Meaningful emergent writing through sign systems

Meaningful emergent writing through sign systems. 1

Universidad de Antioquia

Escuela de Idiomas

Licenciatura en Lenguas Extranjeras

Alejandro Buriticá Gómez

Meaningful Emergent Writing through Sign Systems, Especially Drawing, in a First Grade Class

at I.E. Miraflores

Action Research Report

Research Advisor

Thesis Advisor

Teaching Practicum Advisor

JUAN CARLOS GUERRA

November, 2012

Medellín


Abstract

This article aims at presenting the impact of a proposal based on sign systems strategies,

especially drawing, towards the development of emergent writing skills in a first grade group at

Institución Educativa Miraflores – Luis Eduardo Valencia García. Before and after

implementing those strategies, a qualitative method was used to gather, document, and analyze

this teaching proposal. Additionally, a journal, annotated lesson plans, and first graders’ work

samples were triangulated based on theoretical grounds. The study shows the effectiveness of

implementing sign systems, especially drawing, and stimulating meaningful learning spaces in

the classroom to have a positive impact on children’s emergent writing in FL. Education should

include students’ creativity and prior-knowledge to provide them with opportunities to

approximate and interact with written language.

Key words: Emergent writing, literacy development, sign systems, drawing, meaningful learning

spaces, foreign language teaching, first grade.


Meaningful Emergent Writing through Sign Systems, Especially Drawing, in a First Grade

Class

This paper is the report of an action research project carried out during my teaching practicum at

Institución Educativa Miraflores – Luis Eduardo Valencia García, a public school in Medellín,

as a requirement to obtain my Bachelor in Education in Foreign Languages (English and French)

at Universidad de Antioquia.


Table of Content

Preface 5

Description of the context 6

Statement of the problem 8

Theoretical framework 11

Research question and objectives 18

Action plan 19

Planning the Actions 19

Implementing the Actions 22

Findings and Interpretations 25

Conclusions and Suggestions 30

Reflection 31

References 33


Preface

This paper is the report of an action-research and educational project carried out in a first grade at

Institución Educativa Miraflores – Luis eduardo Valencia García, during my two last semesters

of the undergraduate program in language teaching in 2012. It includes aspects about the process

I went through in a detailed context, in order to identify situation, analyze it and propose some

possible solutions. I also reflect about my weakness, strengths, and difficulties as a learner, pre-

service teacher, and researcher. The project aimed at fostering literacy development skills,

especially emergent writing, in English as a foreign language based on sign systems, especially

drawing, as a means of children to express feelings and communicate thoughts.

In order to stimulate a meaningful learning space to give children opportunities to interact with

written language were necessary the following research tools and strategies to carry out this

project: observations, readings, reflections, and discussions with my teacher advisor, cooperating

teacher, and colleagues.


Description of the Context

Institución Educativa Miraflores – Luis Eduardo Valencia García (IEM) is a co-educational

public school located in Buenos Aires, in the east side of the city of Medellín, Colombia. The

school offers an academic program from kindergarten to eleventh grade and its mission includes

an education that allows students to be autonomous, tolerant, pluralistic, and responsible citizens

capable of communicating, analyzing, criticizing, proposing, and applying solutions to their

society problems by using technological, technical, and scientific tools in order to meet future

community needs. Additionally, the school’s vision claims that the IEM will become a leader in

education in which humanist, competent, committed, open-minded, and research-oriented citizens

are prepared through innovating human development alternatives. The student population is

about 1500; the number of students per group ranges between 33 and 45, which makes it a

difficult and challenging job for the teachers. Most students come from the surrounding

neighborhoods such as Caicedo, Alejandro Echavarria, La Milagrosa, El Salvador, Pablo

Escobar, and Gerona.

Regarding the English area, the IEM has designed the syllabus by following the bilingual policies

proposed by Ministerio de Educación Nacional [Ministry of Education] through the document

Estándares Básicos de Competencias en Lengua Extranjera: Inglés [Foreign Language

Competence Basic Standards: English], published in 2006. All primary grades receive weekly

two hours of English, as a foreign language, which is not enough to achieve the goals mentioned

in its English syllabus which are oriented to making the IEM into a bilingual school in a short-


term future. In addition, the primary teachers do not hold a degree in Foreign Language

Teaching; that is why most classes are focused on vocabulary and word recognition.

