L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
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Inhibitory control and literacy development among 3- to 5-year-old children
Get PDFIn the article, two competences crucial for the development of school readiness have been analyzed: literacy and inhibitory control. The author, availing himself of the premises of Lev S. Vygotsky\u27s theory, views the process of acquiring reading and writing skills as the development of a higher mental function – written speech. Early stages of the development of this function coincide also with the period of forming the so-called readiness to acquire reading and writing skills. It enables treating both the period before and after the beginning of formal training in literacy skills as the time during which the same developmental process operates. In addition, the author analyzes the importance of inhibitory control changes for consecutive stages of written speech development in preschoolers. This one of the most pivotal components of executive functions can be investigated already in two and a half year old children, enabling early identification of groups at risk of school difficulties. Assumptions concerning relationships between inhibitory control and literacy in the process of development were verified in a study of 336 children at the age of 3-5, with the use of Children Card Sort and Literacy Assessment Battery
The stability of gender-related differences in early reading development in Polish children
Get PDFThe role of gender in early reading development in Polish children was investigated. The longitudinal study was conducted from the middle of preparatory pre-school year to the middle of first grade. The rate and accuracy of reading words and pseudo-words of different length and degree of difficulty were measured in five successive measures. The same children 64 (40 girls and 24 boys) took part in each assessment. The aim was to analyse the stability of gender-related differences. The studies showed that gender significantly differentiates children in the early development of reading skills in favour of girls. Differences in the rate of reading between children appeared to be stable in the period covered by the study. Whereas differences in the accuracy of reading diminished considerably in the last, fifth measure falling in the middle of first grade
The first schoolbook – the tool of reproducing culture by the child or the tool of child\u27s participation in culture?
Get PDFWriting and print play an important role in the child\u27s learning: in creating, conveying, and exchanging meaning; consequently, they enable him/her to build an image of the world and him/herself and understand his/her own role in it. This paper aims to prove the hypothesis that in case of early school age children the first schoolbook, when created by themselves, can, as one of important sources of knowledge, be treated as a cultural text—open and simultaneously opening multiple interpretations and, also, as one of the tools that allow the child to build his/her own, cognitive, unique representation of the world of education and him/herself as a pupil in this world. Employing our analysis of the results of the research into the quality and efficacy of the programme Tworzę swój podręcznik - wiem czego i jak chcę się uczyć [I create my own schoolbook - I know what and how I want to learn], implemented as part of an experiment conducted among III-grade pupils in elementary schools, we show that the schoolbook can be a tool of learning culture, but also a tool of the child\u27s participation in culture. We claim that this is possible when the first schoolbook for children is created by children themselves rather than by adults. This is one of the conditions of reconstructing the concept of first children\u27s books. The results of qualitative research presented in this paper belong within the sphere of phenomenographical approach. In analyzing children\u27s narratives concerning their work on their own schoolbook for grades I-III, we proposed four perspectives (dimensions) of Intimate Nature of the Child\u27s Encounter with the Book: the idea of causality, reflection, cooperation and culture (Bruner, 2006)
The construction of ideal reader in German and Finnish text-books for literacy education
Get PDFThe article compares reading literacy education in Germany and Finland using the following curricula and textbooks intended to ten-year-old pupils as data: Finnish National Core Curriculum for Basic Education and the German Bildungsstandards, as well as of three Finnish and three German textbooks. Our analytical method is critical discourse analysis, which is used for the purpose of the comparison. We identify three important differences in the curricula that also affect the textbooks. In our analysis of the textbooks we focus on identifying their ideal readers, and, as a reflection of the differences between the curricula, find that these ideal readers differ between the German and Finnish data. We illustrate the ideal readers\u27 characteristics by analyzing extracts from the textbooks. The ideal reader in the Finnish textbooks is presented more as an independent actor who is interested in learning and whose prior knowledge is valuable whereas in the German textbooks the ideal reader is more depend-ent on guidance. According to our limited data, we consider this to be one of the key elements illustrating the differences in German and Finnish educational cultures
Questioning the Author in a Scandinavian context
Get PDFThe present study is a follow-up qualitative study to a quantitative intervention study in which the programme Questioning the Author (QtA) was evaluated in a Scandinavian context. The aim was to evaluate how teachers implement QtA discussion moves in small groups of six participants. The video recordings from the sessions were investigated in terms of QtA discussion moves. The study suggests that (a) implementing QtA takes time. During the first year of intervention, initial progress was made, but there were deviations from the intended model; during the second and third years, these deviations were mostly corrected. (b) Some strategies seemed to be practiced more efficiently than others were: segmenting, turning back, recapping, revoicing, segmenting and annotating. (c) The teachers´ strategies/discussion moves scaffolded the students´ comprehension processes and provided opportunities for reflections
Developmental changes of early reading skills in six-year-old Polish children and GraphoGame as a computer-based intervention to support them
Get PDFThe aim of this randomised crossover study was to investigate the development of reading skills in children with low letter knowledge in the first year of their formal reading instruction and to assess the effectiveness of GraphoGame Polish (PL) – intensive computer game-based training in recognition of grapheme-phoneme associations.
