Escritura y conciencia fonológica en niños hispano-parlantes

Resumen

Los objetivos del presente trabajo son: 1) explorar qué tipo de segmentaciones orales producen los niños de habla hispana en diferentes momentos de la adquisición de la lengua escrita y 2) investigar si las segmentaciones producidas ante la presencia de palabras escritas difieren de aquellas producidas en una situación oral con la ayuda de objetos (fichas). A 54 niños mexicanos preescolares y 11 niños de primer grado se les dió una tarea de escritura, una tarea de segmentación oral de palabras con fichas y una tarea de segmentación de palabras acompañada de las palabras escritas. Los resultados muestran que la conciencia fonológica tiene una evolución estrechamente relacionada con el desarrollo del conocimiento de la escritura. Esta evolución va del recorte silábico, a la segmentación de la segunda sílaba (o de la coda en monosílabos) hasta llegar a la segmentación fonológica. En ningún momento parece haber preferencia por la segmentación en ataques y rimas. Adicionalmente, la presencia de la escritura en las tareas de segmentación produce un incremento de respuestas más analíticas.

Abstract

The paper deals with two main issues: 1) What kind of segmentation of words Spanish-speaking children produce at different moments of their acquisition of the alphabetic writing system, and 2) If the segmentations they produce differ when children use materials such as tokens from the ones they produce when the task is accompanied by the written word. Results show that the evolution of oral segmentations of the word is related to children's evolution of their knowledge of the writing system. This evolution goes from syllabic segmentations, to the segmentation of the first syllable (or the coda, for monosyllabic words), to the phonological segmentation of the whole word. Onset/rime segmentations do not seem important at any time during the evolution. The inclusion of the written word in segmentation tasks seems to produce an increase of more analytical responses in children, even if they are pre-literate.

Extended Summary

This paper addresses the issue of phonological awareness in Spanish-speaking children. The aim of the study is to discover what kinds of segmentation of the word Spanish pre-readers and beginner readers use and to test the hypothesis that phonological development is related to the process of acquisition of the writing system, as described by Ferreiro and Teberosky, 1979.

Fifty-four kindergartners (mean age 68.9 months) and eleven first graders (mean age 82.1 months) were interviewed individually. Three tasks were administered:

a)	Writing: children were asked to write 7 different words in order to see their conceptualizations of the writing system (Ferreiro and Teberosky, 1979).
b)	Oral segmentation: children were asked to say four CV-CV words and two CVC words in “small bits”, and to put a token on the table for each oral segmentation. The researcher gave several examples, showing that words can be segmented in several ways. The researcher first produced a syllabic segmentation (ma-no), putting two tokens on the table. Then she showed a segmentation in three parts (m-a-no), using a token for each part. Finally, she produced a phonological segmentation (m-a-n-o). Children were then asked to segment the test items. If the child produced a non-phonological segmentation, s/he was encouraged to try again, using one more token. This request was repeated until the child stopped changing his/her answer.
c)	Oral segmentation with a visible written word: Children were shown, one by one, 9 different written words. Six of these words were bisyllabic (CV-CV), and three were monosyllabic (CVC). After each word was read by the experimenter, the child was asked to say the word in “small bits”, one for each written letter. The researcher gave one example, producing a phonological segmentation, matching each sound with the correct letter.

Kindergartners were classified into six different groups, according to their productions in the writing task. These groups were the following: presyllabic writings, initial syllabic, strict syllabic writings without the use of pertinent letters, strict syllabic writings with the use of pertinent letters, syllabic-alphabetic writings and, finally, alphabetic writings. Each group was formed by nine children. Additionally, the eleven first graders were included in another group. All these children could write alphabetically.

In both segmentation tasks, the children produced seven different types of responses:

1.	Children repeated the complete word, without making the attempt to segment the word into its constituent parts.
2.	Syllabic segmentations for bisyllabic words (e.g. lu-na). For monosyllabic items, children divided the word into two parts, using the vowel as the nucleus of both remaining parts (e.g. pa-an).
3.	Partial isolation of a vowel. For bisyllabic words, children segmented the word syllabically, repeating one of the vowels (e.g. lu-u-na). For monosyllabic words, they segmented the word into two parts but they isolated (through repetition) the vowel, as in pa-a-an.
4.	Partial isolation of a consonant: Children seemed to anticipate the second syllable's onset or the monosyllabic coda. However, as in 3, the isolated element became a part of a bigger unit in previous or subsequent segmentations (e.g. lu-n-na or pa-n-an).
5.	Segmentation of the phonemes that constitute the last syllable or the coda (e.g. lu-n-a or pa-n).
6.	Segmentation of the phonemes that constitute the first syllable or the onset of a monosyllabic word (l-u-na or p-an).
7.	Complete phonological segmentation (l-u-n-a or p-a-n).

The results suggest that there is a developmental trend in the types of segmentation that children produce. Moreover, development in phonological awareness seems to be related to the acquisition of writing. Children with more primitive writings (presyllabic or initial syllabic) were unable to segment monosyllabic words (type 1 responses), or divide words syllabically (Type 2). Children with syllabic writings started partially isolating vowels or consonants (types 3 and 4). Only children with more advanced writings were able to produce phonological segmentations of part of a word. The first phonological segmentations occurred in the last syllable of bisyllabic words or in the coda of monosyllabic words. Only children with syllabic-alphabetic or alphabetic writings were able to produce complete phonological segmentations. However, even these more advanced children were unable to segment all items phonologically. Onset and rhyme segmentations, which in English have been shown to be important developmentally, were not produced frequently in the Spanish-speaking children we interviewed. None of the children produced this kind of segmentation systematically.

Although the same kind of responses were found in both segmentation tasks, the physical presence of a written word enhances children's segmentation capabilities. Children are therefore able to produce more analytical responses when they see the written word than when they use plastic tokens. This is probably because the written string provides them with information about how many segmentations they can actually produce, even if they are pre-readers. Letters can also give information about the sounds they represent.

Results suggest that phonological development is related to children's knowledge of the writing system. Also, they suggest that written words should be included systematically in phonological awareness research tasks.

Palabras clave:

• Conciencia fonológica
• escritura
• adquisición de la escritura
• conocimiento metalingüístico

Keywords:

• Phonological awareness
• writing
• acquisition of writing
• metalinguistic knowledge