Concerning the participants of this action-research project, on the one hand, it included a

cooperating teacher (CT) who holds a Bachelor Degree in Spanish Language and Literature and a

Specialization Degree in Ecological Recreation. She started working as a primary teacher in 1986

and has worked at IEM since 2005. As her English background, the CT took some courses at

different institutions in Medellín; however her FL proficiency level is too low. On the other hand,

1°3 group, the class where the project was carried out, was a really motivated first grade with 33

students, 13 girls and 20 boys, aged from 5 to 7 years old. They were really interested in learning

English, though they had not had a meaningful exposure to this language. Among their favorite

learning activities in class they preferred drawing, playing, singing, and handicrafts. Every single

student was in healthy conditions without any mental or physical disabilities. Most of them came

from single mother and working class families.

The classroom is located on the first floor of the school main building. Inside, there were

individual chairs designed for adults, three small chalkboards, a long chalk/white board, a TV, a

desk for the teacher, and three cabinets. The walls are white and empty; there are no posters or

any other environmental print.

Regarding the classes and its methodology, the CT is really interested in literacy processes,

especially in Spanish as a mother tongue, and literature. Those classes, both English and Spanish,

were focused on phonics where decoding took an important role and reading and writing were


independent processes. However, she uses alternative strategies such as drawing and singing in

order to promote meaning construction with her students. In addition, the elementary teachers

created and led a literature program in which every single Friday they read different stories and

tales to primary students and then it proposed alternative activities (drawings, handicrafts, etc.) in

order to check students’ comprehension.

Statement of the Problem

During first grade in primary school one of the most noteworthy challenges is literacy

development both in Spanish, as a Mother Language (L1), and in English, as a Foreign Language

(FL). There should be some ideal conditions for meaningful literacy learning to be developed in

which the teacher must provide several and alternative structures of narratives through reading;

have a clear purpose through writing; make really good demonstrations, and offer children an

environment in which students can interact with one another. Furthermore, making appropriate

decisions on strategies and materials is essential in order to encourage students to understand how

L1 and FL work.

The fact is that these ideal conditions were not found in the first grade observed at IEM. On the

contrary, the writing process in L1 and FL was characterized by copying syllables and words

mechanically from the board to the notebook or worksheets. The reading process in L1 was based

on phonics language theory in which decoding sounds is what matters. The lack of meaningful

environmental print material in both L1 and FL did not allow students to interact with the written


language. These are the flawed conditions found in this classroom and the ones the institution

struggles with everyday.

Several systematic observations recorded in my journal led me to evidence first that the strategies

applied to develop literacy processes in L1 and FL did not promote meaningful emergent writing.

Conversely, these strategies just promoted mere copying, a process wrongly considered as

writing. Additionally, children used their time to copy words associated to single letters and that

process was not related to their lives. The following journal extract might describe better this

theory-reality mismatch:

[…] The CT wrote on the chalkboard side the letters (m, p, s, l, and n) and in front of each

letter she also wrote the syllable sounds, for example (m = mi, mo, me, mu, ma). She also

wrote on the whiteboard section five sentences which had some word with /m/ sounds.

[…]Some students were copying on their notebooks the five sentences. Some others were

chatting, playing and not paying attention to the CT. (Journal entry extract, April 25th

2012).

Furthermore, the data gathered in my journal helped realize that the reading strategies in L1 were

based on phonics where decoding and memorization had important roles. Students must first

memorize letters and learn by heart the grammatical structure of the language. Once those

components have been memorized, the conventional writing code starts being used. In

opposition, the natural process of literacy should let students think and communicate by using the

language in multiple and alternative ways, known as sign systems, in which they share and make

meaning through music, art, mathematics, drama, drawing, movement, oral and written language.


[…] The CT asked all students for pronouncing the syllables written on the chalkboard

side at the same time. She used a ruler to point syllable by syllable. […]After students

pronounced the syllables, the CT continued asking student by student for reading the

sentences written on the whiteboard. I noticed that some students read them so slow, they

try to recognize the letters and the vowels, the syllables with /p/ were difficult to

pronounce. However, only few students, as Julian, read the sentences fluently. (Journal

entry extract, April 25th 2012)

Finally, after reading and analyzing the data gathered in my journal, I was also able to see that the

lack of environmental print materials and their misuse obstruct meaningful opportunities in

literacy development in which learning has to be connected to the power of immersion and the

opportunities for children to interact with the language.

