Abstract

Keywords

Indigenous People, Preschool Children, Emergent Writing, Mock Writing

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1. Introduction

In preschool period, children often recognize their names, environmental print, and other symbols or words. Some children incorporate writing into their scribbles, demonstrating emergent literacy arising from daily life rather than formal schooling (Clay, 2015a; Huang, 1991, 1999; Li, 1991).

Much research shows writing emerges through children’s spontaneous interest and active participation in meaningful contexts with rich language exposure (Coles & Goodman, 1980; Huang, 1997). However, unlike children from literacy-rich homes, the indigenous preschoolers in this study have scarce literacy environments at home. This research aims to understand how these students develop writing skills despite having limited resources.

Prior research also indicates indigenous students often underperform in mainstream education due to sociocultural factors, low socioeconomic status, inadequate learning environments, differing parenting attitudes, etc. (Chen, 1998a; Zhang et al., 1997). Over time, indigenous students appear disadvantaged. The prevailing assumption is that indigenous preschoolers have abundant literacy exposure and parental support at home to scaffold their writing development in mainstream schools. However, these assumptions as the indigenous preschoolers in this study have scarce literacy environments in their households. Their access to writing materials, literacy artifacts, and parental guidance is highly limited outside of the school setting. This study provides needed insight into indigenous children’s emergent writing, countering deficit-based perspectives. It highlights the active role students play in pursuing literacy despite constraints, furthering strengths-based, culturally-responsive approaches.

2. Literature Review

This review examines research on emergent writing abilities in young children. Emergent literacy refers to the reading and writing behaviors that develop naturally before formal schooling (Clay, 1966, as cited in Soderman et al., 1999). Within literacy-rich environments, preschoolers perceive writing as meaningful and experiment with marks on paper (Clay, 2015a). Children’s writing evolves developmentally from scribbles to controlled scribble writing and finally conventional writing (Clay, 2015b; Li, 1998; McLane & McNamee, 1990).

According to Lin L.C. (2006), children’s inherent interest and initiative in writing are favorable for emergent writing. The home environment is often the first context, as children have literacy experiences there before entering school (Clay, 2015b). However, indigenous families tend to face disadvantages regarding emergent literacy, posing challenges for literacy support at home (Zhang et al., 1997; Chen, 1998b; Lin, 1999). Still, some indigenous parents do engage in literacy activities with children (Lin, 2006).

Teachers play a key role in indigenous children’s writing development by providing literacy-rich classrooms and facilitating meaningful writing (Huang, 1997; Coles & Goodman, 1980). Opportunities for children to record, write, and express themselves allows them to experience the meaningfulness of writing (Lin, 2006).

In summary, this review examines factors influencing emergent writing in indigenous children, including developmental stages, home literacy environments, and the role of teachers. Understanding emergent writing from a culturally responsive perspective remains an issue of interest.

3. Method

The study employs qualitative research methods, emphasizing contextual embedding and developmental processes through the researcher’s naturalistic observations in class. It aims to provide a thick description from the participant’s perspective to uncover Little Blue’s writing development and experiences (Huang, 1991).

Data collection and analysis strategies regarding the participant: Rong’s writing development and experiences:

1) Reading and writing development are inextricably linked. This indicates that in addition to the participant’s personal characteristics and talents, reading provided complementary support for the development of her writing skills.

2) Imitative writing is an important discovery in the writing development documented in this study. Imitative writing serves as an important scaffold for emergent writers. The earliest meaningful imitative writing for emergent writers is their own name.

Participant

The participant, Rong, is an only child from a single-parent family, cared for primarily by her mother. The family’s financial situation is adequate. Her mother values Rong’s education and academic performance. Whenever she is not working, she accompanies Rong in reading and helps review Rong’s preschool assignments. However, when her mother is busy with work, the television becomes Rong’s companion.

Rong expresses herself clearly and fluently. At kindergarten, she learns quickly, takes initiative, and observes things keenly. She is also adept at articulating her own opinions. She and Green are close friends who often play together.

