| Abstrakt: |
Learning to read and write constitutes a central part of becoming literate. From an emergent literacy perspective, learning to write starts during the first years of a child’s life, fostered by experiences that permit and promote meaningful interaction with oral and written language. Data from a research study that took place in 11 pre-primary education classes in the region of Achaia, Greece, is reported. The early children’s attempts to write are in the center of this paper. Written samples by 172 pupils (aged 47-71 months), who were in the pre-alphabetic spelling phase, the period preceding the phonographic or conventional spelling, are analyzed. During this phase, even though the children have not yet discovered the letter sound correspondence, they demonstrate a great amount of knowledge of what is written language, how it works and what are its purposes. The results of the study suggest that reading and writing development is a strictly interrelated process and pre-school education reinforces literacy by creating context of decontextualized language use. The educational implications of the findings are also discussed. The main argument is that kindergarten education could significantly help the development of early literacy, but it is important to adopt an approach that starts from what children know and gives them opportunities to communicate by writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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