[…] Some of the classroom labels, which were made and decorated last English class,

were placed in the wrong place. For example, the label “chair” was located on the board.

(Journal entry extract, March 14th, 2012)

In sum, the literacy processes being developed in L1 and FL and the lack of environmental print

materials were two compelling reasons to state that the gap between the ideal conditions and the

problematic reality of the class could no longer be overlooked. Additionally, my question-posing

concerning literacy development in FL in initial grades, based on my experience as an EFL

teacher in a private elementary school, fueled my interest.


All the aspects encouraged me to design and implement a project in which drawing and sign

systems help first graders to develop their literacy processes in FL, specifically emergent writing,

in an uncomplicated and barrier-free way that at the same time could give them the opportunity to

be immersed and interacting with language in a more natural way.

Theoretical Framework

This section provides the theoretical support, ideas, and concepts about this action-research

project, in order to address how drawing and other sign systems can promote the development of

meaningful emergent writing. First, I will conceptualize the term of literacy and its implications

in reading and writing. Second, I will define what emergent writing is and its stages in the

development during early school years. Third, I will stress the importance of sign systems,

especially drawing, in order to benefit the development of literacy in FL. Fourth, I will define the

ideal conditions for meaningful learning spaces in the development of writing skills in children.

Literacy

Literacy and literacy development have been defined commonly as an ability that allow human

beings to read and write. However, in my personal opinion the concept of literacy goes beyond

that simple definition. In 1994, Kenneth Goodman, a professor and researcher at Arizona State

University, widened the definition by affirming that literacy is a social phenomena which lays on

a meaning making process in which children develop the ability to identify, understand, interpret,

and communicate. Students not only use printed and written materials but also use sign systems,

communications systems, associated with varying contexts. In addition, literacy includes some


important dimensions such as holistic, social, natural, and cultural in which reading and writing

are not independent processes and they enable students to achieve their goals, to develop their

knowledge, and to participate actively in their community. In the next paragraph I will explain

how these dimensions affect the literacy development process.

Reading and Writing

There is a mutually reliant relationship between reading and writing for they are not independent

processes and they support each other during the children’s literacy development. In 2004,

Catherine E. Snow, a professor and researcher of Children’s Education Causes through Literacy

and Learning at Harvard Graduate School of Education, established a set of dimensions in

reading and writing. I would like to focus on the following four dimensions: holistic, social,

natural, and cultural. First, the author refers that from a holistic viewpoint meaning-making is the

central defining feature of reading and writing. That is to say, students create meaning based on

some integral aspects such as cognitive, cultural, social and personal. Second, these dependent

processes are essentially social in which interactive and collaborative activities are involved in

social and political proposals and they provide access to power and knowledge. Third, Snow

states that “the literacy development can be seen as a natural product of growing up in a literate

society, easy to acquire without explicit instruction if motivation and opportunities for practice

are available” (p. 8). Fourth, the author highlights literacy as an important cultural aspect in

children’s personal and social identity through which they can empower themselves and change

the practices, relationships, and rules that constitute culture.


Conversely, Snow shows us that there are some opposite theories in which reading and writing

are independent processes. She demonstrates the differences and major controversies about the

characteristics above-mentioned through these four dimensions: componential, solitary,

instructed, and technical. First, from a componential viewpoint reading and writing are

mechanical processes where decoding is the most important skill in literacy. The author adds that

“it consists teaching students how to pronounce and write words by analyzing, memorizing, and

copying its individual components. Its main characteristics are phonological awareness, letter

knowledge, automaticity in reading and writing letter sequences and lexical access” (p. 6).

Second, the researcher states that these mechanical processes are completely solitary for reading

and writing, they are considered psycholinguistic processes and they only “involve neural

pathways and organizations” (Snow, 2004, p. 7). Third, the development of literacy is always

instructed, there is no motivation and there is always an instructor. And finally, literacy is

technical and it tends to focus on the correct use of the conventional signs and filling in forms.

Emergent writing

Emergent writing is an early writing stage where children use marks in order to express

something before they get to conventional writing. Those marks are drawings, invented spelling,

and scribbling. Rich (1997) states that children’s early scribbling indicates a predisposition to

make marks of significance. However, there are many people who think that those premature

predispositions to communicate do not make sense. Children can approach writing in a natural

way by being encouraged and using engaging strategies. Freeman & Freeman (2006) affirm that

children who are motivated to invent spellings to represent thoughts move more easily toward

conventional forms.


