Factors Affecting Literacy Development

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According to Eric Jong, (2003) “A book burrows into your life in a very profound way because the experience of reading is not passive. Content Area Literacy is the ability to use all the literacy (reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, questioning and thinking) for the acquisition of new content in a given discipline”. Content Area Literacy deals with the challenges of reading in the academic area that is currently being taught by the teacher. Teachers furnish students scaffolding (support) which enables and helps them understand content information. Hence the use of scaffold in this sense relates to instructional strategies and techniques that teachers introduce and use in their classes in an effort for students to read and write effectively. Subsequently, there are various factors that influence Content Area Literacy; some of these factors are Student Based, Text Based and School Based. Additionally, these factors are broken down into smaller factors such as the readability level of the text is too high, the size of the class, lack of resources both human and material and the relationship between student and teacher. Firstly, one factor that influences Content Area Literacy is the readability level of the text is too advanced/complex , this factor speaks to the texts/materials provided for students to grasp concepts are at a level above their level of comprehension hence, the level of text ought to be considered. It should be the priority of the teacher to ensure that the text being used in the Content Area Literacy class is appropriate for the age group being taught. If the specific book is too advanced for the reader then the reader will not be able to comprehend printed material, this will also mean that the reader will lose interest and motivation and as such the reader will also lose focus. When this happens the reader finds the material dull and
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