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The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis

Received: 15 April 2015    Accepted: 24 April 2015    Published: 7 May 2015
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Abstract

Children come to school with emergent literacy which teachers need to build on to enhance early literacy acquisition in both the first language (L1) and the target language (L2) which in the case of Ghana is English Language. One of the supporting systems used to enhance effective teaching and learning is meaningful gestures such as iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beat. The aim of the study is to find out how teachers use meaningful gestures to enhance effective teaching and learning of literacy in early childhood centres. Ten early childhood centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana, consisting of 5 public and 5 private schools were selected. Observation and interviews were used for the data collection and analysed. The result indicated that most teachers use meaningful gestures only when they are teaching recitation. Little attention is paid to the use of gestures in other literacy lessons such as storytelling, reading, listening and speaking, and community circle time. Based on the findings, it has been recommended that early childhood education teachers should be educated on the use of meaningful gestures alongside speech in promoting early literacy acquisition.

Published in International Journal of Elementary Education (Volume 4, Issue 3)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12
Page(s) 46-55
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Meaningful Gestures, Emergent Literacy, Early Childhood Education, Multimodality

References
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  • APA Style

    Lawrence Bosiwah, Joyce Esi Bronteng. (2015). The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. International Journal of Elementary Education, 4(3), 46-55. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12

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    ACS Style

    Lawrence Bosiwah; Joyce Esi Bronteng. The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Int. J. Elem. Educ. 2015, 4(3), 46-55. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12

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    AMA Style

    Lawrence Bosiwah, Joyce Esi Bronteng. The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Int J Elem Educ. 2015;4(3):46-55. doi: 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12,
      author = {Lawrence Bosiwah and Joyce Esi Bronteng},
      title = {The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis},
      journal = {International Journal of Elementary Education},
      volume = {4},
      number = {3},
      pages = {46-55},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijeedu.20150403.12},
      abstract = {Children come to school with emergent literacy which teachers need to build on to enhance early literacy acquisition in both the first language (L1) and the target language (L2) which in the case of Ghana is English Language. One of the supporting systems used to enhance effective teaching and learning is meaningful gestures such as iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beat. The aim of the study is to find out how teachers use meaningful gestures to enhance effective teaching and learning of literacy in early childhood centres. Ten early childhood centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana, consisting of 5 public and 5 private schools were selected. Observation and interviews were used for the data collection and analysed. The result indicated that most teachers use meaningful gestures only when they are teaching recitation. Little attention is paid to the use of gestures in other literacy lessons such as storytelling, reading, listening and speaking, and community circle time. Based on the findings, it has been recommended that early childhood education teachers should be educated on the use of meaningful gestures alongside speech in promoting early literacy acquisition.},
     year = {2015}
    }
    

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    T1  - The Power of Meaningful Gestures in Teaching and Learning Literacy in Early Childhood Education Centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis
    AU  - Lawrence Bosiwah
    AU  - Joyce Esi Bronteng
    Y1  - 2015/05/07
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    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12
    T2  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    JF  - International Journal of Elementary Education
    JO  - International Journal of Elementary Education
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    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2328-7640
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijeedu.20150403.12
    AB  - Children come to school with emergent literacy which teachers need to build on to enhance early literacy acquisition in both the first language (L1) and the target language (L2) which in the case of Ghana is English Language. One of the supporting systems used to enhance effective teaching and learning is meaningful gestures such as iconic, metaphoric, deictic, and beat. The aim of the study is to find out how teachers use meaningful gestures to enhance effective teaching and learning of literacy in early childhood centres. Ten early childhood centres in the Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region of Ghana, consisting of 5 public and 5 private schools were selected. Observation and interviews were used for the data collection and analysed. The result indicated that most teachers use meaningful gestures only when they are teaching recitation. Little attention is paid to the use of gestures in other literacy lessons such as storytelling, reading, listening and speaking, and community circle time. Based on the findings, it has been recommended that early childhood education teachers should be educated on the use of meaningful gestures alongside speech in promoting early literacy acquisition.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 3
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Author Information
  • University of Cape Coast, College of Humanities & Legal Studies, Department of Ghanaian Languages and Linguistics, Cape Coast, Ghana

  • University of Cape Coast, College of Education Studies, Department of Basic Education, Cape Coast, Ghana

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