Developing literacy presents certain challenges in remote contexts for a
range of reasons; however, these reasons are not insurmountable, though
they do present significant obstacles.

If I need to start somewhere, I will cite the lack of a literate tradition
as one factor to consider. In non-remote contexts, children are exposed to
literate behaviour in a range of forms from a very early age. A literate
sensibility is reinforced in literate environments. And a literate
environment is one which is stacked with literate artefacts (e.g. books,
magazines, list on refrigerators) and populated by readers and writers.
However, children in remote communities are growing up in environments with
few age-appropriate books and fewer role models who exhibit the diverse
habits of a literate individual. 

Furthermore - in remote contexts - it is often the case that learners are
brought into literacy in a language that is not their mother tongue. If
early literacy experiences were about rendering in print that which is
spoken, then English language learners face additional barriers to see the
relationship between speech, writing and reading. In addition to the
language barrier, there is also the cultural barrier. It is understood that
readers are better able to engage and understand what they read when they
have the prior knowledge/experience/schema to find the reading meaningful,
not to mention access to an experienced reader to aid reading. However, it
is often the case that the learners are exposed to texts which (a) use an
unnatural (or unfamiliar) flow of language and (b) do not connect with the
learner’s experiences (or desire to attach meaning). Whilst these texts may
provide “exercises in reading”, there is some doubt as to the meaning being
extracted from such text. A child might “read” the text, but does the child
understand what he or she is reading?

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