Learning to read and write in bilingual contexts: A study and implementation programme with in-digenous QOM communities in Argentina

Abstract

This paper presents a bilingual and intercultural programme carried out with young children from indig-enous Qom communities located in different areas throughout Argentina. The programme seeks to promote learning and avoid the problems that these children often meet throughout the literacy acqui-sition process. Within a theoretical framework that combines psycholinguistic theories that recover the central tenets of the sociocultural perspective (Nelson, 1996, 2007), and literacy approaches from an intercultural perspective (Rosemberg, Borzone & Diuk, 2003) we developed a series of educational ma-terials to promote the learning of literacy in Qom and in Spanish to Qom children. The study articulates collaboration between researchers, teachers and community members, who selected community situa-tions to be observed and carried out observation records. These records were used to write "ethno-graphic reading books", intercultural storybooks that are used in the literacy settings. These "ethno-graphic books" reflect the children's knowledge of their own dialect and community while integrating these with the standard language variety and other types of knowledge. © 2012 International Association for the Improvement of Mother tongue Education.