Written Language & Literacy - Volume 25, Issue 2, 2022

In 2006, a narrative of the Desana people included a system of graphic symbols reported as a historical Indigenous invention used during intertribal warfare to count the number of enemies and pass warning information. This paper outlines and evaluates the Desana graphic system. The Desana people are described, and their timeline of mythical events is compared to historical accounts of the region. Contemporary Desana spoken numbers are then characterized as a quinary system with a restricted extent that differs significantly from the graphic writing system as presented in the cultural narrative. Implications for the development of writing systems generally and numerical notations specifically are explored. We conclude that the numerical symbols represent cultural diffusion of both European decimal numerals and the idea of writing. However, these were influenced by, synthesized with, and ultimately transformed through their contact with Indigenous cultural practices and concepts, making them an authentic Desana invention.

The current study evaluated how characteristics of Hebrew, a Semitic language with an abjad writing system, are manifested in Hebrew-speaking preschoolers’ play with a computerized spelling game adapted for Hebrew. The game words were of different lengths and structures so as to include the entire Hebrew alphabet and all the vowels (a, e, i, o, u) in all possible positions in the word (first, last, second). We analyzed the 18,720 spellings typed by 96 preschoolers aged 5;7 years (on average) who played the game during eight sessions (about 20 minutes per session) in one month.

The study indicated a greater difficulty in spelling א, ה, ו, י letters as consonants than as vowels, and more success in spelling ב, כ, פ letters that are pronounced as stops, as compared to the same letters that are pronounced as spirants. The success in spelling consonants and consonant-vowel letters was identical. Within a word, there was greater success in spelling the first letter, than in spelling the last letter, and the second letter. The length of the word did not influence success in spelling the first, second, or last letter in the word. At the same time, spelling an entire shorter word was easier than spelling an entire longer word. Lastly, spelling of words to which children had more exposures was easier than spelling words with only a single exposure. The discussion focuses on the implications of the study and refers to the nature of appropriate literacy-oriented digital Hebrew games and activities with preschoolers.

To develop emergent literacy skills, preschool children need to be supported by adults in a rich and stimulating environment. During the first lockdown due to the SARS-CoV2 virus, there were several social, family, technological, and individual barriers to promote family literacy and emergent literacy. In the present study, we aimed to provide insight on the relationship between family literacy practices and emergent literacy skills among preschool children after the first confinement due to COVID-19 pandemic. This study included 102 participants, which consisted of parents (90.2% mothers) and one preschool child per parent. Results showed evidence of a higher frequency of training and teaching activities than family literacy playful activities. There were statistically significant differences in emergent skills, according to the frequency of family playful activities and family training and teaching activities. Results suggest that different family literacy practices are significantly correlated to all the emergent literacy skills evaluated.

Children who struggle with acquisition of oral language are likely to become less proficient writers later on. The current study aimed to compare written texts of adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their typically developing (TD) peers in terms of length, content, cohesion, coherence and errors. Additionally, texts of TD adolescents were compared with the texts of TD adults. Accordingly, three participant groups were included in this study: 21 DLD adolescents, 21 TD adolescents and 22 TD adults, all native speakers of Croatian. The comparison of narrative texts written by DLD and TD adolescents suggests that the former write shorter and less cohesive texts and produce more errors. These results indicate that individuals with DLD have writing profiles similar to those obtained in other studies. Comparison of texts written by TD adolescents and adults shows that both groups write largely similar texts which differ only in the use of sophisticated vocabulary.

Argumentative writing from sources is a literacy practice that students commonly find challenging. The present article reports a descriptive study where students’ source-based writing in small groups was supported with either print-based or digital scaffolding. Students analyzed source texts given to them and used their analysis to compose a position paper on a controversial educational topic. Position papers were analyzed for depth and breadth of argumentation, stand and justifications, degree of transformation of source texts’ argumentation, and structure. The study suggests that students in both scaffolding groups were fairly capable of identifying relevant reasons representing various perspectives on the topic in source texts and using them to build an argument in their position papers. However, students seldom transformed the arguments by adding their own thoughts or connecting arguments across the texts. Further, quite a few students seem to struggle in structuring their essays: 41% of essays in the print-based scaffolding group and 24% of essays in the digital scaffolding group were unstructured. Instructional implications are discussed.

Orthographic depth is a key concept in literacy acquisition and can be measured separately for completeness, simplicity and consistency. The first of these is pertinent to discussions about whether tone should be marked in African orthographies, because a zero tone representation is relatively incomplete and deep whereas a full tone orthography is relatively complete and shallow. We undertook a series of literacy experiments in ten Niger-Congo languages to test the extent to which full tone marking contributes to reading and writing skills. In a within-subject design that closely follows Bird (1999b), participants orally read two full tone and two zero tone texts and also added tone accents to unmarked versions of two of the texts. Speed, accuracy, comprehension, as well as a range of linguistic, ethno-literacy, demographic and L2 literacy variables were tracked. The present article narrows the scope of the wider research project (Roberts & Walter 2021) to two of the languages, Yoruba and Ife, which are linguistically similar, yet have highly dissimilar results. In Yoruba, full tone marking does not contribute to any improvement in reading measurements, and tone writing skills are generally poor. In Ife, on the other hand, full tone marking contributes to speed, accuracy and comprehension, and tone writing is the most accurate of all the languages. The results suggest that the social profile of the participant and the ethno-literacy profile of the language community are more predictive of reading and writing performance than is the linguistic profile of the language.