2 Recognising environmental print

Recognising environmental print:

  • makes students feel successful at ‘reading’
  • motivates them to read more
  • lays the foundation for reading words, sentences and longer texts.

But exposure to environmental print does not automatically lead students to read. Students may initially learn to recognise words in specific environments but then do not recognise the same words when these are out of context.

Activity 2: Making the transition

Look at the two pictures in Figure 3. Both pictures contain the word ‘fish’. One has clues; the other does not. Which ‘fish’, do you think, is easier for a young student to read, and why would it be easier? Discuss your ideas with other teachers.

Figure 3 The importance of context.

Pause for thought

If you have words displayed on the walls of your classroom, are these words in isolation or do they have ‘clues’?

1 What is environmental print?

3 Introducing environmental print into the classroom