Considerations about speech and writing in the school context

Abstract

This paper reflects about speech and writing productions of children during the acquisition of speech and mastership of the writing system. First we emphasize characteristics of speech that are different from what is considered normal or expected by adults regarding children’s productions. As for the writing, we discuss the characteristics that can be observed in children’s written words according to the contributions of phonology. Such approaches are consistent with the premise that the teacher’s action and his/her knowledge about the characteristics of speech and writing can contribute positively to the learning and usage of the mother tongue in oral and writing modalities in the school context. The understanding of what is possible in the usage of both modalities of language, oral and writing, and the attention to what is different from what is expected by others, in the case of “language specific problems” (Corrêa et al., 2003), for example, contribute to more productive teaching and learning contexts. Thus this reflection is intended to improve the action of professionals dedicated to children education, also showing that rich dialogues with Psychology and Phonoaudiology are possible.

Key words: speech, writing, orthography, teaching, learning.