Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Improving children’s textual competence in kindergarten through genre awareness

  • Published:
European Journal of Psychology of Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study presents an original genre awareness intervention for kindergarten children. The efficacy of the intervention was tested on children’s awareness in three different genres: narrative, epistolary, and instructions. We hypothesized that the intervention would be effective in improving children’s structural knowledge in all three genres. The participants in this study were 121 children attending kindergarten. All children were assessed on structural knowledge of three different genres twice, at the pre- and post-test stage. Six kindergarten teachers (and their six respective classes) were randomly assigned to groups: the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group received a six-week genre awareness intervention, whereas the control group implemented other emergent literacy activities. Results confirmed that the genre awareness intervention improved children’s scores in all three measures, narrative, epistolary, and instruction textual competence. Through the intervention, children became more aware of the specific conventions underlying the structural level of each genre.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. see http://www.miur.gov.it/scuola-dell-infanzia

References

  • Albuquerque, E. B. C., & Spinillo, A. (1997). O conhecimento de crianças sobre diferentes tipos de textos. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 13, 329–338.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ashkenazi, O., & Ravid, D. (1998). Children’s understanding of linguistic humor: An aspect of metalinguistic awareness. Current Psychology of Cognition, 17, 367–387.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. (1986). Speech genres and other late essays. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M., & Medvedev, P. N. (1985). The formal method in literary scholarship: a critical introduction to sociological poetics (A.J. Werhle, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

  • Bardhoshi, G., & Erford, B. T. (2017). Processes and procedures for estimating score reliability and precision. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling and Development, 50(4), 256–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481756.2017.1388680.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baumer, S., Ferholt, B., & Lecusay, R. (2005). Promoting narrative competence through adult-child joint pretense: lessons from the Scandinavian educational practice of playworld. Cognitive Development, 20(4), 576–590. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2005.08.003.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bazerman, C. (1988). Shaping written knowledge:The genre and activity of the experimental article in science. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (1995). Narrative competence and storytelling performance: how children tell stories in different contexts. Journal of Narrative and Life History, 5(4), 285–313. https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.5.4.01nar.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (2002). Peer commentary on ‘developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model’ by Dorit Ravid and Liliana Tolchinsky. Journal of Child Language, 29(02), 449–488. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000902225349.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A., & Slobin, D. I. (1994). Relating events in narrative. A cross-linguistic developmental study. Hillsdale: Laurence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigozzi, L., & Vettori, G. (2015). To tell a story, to write it: developmental patterns of narrative skills from preschool to first grade. European Journal of Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-015-0273-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bigozzi, L., Tarchi, C., Pinto, G., & Accorti Gamannossi, B. (2016). Predicting dyslexia in a transparent orthography from grade one literacy skills: a prospective cohort study. Reading & Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties, 32, 353–372. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2014.988310

