Cover Letter

النسخ

1 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Arts & Humanities Department of European Languages and Literature (English Section) Bilingual Children s Invented Spelling: A Comparative Study between Arabic and English Orthography By Ma arib Abdul-Kader Jastaniah A Thesis Proposal Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of M.A. in Linguistics 1427 H / 2006G

2 Abstract This study investigates the emergent writing (known as invented or creative spelling) in two distinct orthographies; Arabic and English. Although both are alphabetic languages, they are quite distinct both in spelling rules and representation. The phenomenon of invented spelling has been investigated in the writing of monolingual English speaking children. The characteristics of invented spelling have been extensively described in terms of both successive stages and multiple strategies adhered to in spelling. In this study, the spelling production of a bilingual child (Hala) in both English and Arabic was collected over a longitudinal period of a year and six months (4:6 to 6) with the objective of investigating her creative writing in English, and to compare it with the existing accounts on invented spelling in English. Hala s emergent spelling in Arabic was also investigated in order to compare with English invented spelling. Cross-sectional analysis of other bilingual children's performance was necessary to verify whether the behaviours described were idiosyncratic to Hala or whether they were the function of bilingualism as a general phenomenon. Additionally, findings were also correlated with data obtained from monolingual (Arabic only) children to ascertain whether these strategies are language specific or language independent, i.e., learning mechanisms that apply to all languages. The data was collected through both observational and controlled writing tasks. The participant children are all Saudi of Saudi parents who are speakers of the Hijazi dialect of the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. The selectional criteria for inclusion in the study was each child s ability to perform the writing task irrespective of home environment, gender, age, teaching method, etc. The findings from the bilingual children s invented spelling of this study are in concurrence with the notion that from the start, children use manifold tactics and various types of knowledge in their spelling and that spelling development should be viewed as involving the dominant use of a certain process or stratagem at various periods, but not to the complete elimination of others. From the data, it appears that there are universal spelling strategies shared in spelling both English and Arabic, and there are script dependent strategies that pertain and depend on the spelling rules of the concerned orthography. The shared strategies used by the children in the spelling of both English and Arabic confirm the Common Underlying Proficiency Hypothesis. This suggests the existence of reading/writing language universals, such that at the deep and underlying structural levels, languages rely on common strategies. At the same time the findings also confirm the Script-dependent Hypothesis which predicts that difficulties in reading and writing may be attributed to the orthography used and that the differences in orthographic rules between languages may result in different strategies adopted in learning to read and write, i.e. they may be script dependent. Although the bilingual children of this study took a longer time than their monolingual peers to adapt to the correct writing direction in both scripts, they showed an advantage over monolinguals in both Arabic and English in some spelling aspects like the spelling of vowels and consonant clusters. i

