"I Don't Know How to Say It in English": Bilingual Children Learning to Write in Kindergarten

• In Event: Emergent Bilinguals' Meaning-Making Across Languages and Modalities

Abstract

This qualitative study investigated learning-to-write among six (6) bilingual children in a general-education kindergarten classroom. The teacher used the district’s early literacy curriculum, children’s literature, and interactive writing instruction to teach her students the writing process and how they could compose texts. Across one academic year, researchers used observations, photographs, videotapes, and writing samples to document early literacy instruction and the bilingual children’s growth as writers. Pre- and post-test measures were used to assess children’s English language and early literacy knowledge. Data are currently being analyzed inductively using content analysis and grounded theory. Preliminary findings indicate that the instructional program supported, complicated, and in some cases, hindered the bilingual children’s learning-to-write and did not support native language use.

Authors

• Cheri Williams, University of Cincinnati

• Tina Stanton, University of Cincinnati

• Dong-shin Shin, University of Cincinnati