Cover not available
Article published In:
Australian Review of Applied Linguistics
Vol. 47:1 (2024) ► pp.27–50

Developmental corpus insights into the writing life of a primary school child in Australia

ORCID logo | The University of Queensland
ORCID logo | The University of Queensland

Children’s writing development is a matter of concern for Australian and other education systems. Factors related to the nature of writing as a literate skill, school writing pedagogy, and diminishing role of writing in a screen-dominant environment may account for this educational concern. What happens in a child’s writing when immigrant parents assign them writing tasks at home taking into account their writing concerns compounded by their family linguacultural backgrounds in an English-only environment? This paper presents developmental corpus analyses involving data taken from a 1.5-year family writing intervention program for a primary school immigrant child, using multidimensional analysis to determine the latent linguistic traits characteristic of the child’s writing development over time. The findings illustrate a range of linguistic features comprising four main dimensions representative of the child’s writing development, together with a focus on the emergence of his written self. Although the findings provide data-driven developmental insights into the child’s writing life, the parental intervention itself presented ethical dilemmas.

Keywords: children’s writing, family writing intervention, writing self, developmental learner corpora, parental dilemma
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A family ‘writing intervention’ program
  • 3.Research on children’s writing ability and writing development
  • 4.Children’s writing products and corpus studies of writing development
  • 5.Method
    • 5.1Corpus construction
    • 5.2Analysis
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Dimension 1: Providing elaboration through clauses
    • 6.2Dimension 2: Making directives and predictions
    • 6.3Dimension 3: Talking about others versus talking to the reader
    • 6.4Dimension 4: Intimate versus informational interaction
  • 7.Discussion and conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 October 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.21062.ham
References
Allyn, P.
(2011) Your child’s writing life: How to inspire confidence, creativity, and skill at every age. Avery Publishing Group.Google Scholar
Aparici, M., Rosado, E., & Perera, J.
(2016) Later development of relative clauses across discourse genres and modalities of production. In J. Perera, M. Aparici, E. Rosado, & N. Salas (Eds.), Written and spoken language development across the lifespan (pp. 201–225). Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bae, J., & Lee, Y. -S.
(2012) Evaluating the development of children’s writing ability in an EFL context. Language Assessment Quarterly, 9 (4), 348–374. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baker, J.
(2020 15 September). Students struggle as review finds writing skills neglected in NSW high schools. The Sydney Morning Herald. [URL]
Barnard, R., & Glynn, T.
(2003) Bilingual children’s language and literacy development: New Zealand case studies. Channel View Publications. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Berg, H.
(2008) Bilingual children’s written voices: Can we hear them? Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Colorado at Denver, Colorado.
Belz, J., & Vyatkina, N.
(2008) The pedagogical mediation of a developmental learner corpus for classroom-based language instruction. Language Learning & Technology, 12(3), 35–52.Google Scholar
Biber, D.
(1988) Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1989) A typology of English texts. Linguistics, 27 (1), 3–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Biber, D., Reppen, R., & Conrad, S.
(2002) Developing linguistic literacy: Perspectives from corpus linguistics and multi-dimensional analysis. Journal of Child Language, 29 (2), 449–488. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bissex, G. L.
(1980) Gnys at wrk: A child learns to write and read. Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bolton, R.
(2019) Young kids better on reading, but writing skills are falling. Financial Review. [URL]
Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R.
(1992) Alternative ways of assessing model fit. Sociological methods & research, 21 (2), 230–258. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, A. E., & Strong, J.
(1988) Pragmatic development in normal children: Assessment of testing protocol. NSSLHA Journal, (16), 40–49. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cattell, R. B.
(1966) The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate behavioral research, 1 (2), 245–276. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chapman, M. L.
(1994) The emergence of genres: Some findings from an examination of first-grade writing. Written Communication, 11 (3), 348–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chapman, M.
(2002) A longitudinal case study of curriculum genres, K-3. Canadian Journal of Education, 27 (1), 21–44. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, H., & Myhill, D.
(2016) Children talking about writing: Investigating metalinguistic understanding. Linguistics and Education, 35 1, 100–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chipere, N., Malvern, D., Richards, B., & Duran, P.
(2001) Using a corpus of school children’s writing to investigate the development of vocabulary diversity. In P. Rayson, A. Wilson, T. McEnery, A. Hardie, & S. Khoja (Eds.), Technical papers. Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics 2001 Conference (Vol. 131, Special Issue, pp. 126–133). University Centre for Computer Corpus Research on Language Technical Papers, Lancaster, UK.Google Scholar
Council of Europe
(2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR). [URL]
Crosthwaite, P.
(2016) A longitudinal multidimensional analysis of EAP writing: Determining EAP course effectiveness. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 22 1, 166–178. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crosthwaite, P., & Jiang, K.
(2017) Does EAP affect written L2 academic stance? A longitudinal learner corpus study. System, 69 1, 92–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dekeyser, G., & Stevens, G.
(2019) Maintaining one language while learning another: Moroccan children in Belgium. Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 40 (2), 148–163. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Durán, P., Malvern, D., Richards, B., & Chipere, N.
(2004) Developmental trends in lexical diversity. Applied Linguistics, 25 (2), 220–242. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Edmundson, M.
(2016) Why write? A master class on the art of writing and why it matters. Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Gabrielatos, C.
(2021) If-conditionals: Corpus-based classification and frequency distribution. ICAME Journal, 45 1, 87–124. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gardner, P.
(2018) NAPLAN: The writing is on the wall but who is actually reading it? English in Australia, 53 (1), 15–23.Google Scholar
