I recently had a student in another class share a piece of writing from a pre-literate student of hers, who reversed and flipped letters upside down, and copied things out of order, etc. Some of these kinds of things are common with children who are learning to write (for example, reversing 'b' to make 'd', or writing 's' backward), while others are not. If you've worked with either children or pre-literate adults, what types of errors have you seen?
On another note, in elementary school, much of what children do is simply copying or tracing of letters. Do you think these are appropriate for an adult as well? What kinds of other writing activities can you think of for adults who are just learning to read and write (in any language)?
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ReplyDelete"Do you think [copying and tracing letters] are appropriate for an adult as well?"
Tracing or copying "letters" and words in Chinese or Japanese has always been the way to go. Lots of drills. I think, in writing, it might be particularly productive to do drill based activities.
I am excited to read about studies and activities that show a relationship between competencies. For example, that being a better reader makes one a better writer. Or writing more might help overall fluency. I suspect the latter is due to more frequent comprehension able output that could equate to an outward transfer from memorization to language access.
However, there is a lot to writing. It isn't just output, it is also the mechanics of movement to shape the letters or get the right spelling (as the original post suggests). I suspect this kind of mechanical movement in writing is aided by drills no matter ones age. Still, I wouldn't use children's books for adults.
I have had experience with both children and my pre-literate student, and have seen various things. One of the most common is mixing small with capital letters inside a word. The most common letter to be capitalized in my experience has been "A", for some reason. I have also seen "b" and "d" reversal. One of the more interesting things is trying to de-train Japanese students from the faulty Romanization method taught to them in elementary school. It tries to make the Romanization 1:1 with the native writing system, which makes it difficult for non-Japanese to read. I had to tell children that, no, ther names were not Tika, Syozi, or Huma and that they were actually Chika, Shoji and Fuma, respectively.
ReplyDeleteI think tracing of letters is acceptable and necessary for learners at all ages. Everyone must develop the muscle memory necessary to write letters. Some other fun ways to learn letter recognition is the flyswatter game Anna mentioned, and a recognition card game called karuta. In karuta cards with individual letters are placed face up on a table between 2+ students. The teacher calls out the name (or sound) of a letter and the students race to be the first person to put their hand palm down on the card. It's really fun and fun to watch as well!
Those games do sound like fun! I was thinking, Sean, of your issues with your student and wondering how it's going? You had mentioned at some point that she guesses based on pictures, but have you tried playing up the guessing? For instance, if you show her a pic of money and she guesses "dollar" then you can show her the word written out and point out that it starts with 'm' and ask her the sound and see if she can then guess from there. In that way, she's not only learning at least a little about the sounds, but also about synonyms (and you could talk a little about the subtle differences between them).
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