Case study explorations of second language writing development in Early French Immersion grade one students.

This study investigated the second language writing development of 23 Early French Immersion (E.F.I.) grade one students who wrote in a Whole Language classroom. Data, consisting of Journal and Story writing, were collected over the 1986-1987 school year. Five Research Questions were studied: (1) How much did the subjects write? (2) About which topics did the subjects choose to write? (3) How much audience awareness was developed by the subjects? (4) How functional was the language used by the subjects? (5) What orthographic strategies were used by the subjects? All writing under study was subjected to varying levels of analysis: statistical analysis of total written production; classification and categorization of topics, language functions, spelling strategies; correct spelling and writing vocabulary. The results of the analysis provided the following answers. The answers to the first Research Question were as follows: (1) age was not a deciding factor in amount written; (2) girls wrote significantly more than boys; (3) significant increases in quantity occurred in Journal writing but not in Story writing; and (4) the mean increase in Journal writing over terms for boys, girls and all children was significant at the.001 level. The answer to the second Research Question indicated that these young L2 writers wrote predominantly about human relations, personal ideas and feelings which were crucial to them. The answer to the third Research Question revealed that close to 70% of the writing was addressed to the teacher. Audience categories: "Self" and "Peers" were found in the remaining writing. Answers to the fourth Research Question (conducted from studying products of the 23 subjects) showed that Reporting Personal Facts; Stating General Facts and Opinions as well as Asking Opinion Questions were language functions most frequently found in the students' dialogue Journal writing. The teacher's written responses most frequently took the form of Asking Information Questions, Reporting Opinions, and Evaluating. The fifth Research Question was studied from analysis of the spelling of 8 of the 23 subjects. The following are the answers to this question: (1) the majority of L2 spellings were not random, but reflected sensible linguistic decisions made by the writer; (2) L2 writers, like L1 writers, use a wide range of orthographic strategies to produce meaningful texts; (3) proportionally to their written amount, all writers increased the number of correct spellings and variety of words in their writing vocabulary; (4) the interlanguage spellings of L2 writers could be recognized by the use of English and French letter names as well as the omission of letters and the representation of certain French sounds by letters which provided the closest fit. The findings of the study challenge traditional ways of introducing young children to reading and writing in the second language. They call into question instruction delivered in a predetermined, lock-step, sequential manner and favour a more holistic child-centered approach to L2 literacy learning. The results of the inquiry suggest that replication of the present study in higher E.F.I. grades would be beneficial