaviours to support children’s fluent reading and comprehension. Establishing a rich reading environment and a pluralistic approach in the early years will help overcome possible barriers to children becoming successful readers. Teachers also need to know about children’s experience of texts at home, including on-screen reading, so they can devise effective strategies to support their school-based reading.
