The Structure of Children’s Compositions: Developmental and Ethnic Differences

Abraham Stahl

doi:10.58680/rte197719982

Research in the Teaching of English Jan 1977

The Structure of Children’s Compositions: Developmental and Ethnic Differences

Abraham Stahl

Abstract

My object in the research reported here was twofold: to describe, in an exact manner, the development of structure in children's compositions; and to find out the differences in that development between the two ethnic groups which make up most of Israel's population: the Europeans, belonging to the culturally and economically privileged; and the Orientals, who are for the most part disadvantaged (Kleinberger, 1969; Adler, 1974) . There is an interesting difference of approach regarding the investigation of structure in children's speech and writing (and perhaps in other areas as well) between researchers in the United States and their colleagues in Germany and Switzerland. The Americans seem to prefer exact descriptions and comparisons; accordingly they tend to develop very detailed categories but (perhaps necessarily) restrict their research to clauses and sentences (Loban, 1963, Strickland, 1962, Evertts, 1968) . The Germans and the Swiss, on the other hand, devote much attention to the composition as a whole; but their accounts (and again, perhaps necessarily) , are of an impressionistic nature, and often rather sketchy. Exact figures are not often given; instead we get general descriptions, from which may be learned that the main direction of structural development is from total unawareness to requirements of organization normal in children aged about 4 to 7 towards ever increasing levels of orderly arrangement and advance planning during the course of elementary and secondary education (Furrer, 1948; Gausman, 1966; Hillebrand, 1965; Kupfer, 1968; Miller, 1962; Obrig, 1934; Salber, 1959; Sanner, 1964) : In my research I tried to combine these two lines of approach: the quantitative bent of the Americans, requiring precise definitions and differentiations, and the German-Swiss focus on the composition as a unified whole, to be dealt with in its totality.

Journal: Research in the Teaching of English
Published: 1977-01-01
DOI: 10.58680/rte197719982
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: race and writing
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The Structure of Children’s Compositions: Developmental and Ethnic Differences

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