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Botting, N. (2002). Narrative as a tool for the assessment of linguistic and pragmatic impairments. Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 18(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1191/0265659002ct224oa.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990). The logic of practice. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Christie, F. (1995). Pedagogic discourse in the primary school. Linguistics and Education, 7(3), 221–242.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Donovan, C. A., & Smolkin, L. B. (2002). Children’s genre knowledge: an examination of K-5 students’ performance on multiple tasks providing differing levels of scaffolding. Reading Research Quarterly, 37(4), 428–465. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.37.4.5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowker, A. (1989). Rhyme and alliteration in poems elicited from young children. Journal of Child Language, 16(01), 181–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duke, N. K., & Kays, J. (1998). “Can I Say ‘Once Upon a Time’?”: kindergarten children developing knowledge of information book language. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 13(2), 295–318. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2006(99)80041-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duke, N. K., & Purcell-gates, V. (2003). Genres at home and at school: bridging the known to the new. The Reading Teacher, 57, 30–37. https://doi.org/10.1598/RT.57.1.4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyson, A. H. (1985). Individual differences in emergent writing. In M. Farr (Ed.), Advances in writing research (Vol. 1: Children’s writing development) (pp. 59–126). Norwood: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Englert, C. S., Stewart, S. R., & Heibert, E. H. (1988). Young writers’ use of text structure in expository text generation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(2), 143–151.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferreiro, E., & Teberosky, A. (1979). Los sistemas de escritura en el desarrollo del niño (En. tr., Literacy before schooling). Mexico: Siglo XXI.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flower, L., & Hayes, J. R. (1981). A cognitive process theory of writing. College Composition and Communication, 32(4), 365–387.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1974). Frame analysis. New York: Harper & Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graesser, A. C., Hauft-Smith, K., Cohen, A. D., & Pyles, L. D. (1980). Advanced outlines, familiarity, and text genre on retention of prose. The Journal of Experimental Education, 48(4), 281–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.1980.11011745.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, Y., Dynia, J. M., Logan, J. A. R., Justice, L. M., Breit-Smith, A., & Kaderavek, J. N. (2016). Fidelity of implementation for an early-literacy intervention: dimensionality and contribution to children’s intervention outcomes. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 37, 165–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECRESQ.2016.06.001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1989). Language, context, and text: Aspects of language in a social-semiotic perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Hicks, D. (1990). Narrative skills and genre knowledge: ways of telling in the primary school grades. Applied PsychoLinguistics, 11(01), 83. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400008304.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson-Laird, P. N. (1980). Mental models in cognitive science. Cognitive Science, 4(1), 71–115. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0401_4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Justice, L. M., & Kaderavek, J. N. (2004). Embedded-explicit emergent literacy intervention I: background and description of approach. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 35(3), 201–211. https://doi.org/10.1044/0161-1461(2004/020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamberelis, G. (1995). Genre as institutionally informed social practice. Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues, 6, 115–171.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamberelis, G., & Bovino, T. D. (1999). Cultural artifacts as scaffolds for genre development. Reading Research Quarterly, 34(6), 138–170. https://doi.org/10.1086/250095.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, K., Nelson, K., & Whyte, E. (2014). Children choose their own stories: the impact of choice on children’s learning of new narrative skills. Journal of Child Language, 41(04), 949–962. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000913000160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kintsch, W. (1986). Learning from text. Cognition and Instruction, 3(2), 87–108. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532690xci0302_1.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langer, J. A. (1985). Children’s sense of genre: a study of performance on parallel reading and writing tasks. Written Communication, 2(2), 157–187.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Langer, J. A. (1986). Children reading and writing: Structures and strategies. Norwood: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lever, R., & Sénéchal, M. (2011). Discussing stories: on how a dialogic reading intervention improves kindergartners’ oral narrative construction. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 108(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2010.07.002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Longobardi, E., Spataro, P., & Pizzicannella, E. (2018). Handwriting, spelling, and narrative competence in the fictional stories of Italian primary-school children. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 33(2), 277–293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-017-0328-y.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lonigan, C. J., Burgess, S. R., & Anthony, J. L. (2000). Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 36(5), 596–613. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.36.5.596.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luke, A. (1995). Text and discourse in education: an introduction to critical discourse analysis. In M. W. Apple (Ed.), Review of research in education (Vol. 21) (pp. 3–48). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCabe, A., & Peterson, C. (1991). Developing narrative structure. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merritt, D. D., & Liles, B. Z. (1989). Narrative analysis: clinical applications of story generation and story retelling. The Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 54(3), 438–447. https://doi.org/10.1044/jshd.5403.438.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, C. R. (1984). Genre as social action. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 70(2), 151–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nerlich, B. Z., Todd, Z., & Clarke, D. D. (1998). The function of polysemous jokes and riddles in semantic development. Current Psychology of Cognition, 17, 343–366.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newkirk, T. (1987). The non-narrative writing of young children. Research in the Teaching of English, 21, 121–144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newkirk, T. (1989). More than stories: The range of children’s writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Donnell, C. L. (2008). Defining, conceptualizing, and measuring fidelity of implementation and its relationship to outcomes in K-12 curriculum intervention research. Review of Educational Research, 78(1), 33–84. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654307313793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ochs, E. (1987). Culture and language development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pesco, D., & Gagné, A. (2017). Scaffolding narrative skills: a meta-analysis of instruction in early childhood settings. Early Education and Development, 28(7), 773–793. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2015.1060800.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., & Salzarulo, P. (1998). Textual knowledge in children’s narratives of dreams and stories. Cahiers de Psychologie Cognitive, 17, 273–285.

