Editor: Viv Edwards (University of Reading, UK)
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Volume: 13 Number: 1 Page: 1–16
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Children's Understandings of Text in a Multilingual Nursery
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Charmian Kenner
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This paper discusses the results of a one-year research project in a South London nursery class which included three- and four-year-olds from a variety of linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Children were
given the opportunity to engage with a wide range of home literacy materials in the classroom, in English and in other languages. Through their use of these materials as part of purposeful social interaction,
and through production of their own writing, the children displayed a knowledge of different genres, and an awareness of the kinds of symbol used within each type of text. The work of 30 children was collected
and analysed during the year, and a case study was also made of one child, a four-year-old from a Gujarati-speaking family. The paper comments on the general response within the class, and then draws on
the case study to illustrate the findings in detail. The results suggest that classroom literacy work needs to be expanded in order to capitalise on the full extent of young children's knowledge about written
language.
© Multilingual Matters 1998
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