Nature and measurement of the written register in Spanish- and English -speaking preconventional readers.

Abstract

The study addresses the composition and measurement of the written register in Spanish- and English-speaking kindergarten children. Early literacy researchers have suggested that children's familiarity with the characteristics of written language (the written register) may constitute a foundation for literacy acquisition. This hypothesis has not been tested, in part due to confusion about the composition of the construct in children who cannot yet read conventionally, and also due to measurement difficulties. The literature identifies four sets of traits that may be part of the written register in preconventional readers: Stylistic elements, Integration elements, Cohesion elements and Story Structure elements. This study proposes an explanatory model of these elements of narrative performance, based on three factors: a stylistic, a syntactic and a story structure factor. Factor analysis and regression analysis are used to test the adequacy of the three-factor model, and results suggest that this model fits the data adequately but that a fourth factor---audience awareness---may also be important. The study also compares two narrative tasks in their ability to reliably and validly measure children's familiarity with the written register. Results show that Emergent Reading from a familiar book is a reliable and valid task to measure children's use of stylistic and syntactic aspects of the written register, as long as a control for children's familiarity with the stimulus book is used. Pretend Reading from a wordless book also appears as a valid measure but, since it produces shorter language samples, it seems to be less reliable than Emergent Reading. Finally, the study also compares the manifestation of the written register in two language populations. Results show that the English- and Spanish-speaking children perform similarly in most components of the written register, and that any significant differences may be explainable in part through different access to books and specific language differences. In general, the study provides useful insights for the study and measurement of the written register in preconventional readers.Ph.D.Bilingual educationDevelopmental psychologyEducationLanguage artsLanguage, Literature and LinguisticsLinguisticsPsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/123715/2/3096211.pd