Faculty of Education Competitive Grants

Project Title: Identification of constructs underlying emergent literacy and developed literacy

Chief Investigator: Dr Linda Byrnes and Ms Man Ching Esther Chan

Funded by: 2008 Melbourne Graduate School of Education Competitive Grant

Project Summary: Drawing upon Chall's (1982) reading stages and Griffin's (2007) assessment framework, this study will identify and define early years literacy skills emerging across ages four to six years. The skills will be mapped onto the main themes of later literacy as characterised in the VELS and relevant theory. Tools that assess these skills will be subjected to content analysis to evaluate their adequacy in describing children's development and progress, and to inform the development of a pilot tool.  Study outcomes will contribute to current projects running in the Faculty and to the development of early literacy measures used in those projects.