Teachers’ talk about young students’ writing of narrative and informational texts

Caroline Liberg Uppsala University ; Jenny Wiksten Folkeryd Uppsala University ; Åsa af Geijerstam Uppsala University ; Anna Nordlund Uppsala University

Abstract

Previous research has shown that teachers’ knowledge of a functional metalanguage plays a central role in supporting students’ writing development. However, only a few of these studies have focused on primary school teachers and their use of metalanguage in various text types. The aim of this study was to investigate how primary school teachers talk about young students’ (ages 7–9) narrative and informational texts before and after taking part in professional development workshops presenting different language resources and accompanying metalanguage. These resources represent a broader view of language than the more formal tradition offered to primary school teachers in Sweden. The results showed that after participating in the workshops, the teachers had broadened their repertoires concerning what aspects they talk about and how they talk about them; that is, their talks became more text-specific and extensive, and they used a formal metalanguage to a greater extent. These results are discussed in relation to the tradition of writing instruction used in primary grades in Sweden and the teachers’ pathways to broadening their repertoire of metalanguage. Also discussed is the potential a broader language view in early grades may have in supporting students’ writing development throughout their school years.

Journal
Writing and Pedagogy
Published
2022-07-02
DOI
10.1558/wap.21544
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Writing and Pedagogy

References (52)

