Singing and Literacy: An Initial Investigation in St. Vincent and the Grenadines

This paper describes an initial exploration of the informal singing culture in one school/ community site in a small Caribbean nation, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). The first author’s collaborative work with teachers in SVG on literacy pedagogy provided the opportunity to explore the oral culture practices in which SVG children engage, and to think about the potential these informal practices might hold for children’s literacy development. Current research into connections between children’s musicking and their literacy readiness and literacy development supports our understanding that embodied experiences with rhythm, metre, phrase, rhyme, language play and sound play are of vital importance to both musical and literacy development. We describe several examples of SVG oral culture singing, graciously shared by various culture bearers. We posit that a respectful awareness of the significance of oral traditions and of children’s oral culture practices is essential for literacy educators.