Emergent writing develops through a series of stages where children can be at a given moment,

but they are not clear-cut. According to Freeman and Freeman (2006) scholars such as Buchanan,

Ferreiro, and Teberosky studied and analyzed the markings in emergent writing in L1 and FL and

they characterized children’s early writing development in the following chart:

Stage Level Characteristics

Prephonetic

1-2

There is no a relationship between letters

and sounds. Marks such as drawings and

scribbling are used to symbolize

situations. Writing is egocentric.

Early phonetic

3

Consonants and vowels stand for words

and syllables respectively. Labels are

often used for drawings.

Late phonetic

4

Each element of sound in a word has its

own physical representation. Children

move from syllabic to alphabetic

hypothesis.

Phonic

Syntactic-semantic

5

Spelling is based on sound. Children over

generalized phonics rules. In spelling,

meaning and syntax become more

important than sound cues.

The stages above show us how children’s early writing ability works and invite us to encourage

those initial marks in order to foster students’ interaction with the world, once we know they are

the basis of formal written language. According to Rich (1997), in language development, more

specifically in early communication, students’ natural instinct to self-organize via drawing show

us how patterns and levels are related, and how the brain integrates meaningful exchanges of data

through drawings, invented spelling, and scribbling.


Drawing

By analyzing the stages above, there is an important relationship between writing and drawing

and how students are fascinated to communicate their thoughts via drawing and other sign

systems, such as art, music, drama, etc. The chart above shows us how children start

communicating their view of the world, that is, why drawing is an initial way used by students to

represent their perception of the world. Another point is that “drawing helps to externalize

thoughts and it is a child’s first attempt to represent symbols that represent real objects” (Coates,

2002, p. 54). For this reason, children are aware of the symbolic nature of writing and they

represent their perceptions through drawings.

Lutz (1978) affirms that drawings and images foster visual thinking and visual thinking is a

crucial and central part of the creative process. Consequently, language and drawing are related

because they take into account multiple aspects that increase children’s ability to communicate

their thoughts. It is also important to say that children are really interested in drawing and

marking the world we live in. They also like to look at images and interpret them in order to

explore their imagination and creativity. The overall impression is that drawing and images can

promote early literacy processes.

Drawings are really meaningful because children follow logical and syntactical rules while they

draw. That is to say, students’ drawings are not a simple enjoyment. They go beyond by helping

children to focus and follow some sequences while they are moving to conventional writing

processes. With meaningful instruction and demonstrations students could move easily from

marks to letters, numbers, graphs, and music.


Rich (1997) affirms that how the child feels about the acceptability and intelligibility of the

drawing marks contributes to the child’s attitude about writing and reading. For this reason, it is

important to encourage students’ interest to draw in order to stimulate their confidence not only

about writing, but also about their ability to create social links. In conclusion, children’s creations

have to be supported and encouraged to foster their motivation and master their abilities to

express and communicate their feelings through multiple sign systems.

Vygotsky (1978) states that the secret of teaching written language is to prepare and organize this

natural transition appropriately. This includes that both, drawing and writing, must be considered

like different stages in a unified program to develop written language. After that, drawing has to

be viewed as a pre-stage of writing and it can benefit students’ writing abilities depending on its

implementation in the classroom. To sum up, classes have to take into account and support early

stages of writing, so students can move easily to the writing process in a natural and entertaining

way.

Sign Systems

Art, music, drama, mathematics, and language are some of the multiple sign system we can use in

our classroom. The term sign systems belongs to semiotics which is the science of interpreting

signs. They are communication systems. Children use them to create and express meaning. There

are many sign systems and each one is effective in expressing and communicating certain types

of messages.


Berghoff, Egawa, Harste and Hoonan (2000) affirm that each sign system is unique and they have

a huge potential for making sense of the world. For this reason, it is important to include them in

our classes in order to give students multiple opportunities of knowing, specifically in learning a

language. In addition, we, as teachers, need to provide many demonstrations of the sign systems

in use and support children’s risk taking and inventions.

