Development of Writing Skills in Children in Diverse Cultural Contexts: Contributions to Teaching and Learning

Contents
Contributors
About the Editors
Chapter 1: Development, Teaching, and Learning of Writing: From Word to Text
1.1 Introduction
1.2 The Role of Linguistic Knowledge of Grammar and Vocabulary in the Composition of Written Texts
1.3 The Role of Metacognitive and Metalinguistic Activities in Written Composition and in Learning to Write
1.4 Writing Different Text Genres in Different Social Contexts
1.5 Difficulties in Writing: The Challenges That Children Face with Transcription and Composition Processes
1.6 The Role of Interventions in Writing Development
1.7 Final Remarks
References
Part I: Spelling, Vocabulary, and Grammar in Written Texts
Chapter 2: Learning to Spell in Brazilian Portuguese: Children’s Patterns of Spelling Errors and Unconventional Word Segmentation
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Learning to Spell
2.2.1 The Object of Learning: Spelling
2.2.2 The Nature of the Spelling in Which One Learns to Write
2.3 The Development of Children’s Spelling Skills in Brazilian Portuguese
2.3.1 Context-Sensitive and Morphological Regularities in Brazilian Portuguese Spelling
2.3.2 Children’s Spelling Errors in Brazilian Portuguese Writing
2.3.3 Unconventional Lexical Segmentation in Brazilian Portuguese Writing
2.4 Cognitive Skills for Learning to Spell in Brazilian Portuguese
2.5 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 3: Grammar as a Resource for Developing Metalinguistic Understanding About Writing
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Theoretical Framework
3.2.1 Grammar as Choice
3.2.2 Metalinguistic Understanding
3.3 Methodology
3.3.1 Sample
3.3.2 Collaboration with Teachers
3.3.3 Data Collection and Data Sources
3.3.4 Data Analysis
3.4 Findings
3.4.1 Improving Writing Through Grammatical Choices
3.4.2 Lexical Choice as ‘Better Words’
3.4.3 Articulating the Grammar-Meaning Link
3.5 Discussion
3.5.1 The Impact of High-Stakes Assessment on the Power to Choose
3.5.2 Informed Choices
3.5.3 The Locus of Control
3.6 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 4: The Role of Grammar and Vocabulary for Writing Instruction in School
4.1 Introduction
4.1.1 The Debate About Teaching Grammar in the Spanish-Speaking World
4.1.2 Grammar in the Curriculum of Latin America
4.1.3 Grammar Teaching Integrated with Writing
4.1.4 Teaching Vocabulary as Part of Writing
4.1.5 Writing Problems Related to Grammar and Vocabulary
4.2 The Activity: Teaching Grammar and Vocabulary Integrated to Writing
4.2.1 Participants
4.2.2 The Writing Activity
4.2.3 Writing Tests to Evaluate the Impact of the Activity
4.2.4 Analysis of the Written Texts
4.2.4.1 Grammar
4.2.4.2 Vocabulary
4.2.4.3 Textual Structure
4.3 Results
4.3.1 Differences Between the Groups in the Pretest
4.3.2 Descriptive Results
4.3.3 Analysis of Impact Results
4.3.4 Further Analysis
4.4 Discussion
4.5 Final Remarks
References
Part II: The Composition Processes of Writing Texts
Chapter 5: “Who Is Going to Read the Story That I Have Written?” The Role of the Audience in Textual Revision Made by Children
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Revision and the Writing Process
5.2.1 Revision Operations and the Nature of the Changes Made by the Writer
5.2.2 Revision and Moments of Text Writing
5.2.3 Reasons for Making Changes
5.2.4 The Role of the Interlocutor
5.2.4.1 The Interlocutor as a Partner in Writing Texts
5.2.4.2 The Interlocutor as an Audience in Writing Texts
5.3 “Who Is Going to Read the Story That I Have Written?” A Study on the Role of the Audience in Textual Revision Made by Children
5.3.1 Characteristics of the Changes Made
5.3.2 Reasons for Making Changes
5.3.3 Change of Reader
5.4 General Discussion
5.5 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 6: The Effect of Low-Level Writing Process on Written Narrative Textual Competence in Kindergarten and Primary School Children
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Low-Level Processes of Writing: Transcription
6.3 High-Level Writing Processes: Text Writing
6.4 Relationships Between High- and Low-Level Production Processes in Written Composition
6.5 What Research Tells Us
6.6 Low-Level Writing Ability and Textual Competence in Emergent Literacy
6.7 Narratives in Emergent Literacy
6.7.1 Measuring “Writing Before Writing”