  • Pinto, G., Bigozzi, L., Accorti Gamannossi, B., & Vezzani, C. (2009). Emergent literacy and learning to write: a predictive model for Italian language. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 24, 61–78. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173475

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Bigozzi, L. (2015). The relationship between oral and written narratives: A three–year longitudinal study of narrative cohesion, coherence, and structure. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 551–569. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12091

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Bigozzi, L. (2016). Development in narrative competences from oral to written stories in five–to seven–year–old children. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 36, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.12.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., Accorti Gamannossi, B., & Bigozzi, L. (2016). Mental state talk in children’s face-to-face and telephone narratives. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 44, 21–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appdev.2016.02.004

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Accorti Gamannossi, B. (2018). Kindergarteners’ narrative competence across tasks and time. Journal of Genetic Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221325.2018.1453775

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Bigozzi, L. (2019). Promoting narrative competence in kindergarten: An intervention study. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 20–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ECRESQ.2018.09.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Hora, A. (2009). From implicit to explicit language knowledge in intervention: introduction to the special issue on intervention and metalanguage. First Language, 29(1), 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142723708097563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Tolchinsky Landsmann, L. (2002). Developing linguistic literacy: a comprehensive model. Journal of Child Language, 29(02), 419–448. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000902005111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sandbank, A. (2001). On the interplay of genre and writing conventions in early text writing. In Developmental aspects in learning to write (pp. 55–75). Dordrecht: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0734-4_4.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Spinillo, A. G., & Pinto, G. (1994). Children’s narratives under different conditions: A comparative study. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 12, 177–193. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-835X.1994.tb00627.x

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teale, W. H., & Sulzby, E. (1986). Emergent literacy: Writing and reading. Norwood: Ablex.

    Google Scholar 

  • Temple, C., Nathan, R., & Burris, N. (1982). The beginnings of writing. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolchinsky Landsmann, L. (2003). The cradle of culture and what children know about writing and numbers before being taught. Mahwah: Erlbaum.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69(3), 848–872. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06247.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • World Medical Association. (2013). Declaration of Helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. JAMA, 27, 2191–2194. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zecker, L. B. (1996). Early development in written language: children’s emergent knowledge of genre-specific characteristics. Reading and Writing, 8(1), 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence (Italy), Via San Salvi, 12, 50125, Florence, Italy

    Giuliana Pinto, Christian Tarchi & Lucia Bigozzi

Authors
  1. Giuliana Pinto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Christian Tarchi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Lucia Bigozzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christian Tarchi.

Ethics declarations

The research design of this study followed all the indications of the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association 2013) and was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Department of Psychology at the University of Florence, Italy. We collected informed consent from the participants’ parents.

Additional information

Giuliana Pinto. Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence (Italy), via San Salvi, 12 - 50125 Florence, IT, Fax: +39 055.6236047, Email: giuliana.pinto@unifi.it

Current themes of research:

Language production and comprehension, learning processes (longitudinal and intervention studies), emergent literacy, and pictorial representation.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Cameron, A.C.; Pinto, G.; Tapanya, S. (2014). Scaffolding one Thai youth drawing toward resilience. Culture & Psychology, 20, pp. 453-476.

