Understanding the pathways to text generation: A longitudinal study on executive functions, oral language, and transcription skills from kindergarten to first grade

Abstract

This longitudinal study explored the contribution of transcription skills, oral language abilities, and executive functions in kindergarten to written production in grade 1 among Spanish-speaking children (N = 191) through structural equation modeling (SEM). Three dimentions of written production were assessed, including productivity, quality, and syntactic complexity. Accordingly, three SEM models were tested to explore these relationships, and the estimated models for each endogenous variable demonstrated good fit. The results indicate that transcription skills and executive functions were key predictors of productivity, while both transcription and narrative oral competence contributed to writing quality. Syntactic complexity, on the other hand, was primarily influenced by narrative oral competence and executive functions. The results are interpreted within the framework of the not-so-simple view of writing model, particularly considering the characteristics of a shallow orthography. Limitations and educational implications are also discussed.