From oral to written language; preschool children dictating stories

The study, part of a larger longidutinal research project, examined the process and product of story dictation of beginning readers. The subjects were 14 six year old italian school children from low socio-economic backgrounds who were interviewed four times (March, May, December and May of the following year) over a period of 16 months. In the interviews, the subjects were asked to construct and dictate a story in response to a picture stimulus, to reflect on their own stories, and to respond to questions from the scribes. The product (the stories) were analyzed for story structure elements, variety of verbal tenses, use of connectives and Anaphoric references. The process (metatextual elements of interaction with the scribe) were anlyzed according to variations in dictation speed, text segmentation, terminal signaling and indications of revision. Results support an emergent literacy perspective, provide direction for further research and are related to the needs of the early childhood curriculum.