Accorti Gamannossi, B., Pinto, G. (2014). Theory of mind and language of mind in narratives: developmental trends from kindergarten to primary school. First Language, 34, 262-272.

Pinto, G., Bigozzi, L., Accorti Gamannossi, B., & Vezzani, C. (2009). Emergent literacy and learning to write: a predictive model for Italian language. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 14, 61-78.

Pinto, G., Accorti Gamannossi, B., & Cameron, C.A. (2010). From scribbles to meanings: social interaction in different cultures and the emergence of young children’s early drawing. Early Child Development and Care, online, 1-20.

Cameron, C.A., & Pinto, G. (2009). Day in the life: secure interludes with joint book reading. Journal of Research in Childhood Education, 23, 437-449.

Christian Tarchi. Department of Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence (Italy), via San Salvi, 12 - 50125 Florence, IT. Fax: +39 055.6236047, Email: christian.tarchi@unifi.it

Current themes of research:

Reading comprehension, critical thinking, reading and spelling acquisition, learning disorders, and conceptualization of Physics.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Tarchi, C. (2019). Identifying fake news through trustworthiness judgments of documents. Culture and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/11356405.2019.1597442

Tarchi, C., Surian, A., & Daiute, C. (2019). Assessing study abroad students’ intercultural sensitivity with narratives. European Journal of Psychology of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00417-9.

Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Bigozzi, L. (2015). The relationship between oral and written narratives: A three-year longitudinal study of narrative cohesion, coherence, and structure. British Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI:10.1111/bjep.12091.

Pinto, G., Bigozzi, L., Tarchi, C., Accorti Gamannossi, B. & Canneti, L. (2015). Cross-lag analysis of longitudinal associations between primary school students’ writing and reading skills. Reading and Writing. DOI: 10.1007/s11145-015-9569-9.

Tarchi, C. (2015). Fostering reading comprehension of expository texts through the activation of readers' prior knowledge and inference-making skills. International Journal of Educational Research. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2015.04.013.

Lucia Bigozzi. Department of  Education, Languages, Intercultures, Literatures and Psychology, University of Florence (Italy), via San Salvi, 12 - 50125 Florence, IT. Phone: +39 055.2055811; Fax: +39 055.6236047, Email: lucia.bigozzi@unifi.it

Current themes of research:

Inclusive education of students with disabilities, intelligence and conceptualization, metacognition and theory of mind, lexical competence, emergent literacy, reading comprehension, narrative competence, learning disabilities and identification of predictors, ADHD and autism.

Most relevant publications in the field of Psychology of Education:

Bigozzi L., & Vettori, G. (2015). To tell a story, to write it: Developmental patterns of narrative skills from pre-school to first grade. European Journal of Psychology of Education. DOI: 10.1007/s10212-015-0273-6.

Pinto G., Bigozzi L., Accorti Gamannossi B., Vezzani C. (2009), Emergent literacy and learning to write: a predictive model for Italian language, European Journal of Psychology of Education, 1, 61-74.

Pinto, G., Tarchi, C., & Bigozzi, L. (2015). The relationship between oral and written narratives: A three-year longitudinal study of narrative cohesion, coherence, and structure. British Journal of Educational Psychology. DOI:10.1111/bjep.12091.

Bigozzi L., Pinto G. Tarchi (2014). Evaluating the predictive impact of an emergent literacy model on dyslexia in Italian children: a four-year prospective cohort study.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 3, 1-14.

Pezzica S., Pinto G., Bigozzi L., Vezzani C., (2015). Where is my attention? Children’s metaknowledge trough drawings. Educational Psychology. DOI: 10.1080/01443410.2014.1003035.

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 24 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Pinto, G., Tarchi, C. & Bigozzi, L. Improving children’s textual competence in kindergarten through genre awareness. Eur J Psychol Educ 35, 137–154 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00418-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10212-019-00418-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation