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According to MOE's curriculum Language and Literacy's guide (2013), language is defined as the listening and speaking in a system that consists of its own rules and conventions while literacy is the reading and writing so as to make sense of print and convey meaning with the use of print. The development of language and literacy in children is aided by their experiences in their environment, such as at home, in school and in the community. Children began building their own knowledge and use language and concrete representations such as drawing, and writing, to convey what they know and have learnt through interaction with various individuals and objects (cited in MOE, 2013, p.5).

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The importance of baby talk
Babies first start learning language by listening not to individual words, but to the rhythm and intonation of the speech stream – that is, the changes between high and low pitch, and the rhythm and loudness of syllables in speech. According to UConn researcher Nairán Ramírez-Esparza, an infant’s babbling plays an important role in future language development. When that babbling is prompted by one-on-one interaction with a parent speaking the exaggerated, animated baby talk style often used by mom and dad when talking to their little ones – the results predict heightened language acquisition skills cited in Foran, S, 2014).

Baby talk's milestones
In this video below, we are given a list of babies' milestones from birth to 24 months. This video also includes baby talk milestones and it provides a clearer image of what parents should expect of their children at different age of their first 24 months.

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Baby and Toddler Milestones, Dr. Lisa Shulman

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Literacy for young children begins with speaking and listening to words and sentences. According to Roskos, Tabors, and Lenhart (2009), oral language is the foundation of learning to read and write. For children
to become literate, they need to hear language spoken around them. They need to speak it themselves.
Learning the sounds of language is the key to their later recognition of written words and letters. Teachers
need to spend time daily talking to individuals about things they find interesting, and motivating
other children to join in the talk.

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the sounds of the language (Adkins, E. M, 2018).

Although phonemic awareness does not involve decoding or reading any words, phonemic awareness has been found to be a strong predictor of reading achievement during a child’s first years in school. According to the National Reading Panel (2000), instruction in phonemic awareness helps children read words and pseudo-words (e.g., bax, mib). Thus, phonemic awareness helps children to learn how to recognize familiar words and decode words they have never seen before (FBL, 2016).

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What Is Phonemic Awareness? | Reading Lessons

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This activity enables children to enjoy while singing along and at the same time also allowing them to remember the alphabets letter sounds through rhythm.

This resource offers listening and learning of letter sounds through the rhythm of the song and this relates to listening comprehension focus area, which is supported by a research by Gromko (2005) showed that children who receive musical training will
develop aural skills for spoken sounds and spoken words faster than children who did not receive musical instruction (cited in Chau, C., & Riforgiate, T., 2010).

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ABC Song | Learn ABC Alphabet for Children | Education ABC Nursery Rhymes

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Vocabulary is critical to comprehension and expression of thoughts and ideas. From understanding simple directions and conveying basis needs to understanding complex text and conveying intricate information, vocabulary is central across the range of social and academic domains (Silverman, R. D., 2014).

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This activity allows children to follow and move along to the action song as the characters have an adventure in the jungle. At some parts of the song, the characters will stop and listen to the sound of the animals they encountered. This also allow children to identify the animals based on the sounds.

This resource offers the identifying of the animals sounds and this relates to listening skill focus area. Anvari
et al. (2002) found that music skills were correlated with phonological awareness and early reading skills. The basic auditory skills for music perception were similar to early reading skills which shared some of the same auditory mechanisms that predicted reading ability (cited in Chau, C., & Riforgiate, T., 2010).

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Walking In The Jungle | Kids Song | Super Simple Songs

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This activity allows children to be interested and engaged as the author adapted this book from a story with an apparent rhythm. When sharing the book to the children, the teacher can imitate to read the story with rhythm which will encourage phonological awareness and reading fluency in children. This story also interestingly has a repetitive phrase that differs slightly based on every new obstacle that the family encounter. This enable children to catch the phrase and read the story from memory.

This resource offers vocabulary through the repetitive words in the book and this relates to vocabulary
focus area, which is supported by Researcher Dr Jessica Mordsley, she said, students retain vocabulary in additional languages more easily when these are taught through song, compared to normal speech (Mordsley, J, 2017).

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Michael Rosen performs We're Going on a Bear Hunt

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This activity allows children to build on their phonological awareness as the teacher says the word ‘tur-tle’ and claps out the 2 syllables to help the children be aware of syllables in words. The teacher then gets the children to do the same with words such as ‘c-at’, and ‘pa-rrot’.

This resource offers the constructing on their phonological awareness and this relates to phonology focus area. Phonemic awareness and letter knowledge have been identified in several research studies (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, & Wilkerson, 1985; Adams, 1990; Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998) as the two key indicators of how well children will master beginning reading skills during the first two years in school. Because it plays such a vital role in forming the foundation of reading development, phonemic awareness is the first thread in the tapestry of reading ( cited in Tankersley, K, 2018).

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This activity allows children to match sound of the word to the colour and print. In this activity, children are follow and catch the fish according to the verbal command of the teacher. For example, if the teacher says, 'r-ed", the child is required to use the fishing rod to catch the red fish.
This activity also helps in the gross and fine motor skill of the child as he/she grasps the rod and aim to pick the fish up.

