Abstract
This study investigated young children’s developing understanding of three essential features of book language (i.e. autonomy, conventionality, unique grammar) in two curricular genres (i.e. narrative and expository) in a literature‐based, multigrade (1st–3rd) classroom. Each of the 19 participants was asked to compose two written texts (story and report) at beginning, middle and end of the school year. All texts were coded for inclusion of a variety of genre‐specific discursive markers that index the three features of book language. Analyses showed that (a) the children demonstrated emergent understanding of autonomy, limited familiarity with conventionality and an embryonic sense of unique grammar, irrespective of genre; (b) they gained significantly more understanding of the three book‐language features in both curricular genres over the school year; (c) the development of this understanding is genre‐ and feature‐specific, unstable, complex and not consistently associated with children’s grade level. These findings were interpreted from both developmental and pedagogical perspectives. Limitations and directions for future research were also discussed.
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