The research site for this study was a public kindergarden in Hsinchu County of Taiwan province, China with a predominately Indigenous student population.Video cameras, digital cameras, and audio recording equipment were used to conduct year-long observations, work sample collection, and interviews with the research participant (hereafter referred to by the pseudonym Rong). On one hand, the researcher transcribed and coded the video and audio recordings. On the other hand, the researcher also analyzed Rong’s writing samples. Through the complementary juxtaposition and explanation of these two types of data, the researcher was ultimately able to present Rong’s writing development and rich writing experiences.

4. Presentation of Writing Development and Experiences

This section presents Rong’s development and engagement in written language in class. First, in her preschool life, Rong would take the initiative to choose the language corner during free activity time to read, listen to stories, tell stories, and even dramatize story content with peers. Rong’s extensive reading also aided her greatly when undertaking written tasks. Regarding her progress, through observing Rong’s early writing attempts and final works, it was found that she went through an important scaffolding process of “imitative writing” when transitioning from scribbles and drawing to conventional writing. Furthermore, Rong’s written samples also revealed imitative writing at different levels and with varied implications. Additionally, most of Rong’s written work stemmed from curriculum designed by the two Flying Squirrel teachers. Among the various contexts for writing generated by different lessons, Rong’s experience of intrinsic motivation induced by documenting life events proved most valuable. Finally, through Rong’s repeated writing practices, the author witnessed her gradually developing her own set of writing conventions.

Stage 1: From Picture Storytelling to Text Reading

Like many young readers, Rong’s initial reading experiences revolved around pictures and images (Huang, 1997). Rong pointed at the cover of a picture book and started reading: “Crocodile scared, doctor scared.” (Omitted for brevity)

Gradually, Rong could no longer satisfy her motivation to understand the complete story meaning through just picture reading and storytelling. Therefore, Rong persistently tried to sound out words and reread repeatedly, wanting to know the story content conveyed by the text in picture books. As a result, she constantly asked teachers to read to her, reading one sentence after the teacher read one.

Rong pointed at the title of a storybook and asked: “Teacher! What is this?” Teacher Feifei picked up a pen, pointed at each character of the title and read out: “Teddy Bear, Bobo Goes to the Countryside.” Rong repeated after her: “Teddy Bear, Bobo, Goes to the Countryside.” (Omitted for brevity)

Hence, Rong tirelessly read stories with teachers frequently, and learned to sound out words while reading stories. By the second semester, Rong no longer needed the teacher to read out full sentences. When Rong couldn’t sound out a phonetic symbol, the teacher gave timely prompts, and Rong could read a picture book independently.

Rong pointed at the picture book while reading the text aloud: “Big yellow dog~.” Rong paused looking at me. I prompted her: “Says~.” Rong continued reading: “(Big yellow dog) says, pass~, (make the “rabbit” sound), rabbit brother, ... , please invite your whole family to eat thousand-people cake.” (Omitted for brevity)

Through the process of picture storytelling, trying to sound out phonetic symbols, reading with assistance, and finally reading aloud independently, Rong gained a strong sense of accomplishment. Also, Rong herself had high oral, vocabulary, phonics, character recognition, and reading skills. This allowed her to get sufficient reinforcement in language learning. Based on Rong’s solid language abilities, she gained many rich and interesting writing experiences.

Stage 2: Rong’s Writing Development Process

Children develop from scribbling and drawing to writing, extending pictorial lines to written lines (Huang, 1999). For writing, imitative writing serves as a learning scaffold for children to progress from scribbles to conventional writing. Most children will use imitative pictographs and imitative writing to produce their own “text”, which then evolves into socially agreed-upon written forms. The most common sight is children looking at model writing while imitating and reproducing the characters. This process of imitative writing is one of the mock writing principles proposed by Clay for developing writing skills (cited in Song, 2004). It is also a necessary condition in the trajectory from pictures to writing.

1) Writing Starts from Meaningful Names―The Beginning of Imitative Writing

Children’s early writing often begins by imitating their own names (Clay, 2015a; McLane & McNamee, 1990). In my observations of Rong’s writing, words that appeared the earliest and most frequently were indeed Chinese characters from her name.