3 مستخلص تعني ھذه الدراسة بالبحث في الكتابة الناشي ة (أو ما یعرف بالا ملاء الا بداعي أو الا بتكاري) في نظامي إملاء متباینین اللغة العربیة و الا نجلیزیة. الا ملاي یة و الشكل. ظاھرة الا ملاء الا بداعي بالرغم من أن كلتیھما لغات أبجدیة فھما متباینتان في كل من القواعد بحثت في كتابة أطفال مكتسبین للغة واحدة و ناطقین باللغة الا نجلیزیة. إن خصاي ص الا ملاء الا بداعي قد وصفت بشكل شامل على شكل مراحل متتالیة و استراتیجیات متعددة متبعة في الا ملاء. في ھذا البحث جمع الا نتاج الا ملاي ي لطفلة (ھلا) مكتسبة للغتین في كل من الا نجلیزیة و العربیة في فترة زمنیة ممتدة بلغت السنة و ستة أشھر (٦-٤ إلى ( ٦ بھدف بحث إملاي ھا الا بتكاري في الا نجلیزیة و مقارنتھ بالدراسات الحالیة التي تصف الا ملاء الا بداعي في الا نجلیزیة. العربیة كانت أیضا موضع بحث بھدف مقارنتھا بالا ملاء الا بداعي في الا نجلیزیة. كتابة الطفلة ھلا في اللغة تحلیل كتابات مقتطفة من أطفال مكتسبین للغتین كان ضروري للتا كد ما إذا كان الا داء الذي وصف خاص بھلا أم كان بفعل ثناي یة اللغة كظاھرة عامة. أیضا قورنت النتاي ج بمعطیات من أطفال أحادي اللغة (العربیة فقط) للتحقق فیما إذا كانت ھذه الا ستراتیجیات مختصة بلغة معینة أم مستقلة عنھا بمعنى أن آلیات التعلم تنطبق على كل اللغات. المعطیات من خلال كل من كتابات تم ملاحظتھا و كتابات تم التحكم فیھا. جمعت كان الا طفال المشاركین سعودي الا صل و متحدثین باللھجة الحجازیة المستخدمة في المنطقة الغربیة في السعودیة. كان شرط إنتقاء الا طفال لضمھم في البحث ھو مقدرة الطفل على أداء مھمة الكتابة بغض النظر عن بیي ة المنزل الجنس العمر أو طریقة التعلیم إلخ. جاءت نتاي ج الا ملاء الا بداعي من الا طفال المكتسبین للغتین متفقة مع الفرضیة أنھ منذ بدایة الكتابة یستخدم الا طفال وساي ل متعددة و معلومات متنوعة و أن التدرج في الا ملاء لابد من أن یرى على أنھ یتضمن ھیمنة استراتیجیة معینة في فترات متعددة لكن دون إسقاط الا ستراتیجیات الا خرى. تبین لنا من المعطیات من أن ھناك استراتیجیات عامة تشمل كل من الا نجلیزیة و العربیة و ھناك استراتیجیات تعتمد على النص الكتابي و تختص بالقواعد الا ملاي یة باللغة المعنیة. الا ستراتیجیات التي یشترك فیھا الا طفال في كتابة كل من الا نجلیزیة و العربیة تو كد فرضیة المقدرة الا ساسیة المشتركة التي تفترض وجود متماثلات في القراءة و الكتابة بحیث أن اللغات في مستویاتھا الھیكلیة العمیقة و الا ساسیة تعتمد على استراتجیات مشتركة. و في نفس الوقت النتاي ج أیضا تثبت فرضیة الا عتماد على نوعیة النص و التي تفترض با ن الصعوبات في القراءة و الكتابة ممكن نسبتھا للقواعد الا ملاي یة المتبعة و أن الا ختلاف في القواعد الا ملاي یة بین اللغات قد یو دي إلى تبني إستراتیجیات مختلفة في تعلم القراءة و الكتابة أي قد تعتمد على النص. بالرغم من أن الا طفال المكتسبین للغتین أخذوا فترة زمنیة أطول من قرناي ھم ذوي اللغة الواحدة للكتابة في الا تجاه الصحیح في كل من النصین إلا أنھم قد أظھروا تقدما على المكتسبین للغة واحدة في بعض السمات الا ملاي یة العربیة و الا نجلیزیة مثل كتابة حروف العلة والحروف الصحیحة المتتالیة. ii

4 Contents Abstract Arabic Abstract Acknowledgements Transliteration System i ii iii iv Introduction 0.1. Background of the study Objectives of the study Research Questions and Hypothesis Significance of the study Conclusion 4 Chapter One: Literature Review 1.0. Introduction Emergent Literacy Invented Spelling Theories of Spelling and Spelling Development Characteristics of Invented Spelling An Unconventional Sensitivity to Sounds Position within the Syllable Final Consonant Cluster Initial Consonant Cluster Letter Names and Letter Sounds Invented Spelling of Bilingual Children Distinct Orthographic Systems Orthographic Depth: Arabic vs. English The Script Dependent Hypothesis Conclusion 37 Chapter Two: Research Methodology 2.0. Introduction Subjects Biographical description- The bilingual children Hala Firas Omar AbdalAziz AbdAllah Biographical description- The monolingual children Noura Ruba Farah Mansoor Basma 49 v

5 Daana Abeer Data Collection Spontaneous Samples Elicitation Tasks Data Coding Data Analysis Conclusion 54 Chapter Three: Data Analysis 3.0. Introduction Directionality of writing Summary Vowels English Deletion Substitution Summary Arabic Summary Consonants English Substitution Deletion Summary Arabic Substitution Deletion Summary Consonant Cluster Reduction English Summary Arabic Summary Conclusion 121 Chapter Four: Discussion and Conclusion 4.0. Introduction Serial Stages vs. Multiple Strategies Summary Universal vs. Script Dependent Strategies Monolingual vs. Bilingual Language Transfer Conclusion Recommendations 137 Bibliography 139 vi

