Desarrollo de macroestructuras en niños de primaria

Abstract

The current study is concerned with two complementary objectives: a) to present a method of discourse analysis which takes into account the structural and semantic characteristics of diverse types of texts and; b) to present data regarding the development of the capacity to comprehend and synthetise diverse types of written texts (i.e.; the capacity to produce macwstructures) by primary school students; using the above method. To this end; 266 children were studied: 140 in the third grade and 126 in the fifth grade of two official public schools in Mexico City. In general; a pattern of development was found in all parameters analyzed when the students of both grades were compared. The majority of the macrostructures produced by all the students were characterized by representing copies of the text or being written at a literal level. Only a low percent of the older children were able to write macrostructures at a more sophisticated level of expression; primarily for the narrative text. Although some progress was observed in the capacity to produce macrostructures over the school year; this progress was not very significant. The knowledge of these profiles produced by the students of this study is being used to design ways to evaluate students ’ capacities to comprehend and produce texts; as well as to promote the use of better strategies to interact with written language and connected discourse in primary school children.