When Rong saw the researcher taking observational notes, she said she also wanted to write something. Afterwards, Rong took some paper and a pencil..., looked at the name tag on her cubby, and imitated writing her own name.

At this stage, Rong needed to look at and imitate the name tag on her cubby to write her name. From her writing samples, it could be seen that Rong was already proficient at writing her full name (Figure 1).

In name writing activities in the second semester, there were no more traces of Rong imitating her name or even double checking a reference.

In the sign-in activity, I did not see Rong imitating writing her name. As I pointed between Rong’s name and the name tag, I asked her: “Why can you write by yourself without looking above?” Rong answered me without hesitation: “Because I already know how to write!” I responded to Rong: “You already know how to write? So you don’t need to look above?” Rong replied: “Right!”

For Rong, imitating her name was already thoroughly familiar by the beginning of the second semester, so there was no more need to rely on imitation to complete it. The process of Rong imitating her name was very brief.

2) First Exposure to Characters―The Timing of Imitative Writing

Although Rong no longer needed to imitate writing her name, it did not mean imitative writing behaviors were absent when encountering other unfamiliar writing. When Rong first came across unfamiliar zhuyin phonetic symbols or characters, she still needed to look at a model while writing. From three examples of Rong writing health rules, signing a poster, and in her workbook, it can be clearly seen that imitative writing behaviors emerged when Rong encountered characters she was writing for the first time (Figure 2).

After finishing writing the heart disease rules, I asked Rong, “Rong, when you write your name now, you don’t need to look (at the name tag), right?” Rong replied, “Right!” I continued asking, “Then why did you need to look when writing this (heart disease rules) today?” Rong stopped writing and answered me, “Because I don’t know how to write! Because I’ve never written this before! Mom hasn’t taught me.”

Rong’s response that she has “never written this before” and “Mom hasn’t taught me” let me know that when encountering unfamiliar characters, Rong needs to use imitative writing techniques to complete the writing. Indeed, I discovered

Rong’s need to imitate tended to arise when she found characters unfamiliar. For example, after signing in for a period of time, the teacher tried inviting Rong to help write the “day, month, weekday”. This was Rong’s first time writing these words, so she needed to look at the teacher’s model while imitating the writing.

These two writing activities show that when Rong encounters characters she doesn’t know how to write, or is exposed to unfamiliar characters she has never written before, imitative writing behaviors emerge to help complete the writing task. This demonstrates that for emergent writers, imitation is a necessary process in writing development. Looking at what Rong imitated, zhuyin phonetic symbols were the most frequent at first. From the development of Rong’s writing, there was a gradual transition from imitating numbers and zhuyin to imitating Chinese characters.

3) From Independently Writing Zhuyin to Learning Chinese Characters―The Content of Imitation

In Rong’s repeated writing activities, it is not difficult to see that her imitated content began with zhuyin. Initially, Rong felt Chinese characters were too difficult to write, partly because some characters had too many strokes, and partly because Rong’s increasing familiarity with zhuyin made spelling with phonetic symbols give her a greater sense of accomplishment. Therefore, for two months Rong’s writing content and form were mainly zhuyin spelling. When encountering zhuyin symbols, she could look at a complete spelling, then write it out.

For example, when the class theme activity progressed to Magic Numbers, one activity was writing heart disease rules. Rong was the only student who chose to express the rules in writing, while the other children all used pictures. This time, Rong asked Teacher Feifei to record the heart disease rules she dictated in writing. Next, Rong asked me to add zhuyin phonetic symbols to the teacher’s writing. Then, Rong imitated and sounded out the spelling to complete writing her heart disease rules (Figure 3).

From this instance of writing game rules for heart disease, it can be seen that Rong began to perceive the meaningfulness of zhuyin spelling. Rong knew such zhuyin spellings could convey messages, and would also try sounding out what she wrote to confirm that I and the teacher could understand what she had written.

