ERIC Number: EJ1234304
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Jul
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0161-1461
EISSN: N/A
Linguistic Feature Development across Grades and Genre in Elementary Writing
Hall-Mills, Shannon; Apel, Kenn
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, v46 n3 p242-255 Jul 2015
Purpose: As children develop skills in writing across academic contexts, clinicians and educators need to have a fundamental understanding of typical writing development as well as valid and reliable assessment methods. The purpose of this study was to examine the progression of linguistic elements in school-age children's narrative and expository writing development. Method: Narrative and expository writing samples produced by 89 children in Grades 2 through 4 were analyzed at the microstructure and macrostructure levels. Measures of receptive vocabulary, wordlevel reading, and reading comprehension were obtained. Results: Exploratory factor analyses revealed 4 microstructure factors (e.g., productivity, grammatical complexity, grammatical accuracy, and lexical density) and 1 macrostructure factor (e.g., a combination of organization, text structure, and cohesion). Multivariate analyses of covariance with reading comprehension as a covariate showed that productivity and macrostructure were sensitive to grade-level and genre differences and that expository grammatical complexity was sensitive to grade-level differences. Conclusions: Findings are discussed in light of grade-level standards for narrative and expository writing and current practices in writing assessment. Multiple suggestions are offered for clinical and educational implications, and specific directions are provided for future research.
Descriptors: Elementary School Students, Expository Writing, Narration, Receptive Language, Reading Skills, Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Accuracy, Literary Genres, Writing Evaluation, Difficulty Level, Age Differences, Instructional Program Divisions
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2200 Research Blvd #250, Rockville, MD 20850. Tel: 301-296-5700; Fax: 301-296-8580; e-mail: lshss@asha.org; Web site: http://lshss.pubs.asha.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A