Children's perceptions about print

Abstract

Maltese children's perceptions about print were investigated through a structured interview made up of fourteen questions. One hundred and eight six-year-old children attending three state schools and a private school were individually interviewed at the beginning of their first year of formal school instruction. The children' responses were analyzed (a) generally, according to whether the entire interview was code-oriented, non-code oriented or had a code+ orientation; (b) specifically, by calculating the frequency of yes/no responses; (c) by calculating the frequency of object, mechanically or practice-related responses; valuative responses, expectation responses, cognitive responses or vague/ambiguous responses. About 34 percent of the subjects had a code-oriented perception whereas 18.5 percent of the interviews were unclassifiable. Although 68.5 percent of the children give a meaningful definition of reading, 67 .6 percent of the children do not know what has to be done if they want to become better readers. The implications of these results are discussed within an emergent literacy framework.