L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature
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English as Mother Tongue in Australia
Get PDFThis article reports on some commonalities among the eight education systems in Australia in terms of mother-tongue education. It discusses the context in which mother-tongue education is conducted in Australia, in particular the “competition” to English-as-discipline that comes from “literacy” and from a growing trend towards inter-disciplinary, cross-curricular education
Invented Spanish spelling: Stress and intonation
Get PDFWhen children learn to write, they must ask themselves two basic questions: what part of the language is represented and how is it represented. Their answers are the source of their invented writings. This article reports data from interviews of Mexican Spanish-speaking children between the ages of 5 and 12 and analyses the child’s point of view about the necessity or the possibility of representing stress and some intonational oppositions. Both processes present undifferentiated writings which reveal that for children, at a given evolutionary stage, contrasts in stress and intonation are not retained in writing (which can be considered as an invented “non-writing”). Likewise, there are invented writings that show original ideas about what and how to represent in writing the linguistic contrasts proposed for their reflection; finally, quasi-conventional or conventional writings appear. Reflections on the universality of learning, problems with comparing graphic systems and their respective acquisition processes are also discussed, as serious consideration should be given to the concept that written languages are mixed and linked systems and not monolithic systems
Beginning spelling and literacy approaches: A comparative study between French and Québécois first-grade classes
Get PDFMany studies note the difficulties experienced by young children in learning deep writing systems (such as English and French) compared to those for which the link between the spoken and the written is shallower (e.g., Spanish and Italian). A large percentage of these studies are focused on English. As such, more research needs to be conducted with other first languages such as French. The present exploratory study seeks to understand the effects of these kinds of linguistic variable, along with the impact (which has received little attention) of instructional factors, on the competencies of first-grade, Frenchlanguage writers. Two kinds of instructional context are examined (integrated approach vs code-oriented approach) in two countries (France and Quebec, Canada). The main findings for invented spelling situations within an integrated-approach framework reveal that French and Quebec pupils construct a more complete view of the writing system. This construction includes both units involving the transcription of phonemes by phonograms and units involving the treatment of inaudible, semiographic information by morphograms
Early writing development in L1 English speaking children
Get PDFThis paper reports on the developmental and psychometric properties of an early writing task. The study was carried out over four years in Toronto, Canada with L1 English-speaking children. Two cohorts of children who began in Nursery School were followed to the end of their Grade 1 year. Children were administered the same writing task at four time points along with standardized measures of early reading. The early writing task required children to write words and number and word combinations; we examined how children move from understanding print as “objects” to understanding print as representation of sounds. We also examined how writing in Nursery School and Kindergarten related to later literacy skills. The methodology allowed us to examine the extent to which early writing in Nursery School (3 years old) and Junior Kindergarten (4 years old) predicted later literacy skills when children were in Grade 1 (6 years old) and were receiving formal reading instruction. Results show characteristic features of children’s early writing of number and word combinations at each of the four grade levels and show that performance on the writing task in Kindergarten predicted reading skills at the end of Grade 1
Interpreting writing of children with intellectual disabilities: A comparative study
Get PDFThis article reports the results of developmental test analyses on literacy conducted with children with intellectual disabilities in Quebec and Brazil. Grounded on studies carried out in Argentina by Ferreiro and Teberosky (1986), with children without intellectual disabilities, we deal, comparatively, with three aspects in the development of literacy in children with intellectual disabilities: their interpretation of fragments of writing, the connection they establish between letters and numbers, and their knowledge of letters. The level of intellectual disability just as the stimulation to reading are taken into account in the analysis of data related to the three aspects previously mentioned. Children with intellectual disabilities develop, in many aspects, similarly to the children without intellectual disabilities during emergent literacy. Nevertheless, they are less consistent in the use of writing classifying criteria, as well as in their discriminating letters from numbers. Although, the level of intellectual disability influenced the children’s progress greatly, the acquisition of the knowledge of letters differed mostly in accordance to the level of stimulation to reading