4) I Know What I’m Writing―The Intentionality of Imitation

When children write, they constantly ask themselves questions about what they are writing and how to pronounce it. Wanting to recognize what they are writing indicates children are entering a deeper level of concept of print (Huang, 1997). They will further want to know the sound and meaning of characters. In writing, they can no longer be satisfied with simply imitating the external forms of characters, and thus enter intentional writing. That is to say, at this point imitation has progressed from external forms to conscious attention to the meaning of writing.

From one instance of workbook writing, it can be seen that every time Rong wrote “shōu yī liǎng” (手一?) she would sound out the spelling while writing, linking sound and form, and also learning the spelling. After finishing the workbook, Rong said this assignment was very simple and she understood right away. These written characters had cognition and understood meaning for Rong.

In writing activities, Rong would frequently ask what this character is, what that character is, or how to write a certain character. This all shows Rong’s writing had intentionality. She was aware she was writing characters to convey understandable messages, and eager for her writing to be legible.

Rong’s cognition of character forms, sounds, and meanings mostly came from Rong’s ample reading of storybooks, as well as exposure to text on television. She understood writing has certain rules of direction and arrangement, and would ask questions when uncertain about directions or rules in writing. This shows Rong had considerable sensitivity to text, and was an intentional user of writing.

Rong looked at the whiteboard, preparing to copy the drama performance table, when she suddenly asked me, “Teacher, why is it written reversed? On TV they speak from this side (right to left), so why does (Teacher) write it this way (left to right)?”... (Limited space, so summarizing)

Rong observes the appearance of text in her surroundings, indicating she perceives text around her. From TV subtitles she observed text has directionality, and in classroom writing discovered writing also has directionality. Rong proactively voiced the conflict she saw between her understanding of text directionality, thereby also finding the rules for directionality in writing from this cognitive dissonance. This showed me Rong seeks similarity and difference, assimilation and accommodation in the rules of writing direction, fully exhibiting the traits of a text user.

5) From Single Strokes to Character Components―Changes in the Manner of Imitation

After the transition from writing zhuyin to Chinese characters, and from spelling to reading picture books in Chinese, Rong’s imitation of characters gradually matured from looking at one stroke and writing one stroke, to looking at components and writing components. For example, when writing the character “琪”, Rong knew the left side was “王”, so she didn’t need to imitate the “王”. Only the right side “其” needed to be copied stroke by stroke. This shows Rong’s imitation was no longer simply mock writing the external forms of characters, but had truly entered the process of intentional and meaningful writing.

5. Guidance of Writing Contexts and Activities in the Curriculum

In class, writing activities can largely be categorized and encompassed according to the teacher’s curriculum planning. Teacher Feifei mentioned the class curriculum is mainly thematic and progresses in units. Most writing activities occur during curriculum instruction. An overview of the writing contexts and activities is as follows:

1) Daily sign-in activity

The sign-in format evolved from all children signing on the same poster paper to each child having their own personal sign-in notebook.

2) Writing activities in thematic curriculum

Over one year of data collection, there were four thematic units―“Ancestors’ Cuisine”, “Thanksgiving Christmas”, “Magic Numbers”, and “Story House”. Writing activities included: poster making, numbers in daily life, voting tally chart, Little Book for Ancestor Day.

3) Writing activities in supplementary curriculum

Apart from the thematic curriculum, there were skills the teachers felt the children needed but lacked, so supplementary curriculum was provided, including: penmanship practice, language games, math and logic, and emergent reading. Writing activities included: penmanship practice, workbooks, writing games.

4) Free writing during center time

During center time children explored materials and engaged in self-chosen activities. Writing choices were based on personal motivation rather than teacher-assigned “work”. Writing activities included: library cards, Montessori materials, and mock writing books in the library area.

5) Writing from life events

Unplanned writing occurred from special events at school or home, such as graduation invitations.

