My Literacy Autobiography

My Literacy Autobiography

My literacy journey began since I was a toddler. My mother tells me that at my tender age, I struggled to read even before I got admitted at a nearby preschool. Inspired by the determination that I had, she took it by herself to teach me. It wasn’t a smooth ride, though as I was venturing into uncharted waters. I can vividly recall a moment when I moved my lips as I stared at words to a book. While all I could see in the book were hieroglyphs, I had spotted my elder sister and other adults in the family moving their lips—it is the reason why I did it too! I would later learn that the movement of lips was in accordance to the book contents and was a characteristic of reading aloud (Stothard et al, 246).

While reading now seems like a walk in the park to me, I understand that it took a lot of effort to acquire the skill, especially when I was still young. At the time, deciphering the meaning of letters and linking them together to make sense demanded lots of brainpower. It still does today, but the experience I have gathered over the years with regards to reading has made it a bit easier.

My parents are native English speakers and I grew up in an English-dominated environment. Therefore, it is conclusive that the first word I learned to read was an English word. More specifically, my mother tells me that her efforts bore fruits when I was able to comprehend the word ‘the’ from a kindergarten storybook. It took me less than a month to read a whole sentence, which was remarkable in my standards. From then, everything else seemed to fall in place. In fact, the people who were close to me as I grew up have informed me that from the start, I was indeed a quick learner.

While at the elementary school, I was passionate about reading books that touch on human history. I was fascinated by the short stories about the pioneers of the West and could re-read the story over and over again. To me, it was as if time stopped for a moment. In fact, I derived my pleasure by reading the stories out loud to a small crowd of my peers (Wigfield et al, 420). Currently, things have changed--I do not read stories to my friends anymore. However, my love for reading is unwavering and unconditional. It is one of those things that enable me to unwind from a hectic day in class.

During my early teens, the monotony of reading in one language pushed me to learn other languages. Today, I can read fluently the texts that are written in other languages like French and Spanish. I have made significant steps in learning how to read in the German language, but still, English is my most preferred language.

Over the years, my taste for reading has changed for the better. The reading skills I have gained so far enable me to read large volumes of books in a week. This was not possible a few years ago because I was a slow reader. Also, I have learned various techniques that are applicable according to the time, subject, and the urgency to absorb the information.

Work Cited

Stothard, Susan E., and Charles Hulme. "Reading comprehension difficulties in children." Reading and Writing 4.3 (1992): 245-256.

Wigfield, Allan, and John T. Guthrie. "Relations of children's motivation for reading to the amount and breadth or their reading." Journal of Educational Psychology 89.3 (1997): 420.