6.7.2 Measuring “Narrative Competence”
6.7.3 Lower-Level Writing Skills and Textual Narrative Competence in the Novice Writer
6.8 Starting Formalized Literacy: Novice Writers
6.9 To Tell a Story, To Write It: The Bridge Between Oral and Written Language
6.9.1 Measuring Transcription Ability
6.10 The Development of Narrative Textual Competence Across Oral and Written Language in the Transition
6.11 Lower-Level Writing Skills and Textual Narrative Competence in Expert Writers
6.11.1 Progress in Spelling
6.11.2 Progress in Writing Narrative Text
6.12 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 7: Grammatical Choices and Narrative Quality in the Collaborative Writing of Primary School Students
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Metalinguistic Knowledge and Metalinguistic Activity
7.3 Teaching Writing and Grammar in Portugal: Guidelines Since 2009
7.4 Collaborative Writing
7.5 Evaluating Writing Quality at School
7.6 Methodology
7.6.1 Didactic Protocol and Data Collection
7.6.2 Material and Categories of Analysis
7.7 Results
7.7.1 Children’s Metalinguistic Activity
7.7.2 Narrative Quality and Metalinguistic Activity
7.8 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 8: The Development of Rhetorical Preferences in the Analytical Writing of Spanish Students from Elementary to Higher Education
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Selected Illustrations of Rhetorical Options
8.3 Linguistic and Rhetorical Features of Analytical Essays
8.4 Study Goals and Methodological Approach
8.5 Pedagogical Input
8.6 Text Analysis
8.7 Results
8.7.1 Development of Rhetorical Preferences by School Level (Goal 1)
8.7.2 Influence of Pedagogical Work on Rhetorical Preferences (Goal 2)
8.7.3 Developmental and Tutored Changes in Analytical Text Writing
8.8 Final Remarks
References
Part III: Difficulties in Acquiring and Developing Writing Skills
Chapter 9: Morphological Analysis and Its Impact on Written Language Development in Children With and Without Language Disorders
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Written Language Development
9.2.1 From a Constructivist Approach
9.2.2 From a Cognitivist Approach
9.3 Written Language Development in Children with Language Disorders
9.4 Morphology and Its Impact on Written Language Development
9.5 Experiences from Intervention
9.6 Morphological Intervention with Three Cases of Children with Language Disorders
9.6.1 Planning Intervention Tasks
9.6.2 Interventions from the Practice
9.7 Discussion
9.8 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 10: Difficulties in Acquiring and Developing Writing Skills
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Describing the Production of Written Text
10.2.1 Word-Level Skills
10.2.2 Sentence-Level Skills
10.2.3 Text-Level Performance
10.3 Children Learning to Write
10.3.1 Languages They Write
10.4 Writing Pedagogy and Interventions
10.5 Final Remarks
References
Part IV: Writing Practices in Different Social Environments
Chapter 11: Nurturing Writing of Narrative and Expository Texts at the Preschool Level
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Literacy, Texts, and Genres
11.3 Writing Instruction
11.4 Storytelling as a Triger for Writing
11.4.1 Dictating Stories
11.4.2 Writing Stories
11.5 Producing Expository Texts
11.5.1 The Characteristics of Expository Texts
11.6 Nonverbal Graphic Representations
11.6.1 A World of Pests in a Spice Garden
11.7 Producing a Table to Gather Information and Compare Between Countries
11.8 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 12: Writing Technique or Writing Culture? Representations of Writing Among Children and Teachers at High-Achievement Schools in Chile
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Methodology
12.3 Data and Participants
12.4 Procedures
12.5 Results
12.5.1 Writing Activities That Children Frequently Complete at Home and School
12.5.2 Description of Preferred Writing Activities
12.5.3 Children’s Beliefs About Writing
12.5.4 Image of Parents as Models of Writers
12.6 Final Remarks
Appendix
Appendix A
Appendix B
References
Chapter 13: Rewriting the Book: New Literacy Practices and Their Implications for Teaching and Evaluating Writing
13.1 Introduction
13.2 From Socrates to Vygotsky and Beyond
13.3 (Not so) New Literacy Practices
13.3.1 The Fanfiction Phenomenon
13.3.2 The Wattpad Revolution
13.3.3 The Wiki World
13.4 Best Practices, Old and New