Meaningful Learning Spaces

Cambourne (1988) affirms that “the clutch of learning needs to be connected to the power of

immersion and demonstration if there is going to be any movement” (p. 51). For this reason, the

author purposes some ideal conditions such as immersion, demonstration, engagement,

expectations, responsibility, employment, approximation, and response.

Furthermore, it is necessary to implement those conditions in the classroom in order to produce a

positive impact on children’s writing performance. For this reason, the action plan will take them

into account because the development of literacy should be as uncomplicated and barrier-free as

possible. First, if children are to acquire written language, they must be surrounded by

meaningful environmental print; they also must be read to, and they must have access to books,

posters, songs, etc. That is to say, children need to have access to texts of good quality. Second,

meaningful demonstrations are needed. Shared writing is a key feature of Cambourne’s model in

which experiences and demonstrations are required in learning to write. Third, engagement is

vital in order for students to participate actively in class. That is why teachers must know their

students’ interests and conditions. Fourth, if we want an amazing progress in children’s language

learning we have to prepare students to risk making errors and accept their approximations to


language. Finally, students need feedback and teacher’s response should be informative and

focused on the message rather than the form.

Research Question

How to develop meaningful emergent writing through drawing and other sign systems in first

graders at I.E. Miraflores?

Main Objective

To find out how drawing and other sign systems can foster the development of emergent writing.

Specific Objectives

a. To use different sign systems, especially drawing, to foster the writing process.

b. To expand my knowledge based on emergent writing and benefit my students initial

literacy processes.

c. To monitor the students’ process of moving from drawing to conventional forms.

d. To provide spaces and activities in the English class for students to engage in writing

in a fun, and meaningful way.

e. To carry out some research actions to collect data about the use of different sign

systems in the classroom, especially drawing, as a mean of scaffolding emergent

writing.


Action Plan

A series of actions and strategies, supported on the theoretical framework previously presented,

were designed to be implemented in this first grade English class as a means of finding out how

sign systems, especially drawing, could foster the emergent writing process in FL and finding a

possible way of solving the stated problem.

Planning the Actions

The actions mentioned above were divided into research and teaching actions. The research ones

were intended to gather data necessary to analyze the effectiveness of the teaching ones. First, the

teaching ones were intended to encourage, promote, and support the literacy development in the

classroom. They took into account a collaborative and interactive view in which students

participated actively in their learning processes in order to change the old-fashioned and

traditional method of teaching literacy. Second, the research actions used to gather the data were:

(1) a journal in which observations and participants’ interactions were registered, and (2)

annotated lesson plans in which reflection about my teaching action were registered.

For the teaching actions, I articulated the topics proposed by the institution through thematic

cycles. The topics purposed by IEM syllabus were: greetings, farewells, classroom and school

objects, numbers, family members, parts of the face, colors, geometrical shapes, farm animals,

pets, toys, fruits, and snacks. Two thematic cycles were proposed: (1) “Me and my world!”, in

which students had opportunities to express their feelings and thoughts about their own lives,


families, and school. (2) “Let’s eat, Monkeys!”, in this cycle first graders approximated to the

notions of wild animals and farm animals. They also expressed preferences about pets and food.

Salmon (1998) states that “thematic cycles constitute a way to teach language meaningfully and

purposefully since students will need speech, in general, and words, in particular, to access to

information and construct knowledge” (p. 86). For this reason, thematic cycles were designed in

order to articulate topics, encourage and support emergent writing activities in FL.

The cycles created pointed towards creating an important relationship between first graders’

previous knowledge, experiences, and contexts and the new information presented to them. These

relationships were built through different and multiple activities in which children’s multiple

intelligences were taken into account: (1) drawing activities gave students opportunities to

express via marks and images their thoughts; (2) sign systems encouraged students to make

meaning in an easy, funny, and meaningful way; and (3) writing tasks helped first graders to

move from drawing to conventional signs in a more natural way.

In order to determine the effectiveness of these strategies, I have decided to used the data

collection tools, three instruments were used. First, a teaching journal, in which observations

charts were fully completed during the whole academic-practicum year. These observations were

written as systematically and judgment-free as possible. They focused on describing the

development of the classes: participants’ interactions, the implementation of the teaching and

research strategies, and the educational and school contexts. Second, first graders’ work samples

were scanned, analyzed, and documented. These samples were composed by drawings,

worksheets, picture dictations, writing workshops, and notebooks. They also helped me to


compare children’s literacy development before, during, and after the implementation of the

actions. Due to time restrictions, I randomly selected 15 students’ samples in order to analyze any

manifestation of emergent writing in FL. Third, annotated lesson plans in which reflections about

first graders’ performance and outcomes of the activities were registered.

