Louise Cherry Wilkinson

Requests and Responses in Peer-directed Reading Groups

The purpose of the present study is to investigate first-grade children’s use of requests and responses in their homogeneous reading groups. Thirty students in six groups of varying reading ability were studied in the fall and spring. Standardized reading readiness achievement tests, and assessments of language competence were administered. Eight samples of peer-directed, group activity were audio- and videotaped. The results showed that: (a) ability groups differed in reading achievement, and those differences remained stable over the year; (b) groups differed in their use of requests and responses, and these differences also remained stable; (c) particular aspects of requests predicted obtaining appropriate responses, which were almost always “on-task.” Implications of these findings for opportunities to develop skills in peer-directed reading groups are discussed.

Using Requests Effectively in Peer-directed Instructional Groups

Two studies investigated second and third grade children’s use of requests and responses in their instructional groups. Students in groups of varying reading and math ability were studied. Standardized reading and math achievement tests and assessments of language competence were administered. Samples of peer-directed, group activity were audio- and videotaped. The results showed that (a) ability groups differed in reading and math achievement; (b) groups differed in their use of requests and responses; and (c) particular aspects of requests predicted obtaining appropriate responses, which were almost always “on-task. “Implications of these findings for children’s acquisition of skills in peer-directed instructional groups are discussed.

Metalinguistic Knowledge of Pragmatic Rules in School-Age Children.

WILKINSON, LOUISE CHERRY; WILKINSON, ALEX CHERRY; SPINELLI, FRANCESCA; AND CHIANG, CHI PANG. Metalinguistic Knowledge of Pragmatic Rules in School-Age Children. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 2130-2140. To study the metapragmatic knowledge of children 5-8 years old, we elicited requests from the children through role playing in hypothetical classrooms, and also elicited judgments of the appropriateness of requests. The results showed several effects for age of child and for type of request. Older in comparison with younger children were more likely to produce a variety of indirect requests, judge requests as inappropriate in particular classroom situations, and refer to pragmatic violations as the basis of their judgments. For younger and older children alike, requests for action took indirect forms, while requests for information took direct forms. The results showed that at the age of entering school, children have some metapragmatic knowledge, but that this knowledge becomes noticeably richer over the first few years of formal schooling.

A Dynamic Systems Approach To Writing Assessment in Students with Language Learning Problems.

Speech-language pathologists have not typically included writing as part of instructional or intervention goals. This omission may be related to the sparse research data on writing development in children with a language learning disability (LLD). Like reading and spelling, writing results from complex interactions among the linguistic and discourse systems and changes over time from an oral style of communication to a more literate style. One purpose of this article is to describe individual differences in the phases of writing development, drawing on examples from students who are typically developing, and those with an LLD. Special emphasis is given to the differentiation of audience and syntactic choices during the school-age years as critical elements in communicating the “writers voice.” Using an illustrative case study of a 10-year-old, the second purpose is to demonstrate how school-based writing samples can serve as a dynamic tool for analysis of interactions among the linguistic and discourse systems. The multiple levels addressed include genre knowledge, concept of audience, clausal and nonclausal complexity, spelling, and punctuation. A major assessment issue is whether the writing problems of individual students stem from an unrecognized LLD, instructional inadequacies, or both factors. Suggestions are offered for better meeting individual needs through combining explicit strategy instruction for composing and self-regulation with explicit linguistic strategies that enhance semantic and syntactic options in writing.

Peer communication in first grade reading groups

Chris Dollaghan Department of Communicative Disorders University of Wisconsin, Madison We overheard this exchange in a first-grade reading group. In it, Tim is sharing his feelings with Evan about their common struggle learning to read. In this article we are concentrating on one aspect of learning to read: how the processes of communication work among students in reading groups. Two types of reading groups are quite common in the early elementary years: those in which the teacher is present and directs the reading group (teacherdirected group), and those in which the teacher is absent and group members conduct their own activities (all-student group). We were particularly interested in examining the all-student reading groups, for little is known about communication in these groups. Our focus is upon the communicative processes by which children pursue their academic tasks and regulate their interpersonal behavior by asking questions, making demands, and providing answers. In our study of first-grade reading groups, we listened in on the conversations which took place among group members, and analyzed some of their communicative strategies. One of these conversations is presented in the following excerpt:

Getting the Point: A Narrative Journey into the Athabaskan Culture.

