A 12-week study concentrated on the improvement and development of literacy skills in the young child, aiming to encourage emergent reading ability, written language development, and oral expression. A process-centered classroom program was designed for 25 kindergarten students to become competent users of language. Students were exposed to a wide variety of reading materials with opportunities to compose various types of written communications. The activities used were sensitive to individual needs in language acquisition. Strategies used were shared reading, large and small group re-reading, dramatization, letter identification, class- and individually-created books, use of environmental print, individual journal writing, writing cooperatively or by dictation, sustained silent reading, and peer tutoring. Outcomes of the study were measured by comparison of language skills observed and recorded on a checklist, anecdotal notes, informal inventories, and individual conferences and teacher evaluation. Results indicated that students improved in literacy skills, were enthusiastic, self-confident, and eager to read books or any printed materials available. (Two tables of data and 2 figures are included and 117 references are attached. Appendixes include: interview questions, informal inventory bar graphs, tables showing frequency distributions and scores, language skills observation checklist, informal evaluation summary sheet, parent letter, sample weekly lesson plan, student dictated writing samples, model for teaching kindergarten language, hierarchy of teacher strategies, and student writing samples.) (Author/MG)