Chinese preschool children's literacy development: From emergent to conventional writing

Chinese preschool children's literacy development: From emergent to conventional writing

• Chan, Lily Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Cheng, Zijuan Faculty of Education, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Chan, Lai Foon Po Leung Kuk Tin Ka Ping Siu Hong Kindergarten, Hong Kong

Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development, 28(2), 135-148, 2008

Routledge

2008

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GA Chinese Language
    • GAE Teaching Methods of Composition & Their Outcomes

Written Language Preschool Children Foreign Countries Emergent Literacy Chinese Learning Experience Conventional Instruction Romanization Developmentally Appropriate Practices Orthographic Symbols Longitudinal Studies Preschool Education Hong Kong

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Pre-Primary Education

A Chinese script is represented by Chinese characters and each character is a square-shaped configuration with condensed strokes. Children in Hong Kong are explicitly taught to write at a very young age. They are guided to draw vertical and horizontal lines at age three, and are required to write simple characters with few strokes at age four. When children are ready for formal schooling at age six, many of them can write around 50-60 characters. Typical writing lessons consist of penmanship drills and assigned character copying tasks, but in some preschools teachers have begun to change the writing curriculum and make a distinction between emergent literacy and conventional literacy. Early writings are marked by scribbles, drawings and invented spellings, and these are regarded as signs of active exploration for children to understand the writing system. The present study introduces the learning experience of a four-year-old girl who was encouraged by her teacher and parents to be an emergent writer. Her writings went through several stages of development within a year, and her spontaneous experiments with writing in the initial stage contributed significantly to her becoming a fairly independent and confident writer.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575140801945304]

• English

Journal Articles

• 09575146

• 10.1080/09575140801945304

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/b4545677

2010-09-06