Abstract
The paper discusses the importance of incorporating naturalistic data from spontaneous written texts in language acquisition research in general, and in writing acquisition studies in particular. It is argued that spontaneous data can be revealing of the nature of local, epilinguistic procedures, which, by their turn, are seen as indices of underlying system construction. Data are analyzed, from first graders’ spontaneous writing in Portuguese, which bear on the problem of the underlying representation of phonological nasality in the language. It is finally argued that it is the two-sequence interpretation given by the orthography to this aspect of Portuguese phonology that, in the long run, forces children to restructure their «preferred» analysis pointing to a series of phonologically distinct nasal vowels in the language. The alternating nature of the considered data leads to discussion of the relationship between longitudinal and transversal language acquisition studies, and to the proposal of incorporating a micro-historical dimension to explain variability in language acquisition data. It is finally argued that the data under consideration are best accounted for by a constructivist model that attributes a constitutive status to social interaction, and to children’s history of contact with particular words and structures within the context of specific discourse events.
Résumé
L’article traite de l’interêt des données «naturelles» provenant de textes écrits spontanés, pour la recherche sur l’acquisition du langage en général et l’acquisition de l’écrit en particulier. On soutient l’idée que les données spontanées peuvent être révélatrices de la nature des procédures locales, épilinguistiques, qui, à leur tour, sont considérées comme des indices de la construction de systèmes sous-jacents. Les données analysées proviennent d’écrits spontanés en portugais d’élèves du Cours Préparatoire. L’analyse porte sur le problème de la représentation sous-jacente de la nasalité phonologique dans la langue. On argumente que c’est la traduction orthographique de cet aspect de la phonologie portuguaise qui, à la longue, force les enfants à restructurer leur analyse «préférentielle» et à admettre une série de voyelles nasales phonologiquement distinctes dans la langue. La nature des données considérées nous amène à discuter la relation entre les études longitudinales et transversales d’acquisition du langage, et à proposer l’incorporation d’une dimension micro-historique pour expliquer la variabilité des données d’acquisition. On soutient finalement que les données considérées sont très bien expliquées par un modèle constructiviste qui attribue un statut constitutif à l’interaction sociale et à l’histoire du contact des enfants avec des mots et des structures particulières dans le contexte d’évènements discursifs spécifiques.
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Our discussions on the topics presented here have by now a longitudinal, historical dimension. I wish to thank them, also for encouraging me to pursue research on writing acquisition along the lines exposed here. The responsibility for the final analysis and interpretation of children’s written data is, of course, mine.
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Abaurre, M.B.M. The interplay between spontaneous writing and underlying linguistic representations. Eur J Psychol Educ 3, 415–430 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172664
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172664