"Otro niño lo escribió así". Ayuda educativa y resultados de actividades de escritura inventada

espanolIntroduccion. La escritura inventada consiste basicamente en actividades de aprendizaje en las que se propone a ninos aprendices de lector/escritor que escriban, como sean capaces, palabras o frases, involucrandoles en una reflexion sobre las relaciones entre lo oral y lo escrito. La finalidad de este estudio era examinar el proceso y los resultados de este tipo de actividades en la Educacion Infantil. En particular, se pretendia documentar las principales estrategias instruccionales, relacionadas con la interaccion y la ayuda educativa. Metodologia. Para ello se seleccionaron 119 ninos portugueses que no habian recibido todavia una ensenanza formal de la lectoescritura. Los sujetos fueron distribuidos aleatoriamente en un grupo experimental (que participo en 10 sesiones de 15-20 minutos de escritura inventada en pequeno grupo) y otro de control (que participo en actividades de lectura de cuentos de una duracion similar). Para garantizar la homogeneidad de los grupos se evaluo individualmente las habilidades cognitivas, el conocimiento del alfabeto y la conciencia fonologica. EnglishIntroduction. Invented spelling basically consists in learning activities proposed to pre-reading children to encourage them to write words or sentences as well as they possibly can in order to engage them in a reflection about the relationship between oral and written language. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation and the results of this type of activities in Pre-Primary education, specifically, to record the main instructional strategies related to interaction and educational support used in this context. Methodology. 119 Portuguese pupils with no formal training in literacy were chosen. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (that participated in ten sessions of invented spelling in small groups each of which lasted for 15-20 minutes) and a control group (that took part in storytelling activities of a similar duration). In order to ensure the homogeneity of both groups, each pupil was individually assessed for cognitive abilities, alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness. All the children completed two types of tests (word reading and writing) before and after the instructional intervention. A parallel observational study into the interaction process and the type of support offered to the experimental group was also carried out in six of the invented spelling sessions. Results and conclusions. Results show significant progress in both the reading and writing of words for the subjects in the experimental condition whereas no significant differences were found for the control group. The analysis of verbal interaction during the invented spelling activities also reveals a highly scaffolded learning process based on joint writing and joint corrections strategies as well as control transfer strategies that could explain their efficiency. To conclude, these findings and their implications for future research are discussed.