Narrative assessment is traditionally approached from the linear perspective of the dominant culture and methods of analysis reflect that bias. Other cultures, like the Athabaskan culture, organize narrative thinking in a different manner. Few tools are available for the more critical understanding of the nonlinear narrative for developmental, clinical, and educational purposes. Using story recall, this article examines the Athabaskan narrative as told by a village storyteller to two native students, one of whom has a language-learning disability with a co-occurring mild hearing loss. The original narrative and the retellings were studied using underlying structure analysis. The prosodic and structural patterns revealed through the method of assessment were consistent with the concept of a spatially organized narrative. Clinical implications for applying this approach are described as being more sensitive to possible interfaces between cultural differences in narrative recall and discourse management problems characteristic of a language-learning disability.

Bilingual spelling patterns in middle school: it is more than transfer

This study examined the Spanish and English spelling patterns of bilingual adolescents, including the cross-linguistic effects of each language, by applying a fine-grained measure to the differences in spelling in naturalistic writing. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 20 Spanish–English bilingual adolescents (n = 160). Errors were coded by categories (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic features affected and then analyzed by language and genre. Descriptive analyses noted similarities and differences among error patterns in both languages as well as language transfer (i.e., borrowings and code-switching). Statistical analyses revealed language differences in proportions of misspellings across linguistic categories. More fine-grained analyses indicated linguistic feature patterns that were shared across languages and unique to each language. Finally, borrowing, while infrequent, was noted more frequently in English compositions. This investigation appears to demonstrate that spelling, when approached as both a cognitive and linguistic activity, is complex since multiple knowledge systems must be coordinated. The use of triple word form theory to analyze misspellings in emerging bilingual writers suggests that discerning patterns of misspellings in each language provides more insight than does transfer alone into the extent that phonology, orthography, and morphology are becoming unified.

Understanding language in diverse classrooms : a primer for all teachers

Preface Acknowledgments PART I Language and Languages 1 Introduction 2 Language and Its Speakers 3 How Languages are Alike and Different 4 Becoming a Bilingual Part II How to teach English language learners 5 Help Yourself and Get Help 6 Making and Using Comparisons of Languages and Language Use 7 Creating Language-Savvy Lessons 8 Language Assessments Appendix A Selected Web Sites Appendix B Suggestions for Further Reading On Language and Development On Learning and Teaching Glossary References Index

Ya Wanna Trade--Just for Awhile: Children's Requests and Responses to Peers.

This study examined requests and responses of first‐grade children interacting in peer reading groups. The subjects were 45 first‐grade students who comprised 9 separate reading groups. Interactions in the all‐student groups were audio‐ and video tape recorded during a reading activity. Requests for information and action/object and responses were identified and analyzed according to linguistic form and function. Data analysis revealed that children differed in the variety and complexity of their requests.

Narrative analysis: Filtering individual differences in competence☆

Abstract The choice of methods of analysis, in large part, determines judgments about childrens narrative competence. If narratives are seen as a window on the mind, then narrative analysis is the filter for revealing relationships between universal categories and sociocultural variation in narrative production. This article begins with a discussion of narratives as a way of thinking, including the universal and particular aspects. Second, two different perspectives for analyzing narratives are introduced and illustrated with data collected from one adolescent who exemplifies an increasingly common dilemma for language educators and clinicians: When does a sociolinguistic difference in narrative style indicate a learning impairment? Finally, a discussion of the implications of narrative analyses for the practice of teaching, learning, and assessment is given.