  1. af Geijerstam, Å. (2006). Att skriva i naturorienterande ämnen i skolan (PhD thesis). Uppsala University.
  2. af Geijerstam, Å. (2014). Vem gör, vem är och vem upplever? En analys av processer och deltagare i tidigt nar…
  3. Andrews, R., Torgerson, C., Beverton, S., Freeman, A., Locke, T., Low, G., Robinson, A. & Zhu, D. (2006). The…
  4. Beck, I. L. & McKeown, M. G. (2007). Increasing young low-income children’s oral vocabulary repertoires throu…
  5. Berge, K. L., Skar, G. B., Matre, S., Solheim, R., Evensen, L. S., Otnes, H. & Thygesen, R. (2019). Introduci…
Show all 52 →
  1. Chatman, S. (1978). Story and discourse. Cornell University Press.
  2. Chen, H. & Jones, P. (2013). Understanding metalinguistic development in beginning writers: A functional pers…
  3. Chen, H. & Myhill, D. (2016). Children talking about writing: Investigating metalinguistic understanding. Lin…
  4. Christie, F. (2012). Language education throughout the school years: A functional perspective [Language learn…
  5. Cope, B. & Kalantzis M. (Eds). (2000). Multiliteracies: Literacy learning and the design of social futures. R…
  6. Ekvall, U. (2007). Berättarperspektiv i elevers skrivprocess. In K. Milles & A. Vogel (Eds.), Språkets roll o…
  7. Evensen, L. S. (1992). Emerging peaks, turbulent surfaces: Advanced development in student writing. In A-M. O…
  8. Evensen, L. S. (1997). Å skrive seg stor: Utvikling av koherens og sosial identitet i tidlig skriving. In L. …
  9. Folkeryd, J. W. (2006). Writing with an attitude: Appraisal and student texts in the school subject of Swedis…
  10. Folkeryd, J. W. (2014). Hjärtan, hjul och hävstänger – Innehåll i elevers sakprosatexter på lågstadiet. In P.…
  11. Forsberg, C. (2021). Skrivandets –gränser. Normering genom skrivdiskurser i tidig skrivundervisning (PhD thes…
  12. Gebhard, M., Chen, I-A. & Britton, L. (2014). Miss, nominalization is a nominalization: English language lear…
  13. Genette, G. (1982). Narrative discourse: An essay in method. Oxford University Press.
  14. Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Ed…
  15. Halliday, M. A. K. & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2004). An introduction to functional grammar (3rd edition). Ed…
  16. Humphrey, S. (2017). Academic literacies in the middle years: A framework for enhancing teacher knowledge and…
  17. Humphrey, S. (2021). The role of teachers’ disciplinary semiotic knowledge in supporting young bi/multilingua…
  18. Jesson, R., Fontich, X. & Myhill, D. (2016). Creating dialogic spaces: Talk as a mediational tool in becoming…
  19. Landis, J. R. & Koch, G. G. (1977). The measurement of observer agreement for categorical data. Biometrics, 3…
  20. Langer, J. A. (1992). Reading, writing and genre development. In J. W. Irwin & M. A. Doyle (Eds.), Reading/wr…
  21. Larsen, A. S. (2008). Hvordan skriver femteklassinger fortellinger? Om narrative grepp i elevtekster. In R. T…
  22. Liberg, C. (2014). Att tala om innehåll och ämnesstämmor i elevtexter i tidiga skolår. In R. Hvistendahl & A.…
  23. Liberg, C. & Folkeryd, J. W. (2022). Lärares samarbete i textsamtal. Möjligheter till fördjupad förståelse av…
  24. Liberg, C., Folkeryd, J. W. & af Geijerstam, A. (2012). Swedish – An updated school subject? Education Inquir…
  25. Love, K. & Sandiford, C. (2016). Teachers’ and students’ meta-reflections on writing choices: An Australian c…
  26. Macken-Horarik, M. (2008). A ‘good enough’ grammatics: Developing an effective metalanguage for school Englis…
  27. Macken-Horarik, M., Love, K., Sandiford, C. & Unsworth, L. (2018). Functional grammatics: Re-conceptualizing …
  28. Macken-Horarik, M., Sandiford, C., Love, K. & Unsworth, L. (2015). New ways of working ‘with grammar in mind’…
  29. Magnusson, J. (2019). Läroboken och det diskursiva skrivandet: genrer, textaktiviteter och medierande redskap…
  30. Martin, J. & White, P. (2005). The language of evaluation: Appraisal in English. Palgrave Macmillan.
  31. Matre, S. & Solheim, R. (2015). Writing education and assessment in Norway: Towards shared understanding, sha…
  32. Myhill, D. (2021). Grammar re-imagined: Foregrounding understanding of language choice in writing. English in…
  33. Myhill, D. & Newman, R. (2016). Metatalk: Enabling metalinguistic discussion about writing. International Jou…
  34. Myhill, D. & Watson, A. (2014). The role of grammar in the writing curriculum: A review of the literature. Ch…
  35. Myhill, D., Jones, S. & Lines, H. (2018). Supporting less proficient writers through linguistically aware tea…
  36. Myhill, D., Jones, S. & Watson, A. (2013). Grammar matters: How teachers’ grammatical subject knowledge impac…
  37. Myhill, D., Jones, S. & Wilson, A. (2016). Writing conversations: Fostering metalinguistic discussion about w…
  38. Nordlund, A. (2016). Berättarteknik i elevberättelser från tidiga skolår. Forskning om undervisning & lärande…
  39. Olinghouse, N. G. & Leaird, J. T. (2009). The relationship between measures of vocabulary and narrative writi…
  40. Peterson, S. S., Parr, J., Lindgren, E. & Kaufman, D. (2018). Conceptualizations of writing in early years cu…
  41. Ravid, D. (2006). Semantic development in textual contexts during the school years: Noun scale analyses. Jour…
  42. Rimmon-Kenan, S. (1983). Narrative fiction: Contemporary poetics. Meuthen.
  43. Schleppegrell, M. J. (2013). The role of metalanguage in supporting academic language development. Language L…
  44. Skolverket (2011). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2011. Fritzes.
  45. Skoog, M. (2012). Skriftspråkande i förskoleklass och årskurs 1 (PhD thesis). Örebro University.
  46. Westlund, E. (2013). Tio tecknarpositioner: En semiotisk analys av elevers tidiga multimodala textskapande. F…
  47. Westlund, E. (2018). Visual formation of science content in young students’ multimodal compositions. Seven co…