How do children write Italian and Hebrew in infant school? A cross-linguistic study of similarities, differences, and transferences

Abstract

This paper presents an exploratory and qualitative study of children’s forms of writing Italian and Hebrew. Participants were Italian children learning the final year of infant school within the Jewish community in Italy. Interactions among children and teachers are in Italian as their first language, with some level of non-formal exposition and interaction with Hebrew as an additional language. No formal teaching in Italian or Hebrew reading and writing. Children were asked to write their names in both languages, some Italian words, and Hebrew well-known words. The qualitative analyses focus on ways of writing in both Italian and Hebrew among a subgroup of 10 children who wrote Italian according to some level of phonographic correspondences. Qualitative analyses showed that children differentiate between the two writing systems even before writing Hebrew with pertinent letters. Children wrote according to a similar phonographic correspondence in both languages, supporting the writing developmental path beyond differences in the writing systems. We found a transference of word analysis for writing from the Italian to the Hebrew writing system, even among children who wrote Hebrew with pertinent graphemes. The main feature that resisted such transference was the graphemic system. Asking young children to write additional languages seems to both reflect and promote metalinguistic activity regarding similarities and distinctions among writing systems. These findings are discussed.