After I collected this data the analysis of the data was carried out following the procedures and

steps suggested by Johnson (2005) in data analysis. Firstly, a thematic analytic perspective was

used to interpret the observations in my personal journal and the annotated lesson plans.

Secondly, a theoretical perspective was used to analyze first graders’ work samples.

An inductive method (Johnson, 2005) was used regarding the analysis of the journal and the

annotated lesson plans. First, I read multiple times the information gathered in these two

instruments. Then I underlined the different information related to my research question and

objectives. After that, I made a thematic analysis in which I labelled the different categories

found. Straight afterwards, I chose, coded, and put together the more important and repetitive

patterns in a mind map. The main categories and subcategories found in these instruments were:

(1) literacy development factors, its subcategories were motivation, children’s prior knowledge,

children’s visual memory, and children’s background; (2) literacy development activities, its

subcategories were drawing & writing tasks, and reading aloud; and (3) emergent writing, its

subcategories were writing strategies, vocabulary construction, hypothetical construction, and

language awareness.


Next, 15 first graders’ work samples, randomly chosen, were analyzed by using Cambourne and

Turbill’s (1996) ideas on writing assessment in young learners. These samples were compared

before, during, and after the implementation of the actions. Afterwards, I tried to find writing

patterns that could reflect literacy development in children’s emergent writing processes. I based

my analysis on the following categories proposed by the authors above-mentioned such as

spelling, meaning, writing organization, and language awareness.

Finally, as a means of triangulation, I shared my data collection, categories, patterns, and analysis

with my thesis/practicum advisor and classmates in order to check with them and have external

validation on my preliminary judgments. These results were compared and confronted with

theoretical framework previously presented.

Implementing the Actions

Over two months I used thematic cycles and meaningful environmental print were vital in order

that the themes proposed by the curriculum were covered in a meaningful, engaging, and

appealing way. Class planning through thematic cycles allowed children to engage meaningfully

in the class dynamics because they went beyond and took in took account students feelings. For

example, they not only learnt simply vocabulary about the family members they also had the

opportunity to express their feelings about them. In addition, most students were really motivated

to participate in class and tell their classmates, for example, why they moms are unique and they

love them.


Regarding to the writing and drawing tasks and sign systems there were some important

characteristics when planning these actions were carried out. They tried to integrated students’

with their prior knowledge, that is to say, these actions allowed students to be active, and have an

authentic performance. However, there were also some problems related with students’ material.

Some of them did not have pencils, colors, eraser, etc. because of we wasted time checking that

every single students have, at least, the minimum material in order to carry out these tasks and

gather the data for the project.

The actions proposed plan gave children the opportunities to interact with the language and they

showed understanding and express thoughts. Additionally, students’ ideas and CT’s ideas were

integrated into the class activities. As a result, I modified many of the lesson plans to meet those

issues and requirements. However, economic problems were evident. Most students did not have

their school items such as pencils, colored pencils, scissors, etc. That is why, we spent, even

wasted, a lot of time trying to get materials for every student.

Reading aloud sessions were implemented during the first class sessions. The main goal was to

give first graders opportunities to be exposed to the language and interpret the images. Strategies

such as minimizing translations into Spanish, asking children to describe what they see on the

book pages, inquiring for what might happen after, asking them to come up with the story end,

etc. During those sessions we read My Mom (Browne, 2005) and My Dad (Browne, 2001) and

Good Night Gorilla (Rathmann, 1994). However, the first sessions were hard and difficult

because students were not used to readings. Sometimes, they started complaining because the


readings were carried out in English, but after a couple sessions they got easily engaged in the

class.

After each reading session, there were some activities so first graders could get the most out of

the readings. First, those activities were picture/word dictations, word search puzzles,

worksheets, writing tasks, drawings, games, and songs in which students could visualize the

vocabulary used in class. Second, we also had discussions, obviously carried out in Spanish, in

which first graders connected the stories with their own lives. I noticed that learners’ ability to

express feelings and thoughts, tell stories, and give opinions was improving step by step. As a

result, they took risks to use English and gained confidence to use FL and L1 to generate new

ideas and express their imagination through those tasks. First graders’ performance, especially

during the picture/word dictation and writing tasks, was surprising because they tried to draw and

write what they understood and some of them wrote by using invented spelling. Even some of

them understood words in English and wrote them in Spanish.

