Managing the written text: the beginning of punctuation in children's writing

This study aims at understanding the use of punctuation in children's early writings in connection with the organisation of the written text. Data are drawn from a larger comparative study in which written stories of Little Red Riding Hood were collected from primary school children who speak one of the three Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian). The corpus consists of 134 written stories of second grade children from low income families. Different quantitative and qualitative analysis are presented. Results show that all children, in spite of differences in literacy practices, try to make sense of the conventions of a system of writing, including punctuation marks (PMs). Some children seem to assume a ‘graphic principle', while others make sophisticated attempts to distinguish the function of PMs for different types of speech genre. Contrastive textual use of PM seems to be critical also for teaching purposes.     

Introduction

European Journal of Psychology of Education -     

Development of the social network b-learning in the University of Alicante

This work describes the genesis, articulation and consolidation from 2007 of a social network of b-learning （blended learning） in the UA （University of Alicante） （Spain）, with the institutional backing of the Office of the Vice President for Education Technology and Innovation, and the momentum and advice of professor Angel Fidalgo （UNESCO （United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization） chair for University of Management and Policy）. The social network currently has more than 25 teachers, working on different work linkages with the university, implementing or intending to apply the teaching methodologyb-learning during the course 2007-2008 in a variety of courses and degrees. To do so, several resource centers （blogs, wikis, Wimba Create （before CourseGenie）, etc.）, and digital platforms （Virtual Campus of the UA, Moodle, etc.） are used.     

¿Qué está escrito en una oración escrita? Una respuesta evolutiva

RESUMEN

El proceso de adquisición de la lectoescritura es algo que supone para el niño una forma de reconstruir el lenguaje. El objetivo del presente estudio es investigar el significado que asignan los niños a la segmentación de una oración escrita. Los sujetos son niños de 4 a 6 años que no han comenzado el aprendizaje de la lectoescritura y la tarea consiste en asociar las distintas partes de una oración escrita a cada segmento de la emisión verbal correspondiente. Se observa que en un principio el niño tiene dificultades para considerar el texto como una representación escrita de la lengua hablada. Posteriormente, considera que sólo se representan gráficamente las emisiones de contenido referencial (nombres). A este nivel, el niño puede tomar la emisión verbal como un todo, sin encontrar un criterio de segmentación que encaje con el texto escrito. Más tarde el niño asume que el verbo puede también estar reflejado en la escritura y en un último nivel se integraría el artículo.     

La distinción de palabra/nombre en niños de 4 y 5 años

Resumen

Niños mexicanos de 4 y 5 años fueron entrevistados individualmente para explorar su comprensión de los términos metalingüísticos «nombre» y «palabra» así como de la expresión «se llama». Se utilizaron dos técnicas de entrevista que arrojaron similares resultados. De acuerdo a las respuestas los niños fueron clasificados en tres grupos: aquellos que eran capaces de hacer una clara distinción entre los tres términos, aquellos para los cuales dos términos eran equivalentes pero distintos del tercero y unos pocos que no diferenciaban entre los tres términos.

Los resultados muestran que «nombre» y «se llama» son términos de uso espontáneo y de fácil comprensión en tanto que el término «palabra» es ajeno a la terminología infantil y por lo tanto difícil de usar y definir. La significación de estos resultados se discutirá a la luz de otras investigaciones evolutivas que se ocuparon de la comprensión de términos metalingüísticos.     

Research perspectives in beginning literacy. Methodological and epistemic dichotomies / Prospectivas en investigación sobre alfabetización inicial. Dicotomías metodológicas y epistemológicas

This text presents an epistemological option for beginning literacy which departs from traditional options in several respects: (1) objectivity is not assumed as a starting point but as an ending fact (as an aspiration more than a reality); (2) all research communities adopt certain paradigms as their unquestioned ‘epistemic framework’ which serve to validate methodological and theoretical approaches without discussion; (3) situating oneself at the boundaries of this ‘unquestioned scientificity’ reveals useful data worth bearing in mind in the specific field discussed here: the early stages of the cognitive approach to the object of ‘written language’. This text defends the empirical interest of Jean Piaget’s theory to incorporate a theoretical object not thematized by this researcher: written language. It debates the irrelevance of interpretations inspired by Piaget yet based on a purely applicationist vision of the theory. Constructivism is constructed by testing new hypotheses on new objects. That is the persistent message of this text, which provides data to support each claim about development.     

Dealing with Diversity and Digital Culture

Cultural diversity is broader than ethnic and language considerations alone. It includes gender, age, economic or social conditions, education, technological infrastructure and computer and information literacy All of these have to be taken into account when digital information is received or provided. Understanding and respecting diversity in each country is a major issue for the country itself, as well as for the information providers from abroad. The main barriers for participating in the digital culture for Latin America are the differences of each of the countries: the few people that have access; the technological infrastructure; the lack of relevant contents in the primary languages; and the fact that English is the pre-dominant language of the Global Information Infrastructure. Nations should focus on three main areas: technological infrastructure, contents and access. Projects should be prepared so as to strengthen the Latin American identity.