Abstract

Critical literacy is usually considered higher-order thinking or critical thinking while emergent literacy learners are in the early stage of learning to read and write and held accountable by most mandates to learn foundational literacy skills such as the alphabetic principle and phonemic awareness. The question is: “Are emergent literacy learners capable of learning critical literacy and foundational literacy skills simultaneously?” This paper explores the question by first reviewing and discussing the terms “critical literacy” and “emergent literacy learners.” Then an example is provided to show that critical literacy can be taught to emergent literacy learners. This is followed by a demonstration of how to incorporate the instruction of foundational literacy skills into the critical literacy lesson given previously. This paper argues that emergent literacy learners can learn both critical literacy and foundational literacy skills at the same time if proper scaffolding is provided.

Keywords: literacy education, critical literacy, emergent literacy, literacy foundations

How to Cite:

Lee, C., (2024) “Teaching Critical Literacy and Foundational Literacy Skills to Emergent Literacy Learners”, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 13(1), 49–66.