Reading In The First Language Essay

3.3. Reading in the First Language Reading in the first language takes place at an early age. Research has demonstrated that the most appropriate age for children to start reading is between six to seven years old. Apparently, first language reading is an uncomplicated process due to the children’s oral familiarity with words. When native-speaking children commence to learn reading, in most of the time, they encounter with words they already know form their spoken language, they have developed a wide range of implicit knowledge of the morphology, phonology, and syntactic structure of their L1 (Nation, 2009; Grabe, 2009). Reading in the first language can take three stages. Shared reading is the first formal phase of reading in schools, wherein a teacher utilizes a large blown-up book. It is like a ‘parent reading a child bedtime story’. A story from the beforehand mentioned book is read; pictures and written language are also pointed out by the teacher. Learners are engaged in this activity so that to anticipate what to come next in the story (Nation, 2009). According to Nation (2009), guided reading can be

The linguistic resources that support comprehension are what differentiate L1 from L2 reading. The linguistic resources and knowledge of L1 immediately interfere when learners initiate reading in L2 (Grabe, 2009). Worded differently, before learning to read in a second language is undertaken, most L1 learners have already experienced learning to read in their native language. This is why L1 linguistic knowledge is transferred to L2 reading, two languages (L1 and L2) are simultaneously operating in the comprehension process. When learners, however, commence to read in their native language, they have no L1 reading experiences. In line with these, Bernhardt (2011)