Integrating technology into mother-tongue education: Examples from Hebrew
Get PDFThis paper describes the current approach to the instruction of Hebrew as a mother-tongue (L1) language based on technological developments and on the relationship between technology and pedagogy. As such, we rely on well-known models of integrating computerized tools and distance learning in the educational system, while emphasizing the potential contribution of these environments to L1 education. At the core of this paper is the combination of linguistic and didactic approaches to L1 teaching that bring together both theoretical and functional aspects of learning and teaching language via a computer. The focus here is on technologically-based L1 learning environments that combine different types of computerized tools within a comprehensive language-learning/teaching system that is designed for facilitating and improving language skills. This system is cognitively motivated, and is modeled on a combination of elements, such as principles of constructivist, social, and active learning. The structural-conceptual framework of this environment complies with principles of both local and global connectivity and hierarchy. For example, at the local level, learning materials are connected through a hypertext structure; at the global level, the entire system is inter-connected, with assignments linked to dictionaries and relevant websites, and the learners themselves connected through email and forums. The teaching/learning processes that take place within this L1 environment are illustrated by examples of both online and offline computerized courses
Multicultural contexts and comprehension of youth literary texts
Get PDFBased on a comparison between 11 year old students who are monolingual French and bilingual French and Kabyle (one of the Berber languages) our research aims at showing how two specific factors influence understanding narratives: the first is the mode of presentation (oral vs written). It is combined with cultural aspects of the 1st language (from now on L1) in which children have been socialized; the task was a written recall of a Kabyle text. Our results show facilitating effects of the oral mode to access meaning and the positive role played by culture in mediating understanding, hence founding potential solutions to improve literacy in standard French in areas where the cultural diversity in the school population is very often associated with difficulties in learning the school language. Teaching should switch from an ethno-centered model to a multicultural one since to build knowledge requires explaining the symbolic systemic relations languages and cultures have with one another
Literature learning and task design in Hong Kong Chinese language text-books
Get PDFThe new high school Chinese language curriculum in Hong Kong (2002) calls for the integration of literature after more than two decades of emphasis on language skills learning. However, many language teachers do not really know how to incorporate literature instruction into a language class and rely heavily on textbooks. The textbook becomes the “hidden teacher”, guiding the content of learning, the sequence of teaching and the approaches to learning. Few teachers investigate the learning tasks designed by material writer(s) and question the nature of these tasks, or the underpinning pedagogy. This article reports on a survey of three sets of commonly used Chinese language textbooks in terms of the structure of learning units and the design of learning tasks for literary texts
Clashing cultures? Linking literature and hypertext at post-16
Get PDFThis paper argues that new digital genres clash with notions of a ‘traditional’ version of English, as represented in post-16 Advanced Level Literature exam courses in England. This argument is set within the context of an ongoing political imperative to integrate ICT into the school curriculum together with general optimism amongst many English teachers regarding the potential of particular uses of ICT to enhance teaching and learning in aspects of English (Andrews, 2001; Stevens & McGuinn, 2004). The paper focuses on hypertext which has been the subject of some exciting theoretical claims about its value for literary study, ranging from access to searchable databases, texts and research, to democratising the publishing process and changing the relationship between reader, writer and text (Delany & Landow, 1991; Landow, 1994; Joyce, 1996). The paper draws on a case study of an Advanced Level Literature classroom ‘design’ within the ESRC InterActive Education Project. The class experimented with the use of hypertext as a tool for researching and writing about literature. This revealed the dissonance between the subject culture of English Literature and the subject culture of ICT. Students attempted to negotiate altered reading and writing practices which were not readily compatible with the assessment demands and classroom practices of Advanced Level English Literature. This negotiation involved different levels of student resistance and compliance with the project of integrating technology into English literature study. The paper ends with some speculations about which aspects of ‘traditional’ English should be retained and valued in an age of information saturation and multimedia hype