Developing writing in Kindergarten to grade three : The case of Haitian students in French as a Second Language in Quebec
This article examines the development of spelling competence in eleven creole-speaking children from Kindergarten to third grade, using measurements of approximate/invented spelling. The results show that the subjects have little knowledge of orthographic graphemes in Kindergarten. In the first year, formal training contributes to the emergence of standard spelling, particularly in understanding digrams and trigrams. At the end of the third year, the subjects produce a greater quantity of orthographic graphemes, but experience some difficulty in producing multigraphemic phonemes.