Early recognition of spelling problems in invented stories: analysis of the writing processes of a dyad of newly literate students
Submitted by:
Eduardo Calil
Abstract:
Assuming that Early Recognition (ER) for Spelling Problems (SP) identified by newly literate students can be an indicator of metalinguistic ability, this study aims to analyse when and what are the SP recognized in advance in collaborative writing processes. We understand the ER when there is SP identification before a certain letter or word to be placed on paper. Based on Textual Genetics, within an enunciative approach, we used the Ramos System (Multimodal capture system for writing processes in real classroom context) method to collect data. We have recorded 6 proposals of textual production from the same dyad of students (B. and L., age 7) of a primary school in Vagos, Portugal. The teacher asked each pair of students to invent and write a story. Alternately, one student was responsible for writing and the other should dictate. The unit of analysis was the dialogue between the students while they were writing. 633 words have been entered in 6 textual productions. We identified 56 anticipations of SP distributed evenly by the students (B. anticipated 30, while L. 26). The SPs were recognized both in terms of lexical order (mechanical forms: spelling and capitalization) and grammatical order (grammar forms: verbs, articles). However, we highlight two aspects: the high incidence of types of Lexical SP, but also a significant interference of homonymy (homography and homophonic) in cases of Grammatical SP. These results of the case study suggest that educational proposals of collaborative writing favour spontaneous ER from SP thus contributing to the meta-linguistic reflection of the two students involved.
Key-words: Primary school, Metalinguistic knowledge, Ongoing text.
References:
CALIL, Eduardo. (2016) O sentido das palavras e como eles se relacionam como texto em curso:estudo sobre comentários semânticos feitos por uma díade de alunas de 7 anos de idade. Revista ALFA, 60 (3).
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Gombert, E. J. (1992) Metalinguistic Development. Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Myhill, D. A., and S. M. Jones (2015) “Conceptualising Metalinguistic Understanding.” Cultura y Educacion 27 (4), pp. 839-867.