Most of Rong’s writing activities stemmed from or extended the teacher’s curriculum planning. A minority occurred apart from planned curriculum, such as writing from life events. These were typically writing activities from Rong’s life experience that had practical function and purpose, like the graduation invitation. Rong clearly understood she was writing the card to invite her mother to her graduation ceremony. This writing had intention, meaning, and functionality―authentic uses of text. In contrast to teacher-planned activities, life event writing could elicit Rong’s intrinsic writing motivation and agency as an active text user. The study also found life event writing further raised Rong’s awareness of the text she produced, and sparked autonomous interest in learning about writing, pushing her imitation from initial superficial levels to more conscious “I know what I am writing” levels.

6. Rong’s “Perseverance” in Writing―Establishing Writing Rules

During emergent writing, children undergo processes of assimilation and accommodation with text and writing, establishing inner writing rules that eventually conform to writing conventions. This study also found indigenous children’s early writing experiences can be shaped by individual traits and adults around them. Below I will discuss teacher reactions and interactions during the focal children’s writing, as well as parental expectations that directly manifest in the children’s writing products and formation of writing rules.

1) Must write in the boxes―constrained writing space Initially when writing in workbooks or library cards with boxes, Rong tried her utmost to fit her writing in the boxes, sometimes resulting in writing frustration.

2) I want to write “beautifully”

“Beautiful” writing is subjective, but as Rong’s penmanship improved, after being able to fit text in the boxes, she began pursuing beautiful writing. Moreover, this was not simply a demand to match the teacher’s model, but self-expectations to meet her own standards.

7. Conclusion and Discussion

Rong was an opinionated girl who asserted her perspectives throughout her writing development. Her writing interests, preferences, and competencies can be summarized as follows:

1) Reading and writing have a reciprocal relationship. Over one school year, Rong was the top borrower in her class and often took initiative to read stories aloud during nap time. Reading and writing draw on interconnected language abilities (Huang, 1993). Beyond Rong’s individual traits and aptitude, reading supported and enhanced her rapid writing progress.

2) Children’s first meaningful writing is usually their name (Clay, 2015a, McLane & McNamee, 1990). Rong’s development aligns with international research findings.

3) Mock writing provides a scaffold for emergent writing. Gentry (1982) proposed mock writing as a developmental stage where children first produce scribbles or imitate writing (in Soderman et al., 1999). Clay (1975) described the Principle of Approximation where children copy models to produce conventional writing (in Song, 2004). However, there is limited Chinese research thoroughly examining children’s mock writing. Peng (2006) briefly described three forms of simple character imitation, but without detailed explanation or comparison to Rong’s mock writing processes.

Through mock writing, Rong gained writing abilities, moving beyond surface imitation to conscious awareness of character shapes, sounds, and meanings. Her shift from stroke-by-stroke to component mock writing demonstrated gradual independence from the writing scaffold. Moreover, Rong oscillated between surface and conscious imitation, continuously expanding her conceptual understanding, until proficient writing was achieved. As emergent writing research indicates (Clay, 2015a; Morrow, 1989; McLane & McNamee, 1990; Soderman et al., 1999), there is no fixed developmental trajectory, but rather children combine and alternate various principles, strategies, and methods. Rong’s journey clearly exemplifies this nonlinear, fluctuating process.

4) Writing from meaningful events and activities enriched Rong’s experiences. Literature emphasizes incorporating writing through play to help children naturally experience its real-life utility (Huang, 1993; Song, 2004; Clay, 2015b; McLane & McNamee, 1990; Lawhon & Cobb, 2002). This study aligns with such recommendations.

5) Rong’s personal interests, parental expectations, and teacher feedback shaped her writing standards and persistence.

In conclusion, despite hailing from an indigenous and single-parent family background fraught with disadvantaged linguistic environments and limited parental guidance, Rong transcended expectations for indigenous children from comparable backgrounds by persevering with intrinsic motivation. From simply scribbling in boxes to legible writing and beautiful penmanship, Rong exhibited the robust aspiration for learning characteristic of numerous indigenous children, notwithstanding scarce resources. Her journey proffers valuable insights into how individual, sociocultural, and socioeconomic factors intersect during the nonlinear orthographic development of an indigenous child, particularly those from underprivileged circumstances. Rong’s perseverance and motivation in surmounting environmental constraints epitomizes the admirable resilience of many indigenous children.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

References