This resource offers to build on their phonological awareness and this relates to phonology focus area. According to Researchers Adams, Foorman, Lundberg, & Beeler (1998), before children learn to read, they must understand that the sounds that are paired with the letters are the same as the sounds of speech they hear. They state, “For those of us who already know how to read and write, this realisation seems very basic, almost transparent. Nonetheless, this research tells that the very notion that spoken language is made up of sequences of these little sounds does not come naturally or easily to human beings” (cited in Tankersley, p.1).

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This activity allows children to involved in the story by using prompts and asking different types of questions. Gradually the interaction moves from being teacher-led to one in which the children do more of the talking and storytelling.

This resource offers learning of new vocabulary words and this relates to vocabulary focus area. Bus, van IJzendoorn, and Pellegrini (1995) said that “book reading is as strong a predictor of reading achievement as phoneme awareness” (p. 17) after  conducting a quantitative meta-analysis of 31 experimental studies of storybook reading over three decades (cited in Yaden, D. B., Rowe, D. W., & MacGillivray, L., 1999).

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CONNECT Video 6.10: Dialogic reading with Katy

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Chau, C., & Riforgiate, T. (2010). The influence of music on the development of children.

Foran, S. (2014). The importance of baby talk. Retrieved August 29, 2018 from https://today.uconn.edu/2014/01/the-importance-of-baby-talk/

Mckay, A. (2018).

What Is Language Acquisition? - Theories & Stages. Retrieved August 29, 2018 from https://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-language-acquisition-theories-stages-quiz.html

Ministry of Education. (2013). Language and Literacy. Retrieved August 29, 2018 from https://www.moe.gov.sg/docs/default-source/document/education/preschool/files/nel-edu-guide-language-literacy.pdf

Mordsley, J. (2017). Why use rhythm, rhyme and repetition in language class? Retrieved August 29, 2018 from https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/why-use-rhythm-rhyme-and-repetition-language-class

Silverman, R. D. (2014). Developing vocabulary and oral language in young children. New York: The Guilford Press.

Tankersley, K. (2018).

Readiness/Phonemic Awareness. Retrieved August 28, 2018 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103316/chapters/Readiness~Phonemic-Awareness.aspx

Yaden, D. B., Rowe, D. W., & MacGillivray, L. (1999). Emergent literacy: A polyphony of perspectives. Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, University of Michigan.

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This activity allows children to learn the skills of public speaking. The child is required to bring an item to school, and he/she will start sharing to the class why this particular item is chosen, where they got it, and other relevent information. For younger children, the educator will prompt the child by asking a series of questions such as, "Where did you get this?" etc.

This resource encourages the use of english language with confidence and this relates to vocabulary focus area. Chomsky's linguistic theory states that we are born with an innate ability to learn language, and with little guidance, children will naturally learn language. Chomsky argues we must be born with a language acquisition device, an area in our brains that makes learning language a natural event (Mckay A, 2018).

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This activity allows children to have a pleasurable time and experience with books while providing an oral English models for both book and spoken language. It also introduce children to beginning reading skills through engaging stories and story-related activities. Shared book approach also enable educators to teach and reinforce vocabulary and language structures (MOE, 2013).

This resource offers oral english models for the book and spoken language and this relates to phonological awareness focus area, which is supported by Sulzby & Teale (1991), according to them, children build concepts about literacy by observing adults in their surrounding and by interacting with print during their own early attempts at reading and writing (as cited in

Yaden, D. B., Rowe, D. W., & MacGillivray, L.,1999).

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Shared Book Approach in Starlight English Language Lessons

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Teachers can get children to form a circle and begin with the game; "Simon says". Children are required to listen and follow the instruction carefully. For example, when the teacher says, 'Simon says, sit down!" and they children will have to follow and sit down.

This resource offers listening and understanding to the vocal command given and this relates to listening comprehension focus area.  According to Vygotsky (1962) language plays two critical roles in cognitive development: firstly, it is the key medium in which information is passed on from adults to children. Secondly, language itself is a very powerful tool of intellectual adaptation (cited in McLeod, S, 2018).

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This activity allows children to learn vocabulary through flashcards. Children have to listen and follow to
verbal commands, for example if the teacher says, "helicopter!", children will have to look for the "helicopter" flashcard and pass it to the teacher.

This resource offers learning of vocabulary by matching the sound to the image and word and this relates to vocabulary focus area. B.F. Skinner argued that both language acquisition and development are learned behaviors. Behaviorists believe we learn by associating events, known as classical conditioning. We also learn through rewards and punishments, a process known as operant conditioning. Another aspect of behaviorism is that we learn by observation and imitation (Mckay, A, 2018).

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A quick way to learn vocabulary through Flashcards . It connects them with learning with a fun and cheerful way. Flash Cards, Flash Card, Flashcards for kids, Flashcards games, Flashcards games for kids, Pre k flashcards, vocabulary flashcards, using of flashcards, flashcards use for kids, ideas for using flashcards, ideas for using flash cards, baby flashcards, flashcards for preschoolers.