Creating a meaningful learning space was one of the most difficult and challenging action. For

this purpose, the CT and I started designing all kind of posters, images, and texts that students

decorated and pasted on the classroom walls in order to have a constant contact with. We used

big format characters, taken from the books we read in class, objects, labels, images, and words

related to the topics. Those actions helped students to be immersed in FL and follow propelling

writing models. However, it was difficult to keep that environmental print in order because

sometimes high school students destroyed or placed them in the wrong places.


Findings and Interpretations

After analyzing, categorizing, interpreting, and triangulating the gathered data through the

research instruments, the following are the main findings and interpretations revealed by this

action-research project. I present them in three important categories: (1) background and context;

(2) literacy development activities; and (3) emergent writing stages and strategies.

Background and Context

Cambourne (1988) affirms that immersion is one of the most important and very first conditions

for learning. For this reason my teaching actions proposed creating a class environment in which

children could engage and support their literacy development processes by taking into account

their background and experiences. That is to say, this context emphasized on meaningful

environmental print, thematic cycles, multiple activities based on sign systems, and

demonstrations. As a result, first graders could have multiple and different chances to see,

interact and experience the foreign language.

children’s motivation, prior-knowledge and background.

The data collected during the first two months through the observations registered in the journal

showed us that both classes, English and Spanish, were focused on copying. First graders

mechanically copied text from the board on their notebooks and worksheets. They usually got

distracted and bored. However, children’s attitude started changing when the class activities let

them interact with the language.


Image 1. First Graders’ Drawings: Motivation / My Mom

To illustrate the impact of motivation, prior-knowledge and children’s background in our class

context, image 1 shows first graders’ work after asking them to choose an adjective and draw

their moms after reading “My Mom” by Anthony Browne. First, aspects such as participation,

willingness, enthusiasm were found on students’ performance. Children seemed to enjoy and like

these kind of activities in which they were motivated and had fun listening to the stories, drawing

and writing. Second, students need opportunities to related new knowledge with previous one.

That is to say, children have different experiences in life, even when they attend the same class;

they live the world differently. In this activity they had the opportunity to choose an adjective,

from multiples options taken from Browne’s story, to describe their unique and single moms.

Third, this kind of data reveals that, aligned with meaningful immersion in class, social, cultural,

and family backgrounds are paramount in first graders’ literacy development because children

must have the opportunity to analyze how these new words, concepts and knowledge fits in their

own worlds and lives. In words of Roskos, Christie, and Richgels (2003), “demonstrations need


to be meaningful and relevant to a child’s life” (p. 12), it is easier for children to construct

meaning and internalize knowledge with meaningful information not just with abstract concepts.

Emergent Writing Stages and Strategies

Children writing development involves really advanced and complex strategies. Analyzing these

categories, it was too hard to classify first graders’ work samples because students’ writing

showed that they were in different stages. However, it is important to know what stages students

are in to plan and apply appropriate strategies to the development of literacy skills. Their samples

showed that they recycled vocabulary and concepts from previous activities. In addition, after the

reading sessions learners used writing patterns presented before in other sessions. To sum up,

those activities gave them opportunities to approximate and explore language in more real

contexts.

From the 15 first graders’ work samples, I classified them into 3 categories corresponding with

the stages and levels proposed by Ferreiro and Teberosky (cited in Freeman and Freeman, 2006).

First, in the level 1-2 (pre-phonetic) 9 students were placed. They mainly used drawings and

scribbling to represent situations. Second, 4 students were classified in the level 3 (early

phonetic) in which consonants and vowels stands for words and syllables respectively. Third,

only 2 children showed features to be placed in the levels 4 (late phonetic) and 5 (phonic). They

wrote words and some sentences supporting them on phonetic spellings.


Another point is that, the environmental print became into a practical and visual dictionary for

learners. Therefore, I will present the most common writing strategies and the effect on children’s

literacy development in which is evident first graders’ FL awareness and vocabulary

construction.

language Awareness.

The following image reflects how students were able to distinguish English words from their

mother tongue.

