Moroccan immigrants learning Spanish writing (compared with L1 children)

Abstract

In this article we present a comparative and qualitative study of the phenomena observed in the development of writing by L2 adults of Moroccan origin who are becoming literate in Spanish. Writing samples were gathered in Granada, Spain, and analyzed using a theoretical framework based on the classification of stages of Spanish L1 children’s development of writing as presented by Ferreiro and Teberosky (1979). The results suggest that L2 adults go through the same stages in learning to write as L1 children although some differences are observed, mainly with regards to the absence of the pre-phonic stages and the syllabic sub-stage in the case of the adults who are also influenced by other languages and writing systems. In order to obtain more representative results, future studies should gather samples of other immigrant communities.