Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1.04 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Our aim was to characterise the relationships between literacy practises developed in Portuguese
kindergartens and children’s conceptualisations about the functions and nature of written language.
The participants were 16 kindergarten teachers and 160 five-year-old children – i.e. a 1:10 teacher/child
ratio. We developed an observation grid to characterise their literacy practises. It covers two main aspects
of the teachers’ work: reading, writing and metalinguistic practises (14 items) and ways of supporting
children’s attempts to read and write (16 items). It was used by two observers who spent two weeks in the
kindergartens. The kindergarten teachers were divided into three groups depending on their literacy practises.
In order to characterise the children’s conceptualisations about written language, in October and
May we assessed both their perceptions of the objectives and functions of written language and their
invented spelling. The results show that there are close relationships between literacy practises pursued
by the three groups of kindergarten teachers and the children’s conceptualisations about written language.
Description
Keywords
Literacy practices Conceptualisations Written language Preschool children
Citation
L1 – Educational Studies in Language and Literature, 7 (3), 147-171
Publisher
International Association for the Improvement of Mother Tongue Education