6 Introduction 0.1. Background of the Study TQ F D PT. This is a note written by a bilingual preschooler expressing gratitude to her mother. The note actually says thank you for the party. Although the letters in the note may seem nonsensical to a literate adult, they represent a phase in the development of a child s writing known as invented spelling. Notes and sample writings like the one above have grabbed the attention of many researchers like Read (1971, 1975, and 1986) and Treiman (1993) who focused on the spelling of children who had begun to write on their own although they had not received formal instruction on writing yet. The children in their studies begun to write armed with only a simple knowledge of the alphabet letters and some exposure to print. The creative spelling of such children sparked a multitude of studies ranging from the descriptive to the theoretical. Despite the fact that studies sometimes complimented and sometimes contradicted each other, several theories emerged to account for the behavior. Although a clearer picture has developed of children s early attempts at writing, it is a picture of monolingual English speaking children. Fewer studies describe the invented spelling in other writing systems and even a fewer number describe the writing of bilingual children who are writing in different orthographies. One of the main objectives of the present study is to investigate the invented spelling of bilingual kindergarten children. The problem touches on how the complexities and differences in the orthographic codes of Arabic and English will manifest themselves in the invented spelling of bilingual preschool children. 1

7 This study began with Hala, a bilingual child who began to write at the age of 4:6 without explicit instruction in both Arabic and English. Naturalistic data was collected from Hala from that early age and followed up to six years of age. In order to understand the factors that contribute to Hala s invented spelling it was necessary to elicit data from other bilingual and monolingual (Arabic speaking) children who have also begun to spell on their own. Both English and Arabic writing systems are alphabetic systems that depend in their writing mainly on phoneme-grapheme or sound-letter relations. The conventional spelling in such systems, however, is bound by many orthographic rules that do not seem to strictly adhere to such relations. At many times there is no one-toone correspondence between phonemes and graphemes. For example, in English the letter F of the alphabet can be represented in various ways in the English spelling; laugh, phone, off, serf. In Arabic, the /ل/ lam in certain contexts lacks the straightforward relation between the sound and the letter. When written as part of the definite article at the beginning of words it is sometimes written but silent and is thus called lam shamsia, as in the word alshams, whereas in other words it is written and vocalized and hence called lam qamaria as in the word alqamar. The phenomenon of invented spelling has not been comprehensively investigated in bilingual children where the child is confronted with the double task of learning two orthographies. Additionally, it is not clear how invented spelling manifests itself in the early writings of Arabic monolingual children. This study, therefore, investigates this phenomenon in both bilingual (Arabic-English) and monolingual Arabic speaking children. 2

8 0.2. Objectives of the Study The main objectives of the study are: 1. To investigate the strategies used in the invented spelling of bilingual Arabic/English speaking preschool children for both languages. 2. To compare the strategies with existent accounts of monolingual English speaking children. 3. To verify whether the strategies used by a child acquiring Arabic alone are the same as or different from those found in monolingual English speaking children or bilingual preschool children. 4. To find out whether universal or language specific spelling strategies are adopted by young spellers in both languages. 5. To investigate the effect of bilingualism on invented spelling Research Questions and Hypotheses The differences inherent in the orthographic systems of Arabic and English will undoubtedly manifest themselves in preschoolers emergent writing and invented spelling in various ways. The main hypotheses addressed here are: 1. Invented spelling of bilingual children reflects both universal and language specific constraints. 2. Arabic-English bilingual children's spelling of English reflects the same strategies as those used by their English monolingual peers. The main questions addressed here are: 1. Are the spelling strategies used by bilingual (Arabic-English) children spelling of English the same as or different from those described in the literature for monolingual children spelling in English? 3

9 2. If different, are the differences due to the effect of bilingualism? 3. Do these same bilingual children use similar strategies in their attempts to creative writing in Arabic? 4. If not, are these strategies used by monolingual Arabic speaking children? 5. Do universal strategies vs. language specific constraints describe the invented spelling of bilingual children? 6. Does bilingualism have an effect on invented spelling in English or Arabic? 0.4. Significance of the Study Since this study involves the acquisition of two different orthographies altogether, it will shed some light on universal vs. language specific constraints on the acquisition of writing. Research on invented spelling of preschool children has mainly been done on monolingual English speaking children. This research attempts to investigate invented spelling of the Arabic writing system and therefore it will be the first of its kind to look at the emergent writing system in Arabic. Moreover, the research will use the data to expand proposed accounts on bilingualism and literacy in bilinguals. The research is also important to those who are concerned with education and curriculum design for Arabic spelling and spelling of bilinguals Conclusion This chapter introduces the background of the study and the importance of the present study to the fields of bilingualism and literacy in young children. Objectives were set and several questions were raised all pertaining to the investigation of creative spelling in bilingual children who are writing in two different orthographies (Arabic and English), thus investigating both the similarities adopted by bilingual 4

10 children in spelling English and those used in spelling Arabic and comparing them with the existing accounts on monolingual children writing in English. 5