Image 2. Julian’s Words

Language Awareness

“I asked students for cutting some letters and

write words they remember from the story Good Night

Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. Julian started crying

because one of his classmates told him that the word

elephan was wrong by arguing that instead of use ph he

has to use f”

(Journal entry extract, August 21st, 2012).

As a result, learners were capable of recalling words they had seen before. Sometimes children

did not really know the meaning of words (e.g. “elephant” is a wild animal which is gigantic, has

a long trunk and thick skin, and fan-shaped ears), but they could notice a new language

coexisting with their mother language. For this reason, first graders were able to make their own

hypothesis about English as foreign language.


Literacy Development Activities

Meaningful drawing and writing tasks, reading aloud, and meaning learning spaces not only

stimulate children’s creativity, but also they promote their expressions and thoughts through

drawings and sign systems. For this reason, one of my personal goals was to help children to

express their creativity in a natural way, that is to say, they could tell their own stories orally,

graphically, and in a written form. The data showed that learners fostered their creativity and

curiosity by encouraging them to take risks in order to gain confidence to use English as means to

express their feelings, ideas and thoughts.

Consequently, the process of drawing is a mirror of the emergent writing process. I mean,

learners not only were able to produce drawings and shapes but also letters and words. That is to

say, in words of Sheridan (2002), “drawing is a task that can be used to achieve higher levels of

understanding in areas such as writing and reading” (p. 11). The author defined drawing as a

primary tool preceding writing conditions. Additonionally, drawing and writing have similar

processes in which students need to think, filter, classify, organize, synthesize, and present

information.

vocabulary Construction.

Environmental print and the information registered on students’ notebooks and worksheets were

important because they had constant access to them. Ana Marias’s performance showed several

times an inclination towards sound-word construction, that is to say, she wrote based on my

pronunciation.


Image 3. Ana Maria’s Picture Dictation / Vocabulary Construction

A process of phonetization is used by Ana Maria. Hurtado (1998) states that this process is ruled

by her mother tongue phonetic parameters. That is to say, Ana Maria is able to create

graphophonemic relationships based in her L1 system. Therefore, her L1 is influencing her FL

writing process.

Conclusions and Suggestions

The development of literacy, especially children’s emergent writing, can be developed as easily

as speaking if the following materials and conditions are presented in our schools. First, a print-

rich environment created by teacher and students is necessary in which environmental print,

posters, and worksheets, are part of an engaging proposal that has a positive impact on learners’

emergent writing in which they have multiple and funny ways to develop their writing processes.

Thus, they can interact with language in a natural way. Second, stimulating a meaningful learning

space promotes FL awareness, multiple ways of vocabulary construction, and gives us diverse

and great teaching tools such as drawing, sign systems, and writing in order to develop meaning

making.


Additionally, teaching students how to develop their literacy processes goes beyond teaching

decoding and memorization skills. Conversely, they need innovating and engaging strategies like

sign systems in which they can connect the new knowledge with personal experiences. That is

why, factors such as family, identity, education, culture, and personality have an important role

on emergent writing development in which students inquire, hypothesize, confirm, and

disconfirm their doubts about how literacy, especially written language, works. For this reason,

EFL teacher should facilitate multiple spaces, contextualized contents, and engaging

opportunities for children to approximate and explore language.

Reflection

This experience as a pre-service teacher at IEM have led me to some reflections. First, it has

given me a broadened vision about my students because I learned how to understand their

differences as human beings. The most important thing when you're working with people is to

recognize and respect people's social and cultural diversity. That is why; a good teacher has to be

a tolerant, social responsible, friendly and hard-working person.

Second, this experience also helped me to expand my perceptions and beliefs about EFL teaching

because I got used to work in private schools in which conditions, students, and materials are

totally different. IEM was a challenge I had to face from academic, professional, and personal

perspectives. I thought that based on my experience as English teacher since 2009 I could teach

something new to them, but the CT and her students were the people who really taught me new

things.


Finally, I think that the School of Languages, especially the Education program in Foreign

Language Teaching, has to re-think these last pedagogic and research processes that all students

are obligated to be in. Multiples and more meaningful options should be taken into account for

the research component. An action-research project, a one-year teaching practicum, and a final

paper are too difficult, stressful and unrealistic to be completed successfully in a whole year.


References

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Meaningful emergent writing through sign systems