L1 Argumentative Written Production in Bilingual and Monolingual Contexts in 6th, 7th and 8th Grades

Abstract

In this comparative research project we observed the argumentative written production of bilingual (experimental group EG) and monolingual students (control group CG) in 6th, 7th and 8th grades in their mother tongue, as well as the influence that the bilingual students' school grade had on such written production. Results show that, firstly, just in 7th and 8th grades the written production of the EG surpassed that of the CG, and secondly, the bilingual students with more school experience surpassed those with less experience in certain aspects. It was concluded that the advantage of the EG over the CG in argumentative written production related to the students' level of school experience. Moreover, the bilingual school experience modified this discursive skill according to the method of evaluation employed and the school grades compared. Received: 16-11-2007 /Accepted: 11-02-2008 How to reference this article: Galindo, A. & Moreno, L. (2008). Producción argumentativa escrita -lengua materna- en contextos educativos bilingües y monolingües: grados 6º, 7º y 8º. Íkala. 13(1), pp.145-169.

Keywords

• bilingual education
• argumentative written production
• educational model of early partial immersion