Abstract

ALAM, Florencia et al. “Do you know what it is…?” Explanations of child tutors about non familiar vocabulary. A study with children from marginalized urban populations of Argentina. Rev. Costarric. Psic [online]. 2017, vol.36, n.2, pp.83-103. ISSN 1659-2913.  http://dx.doi.org/10.22544/rcps.v36i02.01.

This study analyzes literacy situations between dyads of 12-year-olds attending primary school and 5-year-old kindergarten children generated in the framework of the “De niño a niño” program (Rosemberg & Alam, 2009). The goal of this program is to promote reading and writing learning among children living in urban-marginalized populations in Argentina. The analysis focuses on the interventions used by older children (tutors) to explain un familiar words to younger children (apprentices) in the context of different types of activities: reading stories and activities focused on the writing system and vocabulary. During the school year, 7 sessions were held. The tutoring sessions of 8 dyads were videotaped and transcribed. Eighty-nine exchanges in which a tutor explained a word to the apprentice were identified. For the analysis, a categorization was elaborated focusing on the conversational structure of the explanation sequence modality - monologal or dialogal - and the type of information used for the explanation -strategies that resort to semantic and contextual aspects. In order to compare how these sequences were deployed in each type of activity, nonparametric statistical tests were used. The results showed a pre-eminence of the monologal modality and a greater use of strategies that resort to semantic aspects in reading situations. In the other literacy activities, the dialogal modality and the use of contextual aspects prevailed.

Keywords : Children’s interaction; tutoring; explanation; vocabulary; urban-marginalized populations.

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