Geertzen, J., Alexopoulou, T., & Korhonen, A.
(2014) Automatic linguistic annotation of large scale L2 databases: The EF-Cambridge Open Language Database (EFCAMDAT). In R. T. Millar, K. I. Martin, C. M. Eddington, A. Henery, N. M. Miguel, A. M. Tseng, A. Tuninetti, & D. Walter (Eds.), Selected proceedings of the 2012 Second Language Research Forum: Building bridges between disciplines (pp. 240–254). Cascadilla Proceedings Project.Google Scholar
Gentry, J. R.
(1982) An analysis of developmental spelling in GNYS AT WRK. The Reading Teacher, 36 (2), 192–200.Google Scholar
He, K.
(2016) New theory of children’s thinking development: Application in language teaching. Switzerland Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hu, L. T., & Bentler, P. M.
(1998) Fit indices in covariance structure modelling: Sensitivity to under parameterized model misspecification. Psychological methods, 3(4), 424. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jones, S. K.
(2015) Authenticity and children’s engagement with writing. Language and Literacy, 17 (1), 63–82. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaiser, H. F.
(1960) The application of electronic computers to factor analysis. Educational and psychological measurement, 20(1), 141–151. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kantor, P. T.
(2012) Development of writing: Key components and written language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. Florida State University, Florida.
Komatsu, K.
(2019) Meaning-making for living: The emergence of the presentational self in children’s everyday dialogues. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koster, M., Tribushinina, E., de Jong, P. F., & van den Bergh, H.
(2015) Teaching children to write: A meta-analysis of writing intervention research. Journal of Writing Research, 7 (2), 300–324. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kress, G.
(1982) Learning to write. Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Leech, G.
(1992) ‘Corpora and theories of linguistic performance’. In J. Svartvik (Ed.), Directions in corpus linguistics: Proceedings of Nobel symposium 82 1 (pp. 125–148). Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, J., & Schmitt, N.
(2009) The acquisition of lexical phrases in academic writing: A longitudinal case study. Journal of Second Language Writing, 18 (2), 85–102. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mackenzie, N. M., Scull, J., & Bowles, T.
(2015) Writing over time: An analysis of texts created by Year One students. Australian Educational Researcher, 42 1, 567–593. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milligan, L., & Robinson, L.
(2019) The first generations of ‘digi kids’ are struggling with literacy as experts warn against screen time. ABC News. [URL]
Myhill, D., & Chen, H.
(2020) Developing writers in primary and secondary school years. In H. Chen, D. Myhill, & H. Lewis (Eds.), Developing writers across the primary and secondary years: Growing into writing (pp. 1–18). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myhill, D., & Fisher, R.
(2010) Writing development: Cognitive, sociocultural, linguistic perspectives [Editorial]. Journal of Research in Reading, 33 (1), 1–3. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Nini, A.
(2015) Multidimensional analysis tagger (version 1.3). [URL]
Polat, B.
(2011) Investigating acquisition of discourse markers through a developmental learner corpus. Journal of Pragmatics, 431, 3745–3756. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pham, G.
(2016) Pathways for learning two languages: Lexical and grammatical associations within and across languages in sequential bilingual children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19 (5), 928–938. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polio, C.
(2017) Second language writing development: A research agenda. Language Teaching, 50 (2), 261–275. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Polio, C., & Park, J. H.
(2016) Language development in second language writing. In R. Manchón & P. Matsuda. (Eds.), Handbook of second and foreign language writing (pp. 287–306). De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Price, J. R., & Jackson, S. C.
(2015) Procedures for obtaining and analyzing writing samples of school-age children and adolescents. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 46 1, 277–293. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reppen, R.
(2010): “Building a corpus. What are the key considerations?”. In A. O’Keefe & M. McCarthy (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics (pp 31–38). Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rivalland, J.
(1991) Writing development. The Australian Journal of Reading, 14(4), 290–306.Google Scholar
Reynolds, D. W.
(2002) Learning to make things happen in different ways: Causality in the writing of middle-grade English language learners. Journal of Second Language Writing, 11 (4), 311–328. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Robson, D.
(2020) How Covid-19 is changing the world’s children. BBC. [URL]
Roy, B. C., Frank, M. C., DeCamp, P., Miller, M., & Roy, D.
(2015) Predicting the birth of a spoken word. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (41), 12663–12668. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rubin, R., & Carlan, V. G.
(2005) Using writing to understand bilingual children’s literacy development. The Reading Teacher, 58 (8), 728–239. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Salas, N., & Caravolas, M.
(2019) Dimensionality of early writing in English and Spanish. Journal of Literacy Research, 51(3), 272–292. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singhal, P.
(28 August 2019) Students missing writing standard as NAPLAN results stagnate. The Sydney Morning Herald. [URL]
Socher, R., Bauer, J., Manning, C. D., & Ng, A. Y.
(2013) Parsing with compositional vector grammars. In H. Schuetze, P. Fung, & M. Poesio (Eds.), Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Vol. 1: Long Papers; pp. 455–465). Association for Computational Linguistics.Google Scholar
Unsworth, S.
(2013) Current issues in multilingual first language acquisition. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 33 1, 21–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woods, A.
(2015) Learning to write: Analysing writing samples as part of considering how children become writers. In J. Turbill, G. Barton, & C. Brock (Eds.), Teaching writing in today’s classrooms: Looking back and looking forward (pp. 138–153). South Australia Australian Literacy Educators’ Association.Google Scholar
Yip, V., & Matthews, S.
(2006) Assessing language dominance in bilingual acquisition: A case for mean length utterance differentials. Language Assessment Quarterly: An International Journal, 3 (2), 97–116. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Hamid, M. Obaidul & Iffat Jahan
2023. Learning to write or writing to resist? A primary school child's response to a family writing intervention. Linguistics and Education 78 ► pp. 101249 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 28 march 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.