13.4.1 What the Research Says About Writing Instruction
13.4.2 Pedagogical Implications and Directions
13.5 Final Remarks
References
Part V: Teaching and Learning Writing in the Classroom
Chapter 14: Teaching Writing Through Discourse Genres
14.1 Introduction
14.2 The Writing Models: From the Cognitive to the Socio-cognitive Perspective
14.2.1 Writing as a Process
14.2.2 Writing as Situated Activity
14.3 The Genres of Discourse
14.3.1 Diversity in Discourse Genres
14.3.2 The Texts and the Basic Types
14.3.3 Genre in Language Teaching
14.3.4 Academic Writing from the Perspective of Discourse Genres and the Theory of Activity
14.4 Teaching Writing Through Genres in the Didactic Sequences
14.4.1 The Genre-Based Pedagogy and the Didactic Sequence as Genre in the Sydney School
14.4.2 The Didactic Sequence Model of the Geneva School
14.4.3 Didactic Sequences for Learning to Write by Camps
14.4.4 Academic Writing and the Didactic Sequence Model of the Didactext Group
14.5 Conclusions
References
Chapter 15: Teaching of Argumentative Writing in Romance Languages: A Meta-Analysis
15.1 Introduction
15.2 Purpose of the Study
15.3 Method
15.3.1 Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
15.3.2 Search Procedure
15.3.3 Coding of Study Features
15.3.4 Calculation of Effect Sizes and Statistical Analyses
15.4 Results
15.4.1 Treatments
15.4.2 Quality Scores
15.4.3 Effect Sizes
15.4.4 Text Structure
15.4.5 Strategy Instruction
15.4.6 Publication Bias
15.5 Discussion
15.6 Educational Implications
15.7 Limitations
15.8 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 16: The Chilean National Writing Plan: Rationale, Actions, and Preliminary Results
16.1 Introduction
16.1.1 Why Begin a Writing Education Policy with a Pedagogy for Motivation?
16.1.2 How Can Writing Performance Results Be Explained?
16.1.3 What Is the Relation Between Writing Motivation and Writing Performance?
16.1.4 What Causes Writing Motivation to Decrease Across Grade Levels?
16.1.5 What Is the Role of Teachers in Students’ Writing Motivation and What Do We Know About Chilean Teachers’ Conceptions and Performance in Writing?
16.1.6 How Can Writing Motivation Be Fostered in the Classroom?
16.2 The Hypotheses
16.2.1 The Chilean National Writing Plan: A Recollection of the Actions Implemented Between 2019 and 2021
16.2.2 Preliminary Results of the Chilean National Writing Plan
16.3 Final Remarks
References
Untitled
Chapter 17: Effects of Research-Based Teacher Training on Writing Instruction Practices
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Theoretical Framework
17.2.1 Effective Writing Instruction Practices
17.2.2 Changing Teacher Practices
17.2.3 Training Teachers in Research and by Doing Research
17.3 Method
17.3.1 Participants
17.3.2 Training Teachers in Effective Practices for Teaching Writing
17.3.3 Data Collection and Analysis
17.4 Findings
17.4.1 Participants’ Practices Before the Training
17.4.2 Four Effective Practices Being Implemented by All Participants After the Training: Rewriting, Scaffolding, Feedback, and Attention to the Writer
17.4.3 Two Important but Complex Transformations: Peer Evaluation and the Elicitation of Metacognition
17.4.4 Rigid or Adaptive Use of the Instructional Program for Students
17.4.5 Research as a Stimulus and Awareness
17.4.6 Teachers as Knowledge Ambassadors and Resources in Their Schools
17.5 Discussion and Conclusion
17.6 Final Remarks
References
Chapter 18: Writing to Understand and Being Understood: Basic Design Principles for Writing Instruction
18.1 Introduction
18.1.1 Understanding and Being Understood
18.1.2 Professional Development Trajectory
18.2 Instructional Design: Three Phases of Increasing Complexity
18.2.1 Phase 1: The Simple Theory of Writing Education: Write, Read, and Communicate
18.2.2 Phase 2: Writing Processes: Procedural Knowledge in Action
18.2.3 Phase 3: Adapting to Differences: Conditional Knowledge in Action
18.3 Instructional Designs: Examples from Practices
18.3.1 Design Phase 1: Margarita and Joanna
18.3.1.1 Comparative Analysis
18.3.1.2 Critical Analysis of Margarita’s and Joanna’s Designs
18.3.2 Design Phase 2: Anouk and Edith
18.3.2.1 Comparative Analysis
18.3.2.2 Critical Analysis
18.3.3 Design Phase 3: Liselore and Lieke
18.3.3.1 Comparative Analysis
18.3.3.2 Critical Analysis
18.4 Final Remarks
18.4.1 Understanding and Being Understood
18.4.2 The Concept of Design Phases
References
Index