The results show that even though children with initial poor letter knowledge finally achieved the level of the reference group in terms of letter naming, there was still a significant gap between them in reading speed of words and pseudowords. The experiment investigating the training effectiveness did not show significant differences between the GraphoGame playing group and the group playing a maths game in respect to changes in letter knowledge. The reading skills of both groups of players increased between the assessments with a similar pace. The analysis of levels\u27 difficulty showed that differentiating between phonologically similar letters was more difficult than between visually similar letters for learners with reading acquisition difficulties. The findings of this study in comparison to other similar studies conducted for other languages are discussed together with its limitations and possible modifications which could improve GraphoGame efficacy for Polish poor readers
Teachers\u27 interpretations of the concept-context approach for L1 education
Get PDFIn 2003, the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences proposed two ways to improve secondary education in the Netherlands: concept-context rich education and the teacher as curriculum developer. In this study eleven L1 teachers explored these ideas by developing concept-context rich L1 education. Their interpretations of concept-context rich education and views on benefits of this approach are the focal point of this article. Data show that teachers have many different interpretations of concept-context rich education—some are reflected by the research literature while others are mentioned only by the teachers. Important benefits of concept-context rich education formulated by these teachers are: increased student motivation, student participation, and teacher motivation. By describing teachers\u27 views the research literature on concept-context rich education may be enhanced by focusing on teachers\u27 interpretations
Relations between the children\u27s spatial thinking and their linguistic and communicative skills
No full textIn this review we attempt to indicate the relations between the level of children\u27s spatial competence and their linguistic skills (producing texts, connected with a description of a picture and giving oral instructions).
After introducing theoretical findings connected with the development of competences we present our own research among children aged 5-10. To show the dependencies between the spatial and linguistic competence of the children we conducted two quasi-experiments. The first task for the children involved producing a description of the arrangement of bricks presented in a picture. In the second one the children were to produce oral instructions which allowed the interlocutor to build an arrangement of Lego bricks (dynamic system). We begin the presentation of the research results by analyzing the linguistic expressions used by the pupils to describe the spatial relations in the static description, and then we provide the analysis of the noticed dependencies between the spatial and the linguistic (text-producing) competences. We follow the same order during the analysis of the texts produced while children\u27s giving instructions in a dynamic situation. Conclusions from the conducted research confirm the existence of significant dependencies between the spatial competence and the linguistic skill (including creating texts) of children
The Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts in the United States and teaching English language learners: Focus on writing
Get PDFThe K-12 student population in many English-dominant countries is becoming increasingly diverse. In the United States, the number of English Language Learners (ELLs) has increased significantly over the past two decades. This increase leads educators to consider the professional preparation of English/literacy teachers to work with ELLs, especially in the area of writing instruction. Yet this student population is consistently ignored when content standards are conceptualized. This was the case with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in English Language Arts, which were designed for a general student population, and provide little guidance for English/literacy teachers who have ELLs in their classrooms. This article draws on an analysis of the expectations for writing addressed in the CCSS to describe student expectations for writing at each grade level, showing how the standards become more specialized through the grade levels. We highlight key concepts that students, and English/literacy teachers, would need to know in the area of writing. We then conceptualize what the CCSS are missing in regards to the English/literacy teacher knowledge base for teaching writing to ELLs