An Activity Theory-based Analysis of Teacher Reports of Teaching Practices in Helping Prekindergarten Bilingual (English-Arabic) Children Learn Conventional Writing

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to explore the kinds of support that prekindergarten bilingual students have from their Arabic and English teachers while learning conventional writing in both languages. The researcher developed one research question, which was: How do the Islamic bilingual prekindergarten teachers in this study describe how they support their children in the process of learning to write? The literature review on the recent studies investigated bilingualism and teaching writing for young bilingual children. It demonstrated the kinds of support that the children in prekindergarten age are given in their journey of learning conventional writing. Most studies agreed on the important role of the teacher. This study was designed and took a place online with three teachers from three different Islamic schools in the US. Data were collected through five stages: (1) informational session via phone calls with each participating teacher. (2) open-ended questionnaire via email. (3) a first round of individual interviews via "WebEx" with each participating teacher alone. (4) group interview via "WebEx" with all participating teachers together. (5) a second round of individual interviews via "WebEx" with each participating teacher alone. Activity Theory was used in analyzing the data. The seven features of Activity Theory (Subject, Object, Rules, Tools, Division of labor, and Community) were used as the primary codes. Additional subcodes emerged through the researcher’s analysis of transcript segments. The results in chapter four of the study were divided into two main headings. These two headings are: (1) analysis related to supporting students’ transitioning into conventional writing in Arabic and English; and (2) Analysis of supports related to engaging the students in the writing learning process. The researcher explained the first section of the results that are mostly focused on how each teacher supports her students’ transitioning into conventional writing. This section was connected to three features of the seven Activity Theory features. These three features described were: Outcome, Division of Labor, and Community. The second section was connected to three features of the seven Activity Theory features. These three features were: Subject, Tools, and Rules. The evidence from this study indicates the importance of making teaching conventional writing one of the teaching standards because it is strongly connected to other subjects that are already part of the standards. The discussion of the results showed that the three participating teachers viewed learning to write as an important outcome, but not as an object within instruction; thus, they are uncertain about what constituted conventional writing activity and they, therefore, underestimated the amount of writing activity present in their classrooms, but they nonetheless recognized the importance of the writing process for their students. These teachers viewed bilingual writing not as an added obstacle for the children but rather as a benefit that helped their explanations and student understanding; therefore, bilingual writing instruction was viewed as a tool that could be used to support their young learners. All three teachers viewed the division of labor between teacher and students similarly, but only one of the teachers (the most experienced) directly described the role of the community in writing instruction. The tools and rules of classroom instruction varied across these three teachers, leading to different classroom cultural profiles. Beyond merely the acquisition of conventional writing, motivation and development of fine motor skills were also considered important aspects of learning conventional writing based on the three teachers’ responses.